Upward and Forward Movement Towards Heaven

The great thing about living with other priests, serving with deacons, and in our case having the blessing of a seminarian living with us who is in the thick of his theological studies opens the door for many interesting and challenging discussions, ranging from hot button issues such as reforming the annulment-divorce process to asking, “Who is God?”  I love these types of discussions, I always have.  I can remember hanging out with the boys from Fairview when we were teenagers and sometimes “religious” stuff would be discussed and I always took the lead, I guess it was in me, to be a priest though not realizing it at the time.  My friends would come to me with Bible questions, religious questions, philosophical ones, etc.  The whole time I was thinking about marriage and making coaching my career.  Interesting how God has different plans. Anyway, back to some of the challenging “stuff” in our day.

Just the other day we had a discussion about heaven and hell, how hell is a backwards movement from God and heaven a forward movement towards God.  More importantly, for our discussion we asked, “Why do some preach and or teach from “hell’s” point of view.  For instance there are those who preach about black and white when it comes to morality, i.e. every moral dilemma can be answered and either you choose virtue or vice.  Moral dilemmas have all been defined by St. Thomas Aquinas and now we know beyond a shadow of a doubt if you committed a mortal sin or not.  Trust me, I am a big fan of St. Thomas and you don’t get much better than him except for a couple of others.  However, that kind of thinking is not from the Gospel nor is it based on anything the Church Fathers taught.  St. Thomas himself never taught anything like that.  It is true that I may know if I committed a mortal sin and mortal sins there are, but you can never know if I did or not, unless I tell you and you take me at my word.  It is the job of the priest to help a person discern what is venial and mortal, but even in that discernment the person was not sure therefore the sin was not mortal but may be so afterwards since the person now has knowledge.  Nevertheless that kind of teaching is not meant to be “fear based” i.e. you better get to mass otherwise you are under the pain of mortal sin.  That kind of teaching is fear driven, not based on relationship, one that starts with rules instead of persons.

Fear tactics never work people naturally rebel.  Tell a child you can’t have a twinkie and what will they do they will take one behind your back.  Tell a young person you can’t drink until your twenty-one and 99% of them will drink.   However, when a person is invited into relationship and knows they are loved they respond differently.  I am not saying we are not to have rules, there has to be regulation in all aspects of life, but that is only to keep us in check, it’s not the beginning point or the end point, that is a person and His name is Jesus Christ.

Telling people about sins, rules, hell, etc. must be done in its proper context and done with pastoral wisdom.  Why not begin with the man from Nazareth who only had TWO rules, “Love the Lord Your God with your whole heart, with all your strength, and all your mind, and the second is like it, Love your neighbor as yourself, everything else flows from these two commandments.”  We know have over 2,000 rules in Canon Law.  Rules and laws have their purpose, to teach us when we are within the boundaries of right and wrong, if those rules are used for any other purpose then the rules have become harmful.  “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices--mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law--justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.” Jesus is referring to the Spirit of the Law, taking into account all the circumstances involved in a person’s life.

Are we not supposed to preach about a Gospel that invites people to relationship with Jesus?  Or are we supposed to be catechizing about rules and making sure we tell people “make sure you do this and don’t do that otherwise you are under the pain of mortal sin and you can lose your soul!”

I often hear Catholics say, “If I just make it to Purgatory I will be happy.”  Really!  Would you continue playing for a coach who says at the beginning of the season, “boys we are shooting for 2^nd place?”  Would you remain in a class where the teacher says, “Students we are aiming for B’s this semester!”  No, of course you wouldn’t, you would get the “hell out of there” (no pun intended).  We are supposed to aim for the prize, heaven, you want to aim for Purgatory; you go right head I’ll be waiting for you on the other side.  Am I being a little over confident, maybe, but it’s better than living in shackles and fear if I am going to make it or not.  I’m smart enough to know I will make it on God’s good grace and if I wind up in Purgatory then so be it.  “God is love, and whoever remains in love remains in God and God in him.  In this is love brought to perfection among us, that we have confidence on the day of judgment because as he is, so are we in this world.  There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear has to do with punishment, and so one who fears is not yet perfect in love.  We love because he first loved us.” 1 Jn. 4:16-19

Jesus died in order to win us, to take us to Himself.   Either you think He loses more than He wins because you believe more people go to hell than heaven, that is also against Scripture since, God “… wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. 1 Tim 2:4.  I know it is still undetermined, but our desire should be God’s desire? Shouldn’t we as Christians lift one another up, remind each other of the promises Jesus has made to us, how God has forgiven even the worst of sinners, murderers, adulterers, fornicators, perjurers, liars, cheaters, tyrants, addicts of all kinds, even people who left the Church?  Shouldn't we begin with heaven and relationship with Christ our Lord?  I think we should because then and only then do the rules make sense and we preach rules as a barometer between virtue and vice not whether one is saved or not, nor if it is the barometer in our relationship with Jesus.  Do parents stop loving their children when they make awful mistakes and commit terrible sins?  Let me be clear, a person can choose hell by not wanting repentance or refusal to bend the knee, if you will, to God, that possibility exists and even then God still loves them but respects their own choice, but we are spending too much time there and way too much time on the rules.

Let me end this with St. Paul’s understanding of the promise that Jesus has made to all who come to know and love Him.  “For I am already being poured out like a libation, and the time of my departure is at hand.  I have competed well; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith.  From now on the crown of righteousness awaits me, which the Lord, the just judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but to all who have longed for his appearance.” 2 Tim 4:6-8  This longing for his appearance is not just in the 2^nd coming but Jesus’ appearance to us each every day, an appearance in the heart that transforms and that elevates towards God, which is an upward and forward movement towards heaven and not backwards like those who still live behind the law and the rules.  FJ