There is a powerful theme in today’s readings and it begins in Old Testament reading. Who goes to Hell. The answer is simple is it is based on our choice for Illusion or truth.

As I have mentioned before, here in the United States much of our understanding of God and Hell seems to come from Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God by Jonathan Livingston. The American understanding of Heaven and Hell seems to be that God seeks to cast you into Hell unless you are exceptional in your holiness. You may have seen some of these horrible stories about some saint who comes back from Heaven and explains to a friend that everyone in the town will end up in Hell except for that one friend. Therefore, the implication is that you have like a one in a million chance of going to Heaven. That means we are all doomed unless we win the Heaven lottery. This translates to a despair of salvation where people seem to accept the fact that they are going to Hell. However, that is not what the bible nor the Church teaches. To lead people to think that way is leading them into the sin against the Holy Spirit called despair of salvation.

If we look at the first reading from the book of Wisdom, then we see that God is the author of life and creates that all may experience life and life to the full. This is why we have eternal life. We were created by the author of all being. It is like the generator at the Hoover dam that produces powerful amounts of electricity everyday. Everything connected to those generators is electricity in all its power. So it is with God, He is the source of all being and all that  God creates has eternal being. So the default for us is that we have been created for eternal life for we are created to have being for all eternity. This is definition of life. You and I were given life to live in the full.

Wisdom teaches that this life was marred by the envy of He who rejected God and all that He creates. So imagine this, you are the picture of health and someone seeking to destroy you or what you are part of injects you with Tularemia which is known as rabbit fever but is the world’s first manufactured biological weapon. Now the default for you is life,  but through hatred someone chooses to give you physical death. Where would you go to return to find life, to the source of that life who is God. What if you choose to reject that source of life, of being, then what happens. You die because you have no recourse to anyone else.

This is the what wisdom is talking about. God is the source of life and we find life from Him and in Him. Those who reject this source of life, have no recourse when they fall prey to the envy of those who seek destroy the creation of the source of all being. This succumbing to those negative forces is what leads one to Hell.

But here is where the whole issue comes. Jesus says many times in the bible that the world which is that arena of human life and interaction is realm of the Devil, it  is the realm of death and those who embrace it  are agents of the enemy of God. Therefore, we are in Satan’s realm calling people to reject and betray the king of this world and find life in the one who offers it because He is the author of life in the Universe.

This is our situation. Who who goes to Hell? Those who embrace the King of this world and all He has to offer. Better yet, as your own baptismal promises say, those who refuse to renounce Satan and all his works and empty promises and embracing God.

What does the king of this world offer us? Illusion. The illusion that we are gods.

There is an interesting way he and others work in the world, they give you exactly what they say they will give you. What is it that the devil  promises you? That you will be like gods. You will not be gods, but will be like them. He will give you the illusion that you are in fact a god. You are not and you never will be. But once you have bought that illusion you embrace it in your own narcissistic way. I am like a god, therefore, I am the arbiter of life and death and I am the author of morality, I am the author of truth and I am the author of what is good and what is not good. I am a god. Yet, it is only an illusion and as long as you buy into that illusion you become deluded with your own illusion of grandeur until it all falls apart and you discover that you have been deceived. They you live in the fruits of your own delusion knowing that it was all a delusion. This is what wisdom teaches. It is those who embrace the illusion with all its empty promises of making us like gods that end up in hell. These people are legion and you can see them around us teaching us that they are the gods that we should be listening to and obeying. If you follow them, then you follow them into their own delusions and you mutual destruction. Why? Because you followed them away from the true author of  life and into the delusion of the enemy of life.

Now, when we see the readings we can see the theme of life. Everyone in the gospel is suffering from some form of death and Jesus, the author of life restores them to health. Indeed, as Frs. John Donahue and Daniel Harrington write the point of the Gospel is to teach us that Jesus is indeed the source of power in that scene and it is magnificent supernatural power. He is the source of all being and He is restoring those who have fallen victim to the forces of illness and death back to life, instantly.

This is what the Lord wants of us. However, in order for us to find this, we need to draw closer everyday to the source of all being, who is Christ for us. That choice is ours, illusion or truth.

However, remember we are in the realm of the deluder, therefore, what is true appears false and what is false appears true.

I have learned over the past decade of dealing with the vicious political enemies of the Church that the best way to know what they truly believe is to take the opposite of what they say. I have learned to see their words as rooted in their creation of an illusion and so seeing through the illusion you can discover the truth. That takes discernment, a gift we all have by the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Remember, those in the company of the Devil seek the death of God’s beloved, but remember the Devil gives the power of delusion by deluding his friends. Our role is understand where we are and seek  the truth through the delusion. Imagine that you are in a dark tunnel. You can imagine you are in a cave or a tunnel, but only the one who sees light knows the difference. If you wake up in this dark rocky area and can see no light, then you can only imagine you are in a cave and hope you are in a tunnel. But when you see even the tiniest pinpoint of light off in the distance, you know that you are in a tunnel and salvation is yours.

With those who are deluded they not only do not see the light at  the end of the tunnel, they live in a world where darkness is light. So they will try to convince you that the lack of light is light itself. If you allow yourself to be convinced by them, then welcome to their delusion in the darkness. But if you can see through their delusion then go seek the light at the end of the tunnel where you will find life, and while they will live in unending death.

So. who goes to Hell? It is not the default for those created by God, it is those who have allowed themselves to be deluded into believing that light is darkness, evil is good and that they are gods. When you embrace Christ you can see not only the truth that is Christ, but you can see the delusions of those who embrace the envy of the enemy of God and avoid them like tuleremia.

God Bless You,

Fr. Robert J Carr

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