One of the great questions that people concern themselves with in religion is the question of Heaven or Hell. This question affects some so much that they either drop the question from their lives completely, or they reject religion because of the thought of there being a Hell. One of the reasons that atheist Bertrand Russell never embraced Christianity was because of the Jesus’ teaching on Hell.

“There is one very serious defect to my mind in Christ’s moral character, and that is that He believed in hell.” –Bertrand Russell from “Why I Am not a Christian”

I always say the question of hell in our lives today has been severely affected by school. I am sure teachers would disagree to a point and I am not picking on teachers, but from the students’ perspective there is the great fear that one will fail a course or fail school altogether. So there is that great trepidation, did I pass the test? Will I go to college? Great fears affect young people terrified that they will fail and it will negatively affect their futures. Others will just listen to people say that they will not succeed and give up. “Why even try if everyone tells me I will not even be accepted into any college?”

Teachers, by the way would just say:  “Why are you worried? If you do the work, you will pass. That is the way it works.”

This form of trepidation, I believe,  crept into our Catholic way of thinking and affected people’s understanding of Heaven and Hell. Hence, why for some it is a worry and for others they just stop believing in Hell or in God altogether to eliminate the worry.

If you want a simple answer to who goes to Heaven and who goes to Hell, may I point you to our Gospel reading: It is all right there.

Jesus teaches,  in simple terms, who enters the Kingdom and who does not. He also illustrates a great error in the question. The error is “Good people go to Heaven and bad people go to Hell.” That is not true. It appears to be true in one sense, but it  is not true in another.

Would the Pharisees consider Jesus a good person? No, but they would tell you that good people are blessed by God and proclaim Jesus cursed. So the teaching of good people go to Heaven and the bad to Hell is only valid if the definition of good and bad is properly calibrated.

So who goes to Heaven? Jesus tells us today: “Those who bear fruit for the Kingdom of God.”

Let us look at the image.

The person who enters the Kingdom is the one who bears fruit for the Kingdom like a vine bears good grapes. How does that happen? By allowing the lifeblood of the vine to nourish the branches. That is  the wisdom of God in Jesus Christ. The only way that is going to happen is when we are deeply united to Christ  as a branch is united to a vine.

Note that there are many vineyards in the world but only one that produces the grapes that bear the fruit that Christ wants. Therefore, we are called to be docile to God’s grace like a vine that allows the nutrients to flow from the soil to its branches. By doing so, like the good grapes, we are transformed into what Christ is calling us to be: in each of our own places in the world, we are bearing fruit for the kingdom. People’s lives are being touched and Christ is touching them through us.

We just allow the wisdom of God to feed us, to transform us and to form us that we may bear fruit for  the Kingdom.

The opposite is to allow a foreign form of nutrient to go through us that makes us look like we are bearing fruit, but we are not the fruit that Christ wants. Imagine the commercial where a company boasts of only selecting the best grapes and the  others go elsewhere. That is similar.  If we stay rooted in Christ, the fruit we will become will be the best fruit for the Kingdom.

The opposite is to not allow God’s wisdom to transform us, then we are not bearing fruit, indeed, we are undermining other branches from receiving the nutrients they need. We do not bear fruit because God’s wisdom does  not transform us.

Notice the parable, Jesus says the Father removes the barren branches, these are not dead branches, they are very much alive, but they have no grapes on them. They are pruned that the other branches may thrive more. Who are those who are pruned? Those who appear to be on the vine, but do not allow themselves to be transformed by the nutrient that is the wisdom of God. They are the lukewarm Christians who are not fully committed to the Gospel for fear of losing their hold on the advantages of this world. Those who bear the most fruit are the ones who  put themselves at risk of being unsuccessful in worldly ways so that they may be successful in the ways of God’s wisdom. Those who will seek to do what brings them to Heaven, even if it costs them fame, riches and worldly success. They may proclaim Jesus, they may be baptized, they may even attend mass regularly, they may even work for the Church, but their faith is always on their terms, not on Christ’s. They cannot bear fruit for  the Kingdom because they will only allow the wisdom they agree with to enter their lives. They will not allow themselves to be challenged by and, therefore, transformed in Christ.

Who goes to Heaven? Those transformed by the wisdom of God to be witnesses to the kingdom. Christ works through those people and touches others that more may be saved even without these good witnesses knowing it.

Who goes to Hell? Those who refuse to be transformed by God’s wisdom and who reject it for the wisdom of another vineyard. Whether it is for political reasons, for ambitious reasons, for monetary reasons, etc. they close the path of Christ’s grace. He cannot work through them, and they are the branches that are cast away. The reason they do not bear fruit is not because they were the wrong kind of branch, like a fig branch on a grape vine, but  because they refused the nutrients from the soil that is the wisdom of God.

Most teachers will tell you that those who pass are those who allow themselves to learn, those who fail are those who refuse to learn. The ones who cannot struggle to learn will  eventually pass, the ones who refuse to learn never will. So it is with those who go to Heaven or Hell. Those docile to God’s transforming wisdom will go to Heaven and those hardened against it will be rejected to Hell. There is nothing to worry about if you seek Christ, you will find Him.

Fr. Robert J Carr
Fr. Carr is an alliance member of the New Song Community (Canção Nova). He is the pastor ofHoly Trinity Parish, Quincy, MA and is the editor of this blog. You may also find his videos in English at Glory to God. He also has a regular radio program on WebRadio Canção Nova. Which he podcasts on the Canção Nova podcast website and here on Catholicismanew.
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