by Rudolph Lohse
The doctrine of hell is not
just some dusty, theological holdover from the unenlightened Middle Ages. It
has significant consequences. Without
ultimate justice, people’s sense of moral obligation dissolves; social bonds are broken. People who
have no fear of God soon have no fear of man.
Hell itself is a glorification
of divine justice. The pain of
hell consists in the recognition of perpetual separation from God, just as the
joy of heaven is in union with Him forever. Contrary to what many liberal
dissenters and Modernists think, hell
is real and the Church continues to teach that there are “two classes”
in humankind, “the saved and the damned”. Avery Cardinal Dulles, RIP, once the
most renowned Catholic theologian in the United States, emphasized that theme in a major speech at Fordham University in New York. The Cardinal
criticized today’s thoughtless optimism
about salvation, stating “Popular piety has become saccharine and many
Christians take it almost for granted that everyone, or almost everyone, will
be saved.” He also noted that this prevalent misconception has led to a sharp
drop in people’s frequency of confession. “More education is needed to convince
people that they ought to fear God Who, as Jesus taught, can punish soul and
body together in hell,” he said, citing Matthew 10:28.
