Oct 11 Sun
Is there heaven and hell?
In today’s reading, Isaiah conveys God’s promise of salvation to the Jews and to “all peoples.”
In today’s gospel, this salvation is seen as the greatest party ever thrown, but also as peace and a secure life.
So, to be united to Christ, to live in his house, to be a member of the Church, is like being a sheep under the care of the best Shepherd imaginable.
Outside her, one is followed by wolves, jackals, or other enemies seeking to devour him.
The king cast one guest out of the wedding feast for not wearing a wedding garment. This reason was justified, as the king himself supplied the garment to those admitted. In the same way, God fully supplies whatever we need to achieve our end of salvation –His grace.
Still, we need to struggle, always relying on Christ, “on Him who strengthens me.”
Thus, the king is God the Father. The son is Jesus Christ. The wedding feast is the salvation his gospel announces. The servants are the disciples of Christ. The guests were the chief priests and elders of the people. The behavior of the leaders of Israel was to refuse the gospel, to ignore it, and to mistreat and even kill the disciples. The punishment is the destruction of Israel and specifically Jerusalem.
The “whomever you find” are the good Jews and the Gentiles –all of us. The wedding garment is our repentance and conversion. The place outside is damnation. The wedding guest who was cast out is the follower of Christ who goes back to sin. Thus, the parable ends with a warning to us, disciples of Christ.
Our Lord also provides us an image of heaven and of hell.
Heaven is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness, a communion of life and love with the Trinity, with the Virgin Mary, the angels and all the blessed. No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him.
Purgatory is the state of all who die in God’s grace and friendship but are still imperfectly purified and must wait and undergo purification. These are indeed assured of their eternal salvation.
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.
To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God’s merciful love means remaining separated from Him forever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called “hell.”
The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs. Thus, hell is no happiness whatsoever.
The affirmations of Sacred Scripture and the teachings of the Church on the subject of hell are a call to the responsibility mandatory upon man to make use of his freedom in view of his eternal destiny. They are an urgent call to conversion.