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The Southern Cross, Page 8
Fmitih Alive!
Thursday, December 07, 2000
A
Heaven and hell: The
reality beneath the metaphors
By Father Berard Marthaler, OFM Conv
Catholic News Service
q :
k_7ociety functions on a system of
rewards and punishments. The car
rot on the stick. From our earliest
years we learn that high grades and
trophies indicate approval of good con
duct and distinguished performance.
the case. He wants people to take
hell seriously.
In theological terms, hell is “the
state of those who freely and defini
tively separate themselves from God,”
but graphic language is needed to
convey the point. The popular carica
ture of hell that pictures a sinister
looking devil with horns and pitch-
fork does not deter humans from de-
upon death.
In the Catholic tradition “heaven”
is a code word for life with and in God,
that is, participation in the triune life
and love of God. Heaven is associated
with the “beatific vision,” a figure of
speech based on the metaphor of see
ing. In the present world, St. Paul
wrote, “we see indistinctly, as in a
mirror,” but in the hereafter we shall
fully, as I am fully known” (1 Corin
thians 13:12).
a ■ ■
Pope John Paul summarized the
biblical and traditional teachings:
“We know that the ‘heaven’ or ‘happi
ness’ in which we will find ourselves
is neither an abstraction nor a physi
cal place in the clouds.” It is, he con
tinues, “a living, personal relation-
CNS photos of tornado area (left), riot aftermath (center), and grieving students (right) from Reuters
Society shows disapproval of unac
ceptable behavior in any number of
ways from spanking (before it became
politically incorrect) to fines and in
carceration.
The ultimate reward for virtue and
a life of service is the joy of heaven.
The ultimate punishment for
unrepented sin and selfishness is the
torment of hell.
Not long ago Pope John Paul II
captured the headlines when he told
an audience that hell is not a place.
“It is not a punishment imposed ex
ternally by God,” he said, but “the
ultimate consequence of sin itself.”
Sinners who, even in the last moment
of life, reject God’s mercy, accept
these consequences.
The Bible relies upon symbolic
language to portray the unspeak
able torments of hell. Figures such
as a fiery furnace, where the indi
viduals “weep and gnash their
teeth” (Matthew 13:42), and images
like Gehenna with its “unquench
able fire” (Mark 9:43) are intended
to capture the frustration and end
less pain suffered by those who de
finitively and consciously turn away
from God.
In denying that hell is a place and
affirming that language used to de
scribe the pain of final damnation is
not literal, it was not Pope John
Paul’s intention to question the ex
istence of hell or to make its tor
ments less fearsome. The opposite is
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ceit and exploitation, violence and
murder.
Picasso’s “Guernica” presented a
glimpse of hell to people of the 20th
century. Street violence and destruc
tion from floods and tornadoes, incur
able sickness and mental distress, de
structive hatred and battered women,
endless expletives and screeching
noises are symbols and images that
communicate the horrors of hell.
These, again, are only figures. The
reality is worse.
■ ■ ■
We also employ metaphors to
describe heaven. The Bible speaks
of heaven as God’s dwelling place
and uses many different images to
describe it (see Psalms 11:4;
104:2; 115:16). Believers hope,
with God’s grace, to arrive there
see God “face to face” (1 Corinthians
13:12).
And in another epistle we read,
“What we shall be has not yet been
revealed. We do know that when it
is revealed we shall be like (God), for
we shall see him as he is” (1 John
3:2).
The beatific vision, as explained
by most theologians, suggests in
sight as well as visual sight. It im
plies the kind of fascination and
happiness that come from an experi
ence that electrifies our whole be
ing.
Heaven means experiencing God
as he is, and it also implies seeing all
things, including ourselves, through
the eyes of God.
“At present I know partially,”
writes St. Paul, “then I shall know
ship with the Holy Trinity. It is our
meeting with the Father which takes
place in the risen Christ through the
communion of the Holy Spirit.”
Everything that hell is not,
heaven is.
—Hell is eternal isolation and lone
liness, emptiness and torment com
pounded by the realization that it is
the consequence of selfishness and op
portunities squandered.
—On the other hand, in the worA
of the Catechism of the Catholic
Church, “heaven is the ultimate end
and fulfillment of the deepest human
longings, the state of supreme, defini
tive happiness” (No. 1024). It is life in
and with the Holy Trinity, a com
munion of life and love with the Vir
gin Mary, the angels and all who
have struggled to do God’s will.
It is in this sense, Pope John Pa. 1
said, that Jesus speaks of a “reward
in heaven” (Matthew 5:12) and urges
his followers to “lay up for yourselves
treasures in heaven” (Matthew 6:20).
(Franciscan Father Marthaler is
professor emeritus of religion and re
ligious education at The Catholic
University of America.)
F00DF0RTH0UGHT
Many Catholics these days are skipping Sunday Mass not because they don’t think there’s a hell, but because
they’re not so sure there is a heaven,” Bishop George Lucas of Springfield, III., said in a fall 1999 speech three weeks
before he was named a bishop.
The bishop commented:
“The church’s preachers have often been criticized in the last 25 years for not talking about hell enough. Don’t get
me wrong. I believe there is a hell. But I reject that criticism. The problem is not that we do not talk about hell
enough, but that we don’t talk about heaven enough. Not some syrupy heaven full of fat cherubs playing harps —
Who’d trade money or sex for that?! Rather we need to instill hope in the real heaven, where I will be fully myself,
fully alive — a heaven that’s charged with the power of a personal God.”
Bishop Lucas asked, “Is it possible to discover, here and now, in our liturgy, in our community, in our joy and
even in our suffering and failure, the seeds of another world already coming to fruition?”
42 David Gibson, Editor, Faith Alive!
Street violence and destruction from floods and tornadoes,
incurable sickness and mental distress, destructive hatred... are
symbols and images that communicate the horrors of hell. These,
again, are only figures. The reality is worse.”