32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time - Heaven and Hell

Lo, the day is coming, blazing like an oven, when all the proud and all evildoers will be stubble,
And the day that is coming will set them on fire, leaving neither root nor branch, says the Lord of hosts.
But for you you fear my name, there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays. - Malachi 3:19-20

The end of all things. Death, judgment, and our final destiny. What's it all about? Well, it means that how we live shapes our destiny. Pretty straightforward.

Or is it?

We live in a time when people don't believe in hell. It seems that a loving God wouldn't punish us with an eternal punishment, so hell can't be real, can it? My answer is that no, God doesn't set out to punish us. It says so right in the Bible, which is an authoritative text for all who are Christians. Oh, you can point to snippets of verses here and there, decontextualize them, and limit yourself to that as you fashion the mental idol you want to worship, but that doesn't match the image of God portrayed when you look at everything in the Bible, and keep all the snippets in context. God does not want the death of the sinner, so why would he inflict it? God's response to the most depraved sinfulness of humanity is to become human and trample death by death, fulfilling the requirements of justice we were unable to fulfill ourselves. God got us off the hook. Did he then change his mind, having given us just one last chance? As St. Paul puts it, "It is Christ who forgives us; who shall condemn?" No, God doesn't punish us for our sins.

But there is still a hell, and it results from our choices, or rather, from one basic choice we remake through all our discreet choices in life. The words from Malachi show us just how this works. Did you ever have that person in your life who thought that you just hung the moon? That person who wanted to be around you WAY more than you ever wanted to be around them? We're not talking about stalkers here, but that person who seemed to enjoy your company to an embarrassing level. Perhaps it even embarrassed you to be around them, and you limited your exposure? Now, do you have a friend who is always happy to see you, puts aside other things or changes plans to spend time with you? That person for whom you would change your plans just to have the opportunity to spend time with him or her, and around whom you feel great about being yourself, mainly because he or she enjoys your company that much, and it's really good to have someone who thinks that highly of you? One person can be either of these, depending upon how you view them.

See, a proud person, one who is an evildoer, more interested in his or her own momentary comfort than in the needs of others can't stand to be around that person. You know, you've experienced it...it's almost painful. But for those who embrace that person as an icon of God's own love for them, and who treat this person, and those like him or her, with reverence and compassion, and who have the humility to see the gift this person is, such encounters are not painful...you can choose to relax, live in the moment, and enjoy the present moment with him or her, and all the enjoyment the other person has in the encounter. That person, perhaps better than any other, is truly the image of God in that moment, because we either receive the person as gift or as torture depending solely upon our choice to be open to and embrace the encounter or resist it.

So, you might say, everyone has those experiences. Surely we're not going to be judged by them! Well, I agree partially with that. There won't be any recounting of deeds and misdeeds, weighing things in the balance, and then assigning reward or punishment based on the outcome. But how we choose to engage each of these moments shapes our disposition for the next encounter. Some become quite skillful at extricating themselves from these uncomfortable or inconvenient encounters, moving on to 'bigger and better things.' Others choose to be present to the moment, and gradually develop a comfort with engaging these moments, to the point that it can even be a delightful bright spot in one's day. Either way, we are steadily shaping our disposition toward the Other. Given enough encounters, we usually develop a pattern, either of resisting encounter or of radical engagement. So, while we aren't being judged, we are shaping our response.

We will all die. We will all be raised to eternal life. We will all dwell eternally in the light of that day without end, that day of the Lord, that day when God's love will be all the light we need. For those who are proud, and the evildoers, that love will be intolerable; it will be torturous. For those who fear and love God, who have shaped themselves to welcome the awkward friend with radical engagement, we will experience God's love as healing, setting all things right.

Which pattern are you developing? It's probably important that we all take a step back and notice. The good news here is that, given that you're alive and reading this, you have the chance to change, to begin setting a new course, newly aware of God's presence in the person in front of you, and that how you're relating to that presence can shape your ultimate destiny, if not the destination. The good news is that we can 'repent and have faith.'

May God give us open minds and hearts, alert to the many opportunities we have to receive love and not spurn it, that we may be able to receive it eternally, through Christ our Lord.