Little Gidding, IV
The dove descending breaks the air
With flame of incandescent terror
Of which the tongues declare
The one discharge from sin and error.
The only hope, or else despair
Lies in the choice of pyre of pyre—
To be redeemed from fire by fire.
Who then devised the torment? Love.
Love is the unfamiliar Name
Behind the hands that wove
The intolerable shirt of flame
Which human power cannot remove.
We only live, only suspire
Consumed by either fire or fire.
--T.S. Eliot
Hell and damnation have popped up a couple of times in my homilies lately. Some have wondered why.
Is it b/c I am secretly still a Baptist and trying to subvert Vatican Two universalism?
NO. (though subverting an alleged VC2 universalism is on the agenda)
Is it b/c that deep in my heart I’m hoping all my enemies go to hell?
NO.
Is it b/c I just like a little drama in the pulpit and preaching about hell is always an easy way to get attention from the congregation?
NO.
It is b/c the gospel readings recently deal with hell?
(dingdingdingding) YES!
I try as best as I can to preach the gospel in front of me. If Jesus starts talking about throwing goats into hell b/c they didn’t feed the hungry and visit the imprisoned, then I’m going to be preaching about spiritually stingy goats roasting in hell. I’ve never made hell the point of a homily b/c Jesus never makes any of his teachings solely about hell. Hell always seems to be the conclusion of a much larger, more complicated instruction on how we should be treating his little ones among us.
The Catechism teaches us in n. 1033: “We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love him. But we cannot love God if we sin gravely against him, against our neighbor or against ourselves[…] Our Lord warns us that we shall be separated from him if we fail to meet the serious needs of the poor and the little ones who are his brethren. To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God's merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called ‘hell.’”
Notes on Hell:
1. Union with God (i.e. “heaven”) is the result of freely loving God.
2. Grave sin is a sign that we do not love God freely.
3. We separate ourselves from God when we refuse to minister to Christ’s “little ones.” (cf. Matt 25.34ff).
4. When we die in mortal sin we reject God’s love forever and live forever without Him.
5. Hell is the “definitive self-exclusion” from heaven. You excluded yourself from heaven.
Don’t wanna go to hell? Then don’t.
The dove descending breaks the air
With flame of incandescent terror
Of which the tongues declare
The one discharge from sin and error.
The only hope, or else despair
Lies in the choice of pyre of pyre—
To be redeemed from fire by fire.
Who then devised the torment? Love.
Love is the unfamiliar Name
Behind the hands that wove
The intolerable shirt of flame
Which human power cannot remove.
We only live, only suspire
Consumed by either fire or fire.
--T.S. Eliot
Hell and damnation have popped up a couple of times in my homilies lately. Some have wondered why.
Is it b/c I am secretly still a Baptist and trying to subvert Vatican Two universalism?
NO. (though subverting an alleged VC2 universalism is on the agenda)
Is it b/c that deep in my heart I’m hoping all my enemies go to hell?
NO.
Is it b/c I just like a little drama in the pulpit and preaching about hell is always an easy way to get attention from the congregation?
NO.
It is b/c the gospel readings recently deal with hell?
(dingdingdingding) YES!
I try as best as I can to preach the gospel in front of me. If Jesus starts talking about throwing goats into hell b/c they didn’t feed the hungry and visit the imprisoned, then I’m going to be preaching about spiritually stingy goats roasting in hell. I’ve never made hell the point of a homily b/c Jesus never makes any of his teachings solely about hell. Hell always seems to be the conclusion of a much larger, more complicated instruction on how we should be treating his little ones among us.
The Catechism teaches us in n. 1033: “We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love him. But we cannot love God if we sin gravely against him, against our neighbor or against ourselves[…] Our Lord warns us that we shall be separated from him if we fail to meet the serious needs of the poor and the little ones who are his brethren. To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God's merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called ‘hell.’”
Notes on Hell:
1. Union with God (i.e. “heaven”) is the result of freely loving God.
2. Grave sin is a sign that we do not love God freely.
3. We separate ourselves from God when we refuse to minister to Christ’s “little ones.” (cf. Matt 25.34ff).
4. When we die in mortal sin we reject God’s love forever and live forever without Him.
5. Hell is the “definitive self-exclusion” from heaven. You excluded yourself from heaven.
Don’t wanna go to hell? Then don’t.
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