Paul Thigpen - Saints Who Saw Hell: And Other Catholic Witnesses to the Fate of the Damned

S tudies of religious belief in America reveal that a majority of those surveyedin one study, a full 71 percentbelieve in the existence of hell. If this means that these respondents accept as a reality the possibility of eternal punishment, we might well expect hell to be a frequent topic of conversation, both public and private.

So why do we hear so little these days about the subject? Why is hell for most people nothing more than a wearisome profanity? If it truly exists, our lives should be thoroughly shaped by the implications of that reality.

Perhaps one reason for the silence can be seen in the results of another survey. Researchers found that of those Americans who believed in heaven and hell, the great majority were also confident that they themselves would not end up in hell. Only one half of 1 percent of those surveyed expected to be eternally damned.

Presumption can lull us to sleep. We must recall St. Augustines warning, when he spoke of the two men who were crucified with Jesus: Do not despair. One of the thieves was saved. Do not presume. One of the thieves was damned.

Lets say a few words about hell, then, by way of introduction to the visions recorded here.

To begin: Why publish a book on this topic? Do I take delight in thinking about the damned suffering in everlasting misery?

By no means. I feel great sympathy for the Christian writer C. S. Lewis when he says of the Christian teaching about hell, There is no doctrine which I would more willingly remove from Christianity than this, if it lay in my power. But it has the full support of Scripture and, specially, of Our Lords own words; it has always been held by Christendom; and it has the support of reason. Scripture, Tradition, and Reason: All three lend their support to the teaching of the Church in this regard. And so we deny it or ignore it only at our peril.

Precisely because our culture has so thoroughly avoided this topic, it seems to me that the time is right to talk about it. To put it bluntly: Hell matters. It makes an infinite difference in our human situation.

If hell doesnt exist, then all roads lead to the same destination, whether its heaven, or annihilation, or something else. And if all roads lead to the same place, it ultimately makes no difference which road we take. On the other hand, if our choices will lead us ultimately to one of two utterly different destinies, then our choices have crucially different consequences.

Hell is the final guarantee that what we do here and now really matters.

At the same time, we must keep in mind that to appreciate better the reality of hell is to appreciate better the reality of heaven. The more horrible we understand hell to be, the more marvelous we understand heaven to be. The more deeply we fathom what God wants to save us from, the more grateful we are that he desires to save us.

I am by no means alone in this concern that people today should talk about hell. Several years ago, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI observed, Jesus came to tell us that he wants us all in heaven, and that hell of which so little is said in our time exists and is eternal for those who close their hearts to his love.

The Catholic Church doesnt insist on the reality of hell because she takes glee in thinking about torment, or because she wants to use the doctrine as a bludgeon to make people obey her. The Catholic Church insists on the reality of hell first of all, as Benedict noted, because Jesus himself did so. He spoke about hell a number of times and warned that his listeners could end up there forever.

Now if Jesus was who he claimed to be, and who the Church has always claimed him to beGod himself in the fleshthen he was certainly in a position to know the truth about whether hell is a reality. You may argue that he was wrong about this all-important matter. But if Jesus got it wrong on a matter so critical as this, then how can he be trusted to get it right on anything else? And if he got it wrong on this matter, how could he possibly be God in the flesh? By implication, we would be denying his authority, truthfulness, and reliability, and thus even his divinity.

In fact, in the Gospels we hear the most frightening words about damnation from Our Lords lips. And we find confirming references to this reality in other parts of Sacred Scripture as well. This biblical witness cannot be dismissed. Well focus on it in the first chapter.

Meanwhile, we must note that the Churchs constant tradition has affirmed this teaching of Scripture. We see it, for example, in the ancient Athanasian Creed (late fifth / early sixth century); in the declarations of ecumenical councils, such as the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), the Second Council of Lyons (1274), the Council of Florence (14391445), and the Council of Trent (15451563); and in numerous places in the ancient liturgies.

As Lewis noted, reason can help us unpack and better understand this doctrine of faith. Once we understand more clearly what hell actually is, we can begin to see why its an indispensable affirmation of the gospelwhy it fits with other Christian teachings about the way God has created the world, and the way he has created human beings. Knowing more fully what it means to be human, we can see more clearly why it makes sense that hell exists, even if we find the reality disturbing.

Our Catholic faith teaches us that when God created the human race, he gave them a gift of the highest dignity. That gift was free will. He was not a manufacturer seeking to create robots that were hardwired to do his work. He was not a puppeteer seeking to fashion puppets he could manipulate to act out his plot for a play.