What is Hell Like? And How to Avoid It - Explaining the Faith (Part 1)

well welcome everybody to the national shrine of the divine mercy i am father chris aylar it is great to welcome you back to our continuing seminary series as i am taking you all back to seminary with me to learn about our catholic faith we're live here at the national shrine for really the first day of spring all right so we're almost in june and we've just had miserably cold weather we finally got a great day so thank you for joining us god bless you from wherever you are and as you saw on the slide uh we are going to be talking about something that i'll tell you what they don't even hardly teach in seminary that much we do learn enough about it to be good priests but we don't hear a lot about it in the pulpit we need to and that's the reality of the existence of hell and so we're not here to scare anybody today we're here to teach so please stay with us and this will be as brother mark can show a continuation of our explaining the faith series which is a dvd that you can still pick up these are different talks than i've done on youtube i did about parishes so if you haven't gotten these thinking well i heard the youtube talks these are different because i did them out at parishes so we hope that you'll consider getting those at 1-800-462-7420 or you can get them at shopmercy.org god bless you now let's begin with a prayer in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen come holy spirit fill the hearts of your faithful and in kindle in them the fire of your love who through the diversity of all tongues have brought the nations together in the unity of faith send forth your spirit and they shall be created and you will renew the face of the earth o god who instructed the hearts of the faithful by the light of the holy spirit grant that by the gift of the same spirit we may be truly wise and ever rejoice in his consolation we ask this through christ our lord amen in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit amen so this is an incredibly important topic you have to know as they teach in the art of war you have to know your enemy or you will never be able to succeed against him now this doesn't mean that we want to tackle him head on there's very much a way that we do avoid hell and that's what we're going to talk about today all right ironically and so you saw from our first slide that hell uh what's it like and how do we avoid it all right ironically hell exists because god is love and you're probably like what father this is the one thing that doesn't make sense about god's love actually it makes perfect sense hell exists because god is love why all right since god is love and nobody argues he desires only freely given love from us from his creatures if he forced us to love him then we wouldn't be giving him true love real true love is offered freely and re received freely offered freely and received freely so if this is the case the choice not to love must also be a possibility and that is what this is about we are made in the likeness the images you've heard and likeness of god and we are patterned after the trinity and that is perfect love they live in love if we refuse to love god and our neighbor remember the two great commandments we are denying our very nature as a person try to go against the nature of something it doesn't work try to use a fishing rod for a pole vault it doesn't work try to use a baseball bat for well as you see i got something caught in my teeth a toothpick it doesn't work it's not the nature it's what not what it's for and when we don't love we're going against our nature and so we're denying the very thing that will fulfill our deepest desires and that is to love now if we do that we set ourselves up for hell plain and simple father i don't understand that because that is the heart of what hell is the separation from god and what is god or who is god he is love so this is what we're dealing with now let's look at our next slide by definition according to the catechism 10 33 hell is the state of definitive self-exclusion meaning we remove ourselves not that god removes us from communion with god and the blessed but here's the thing as i will talk about if you read that you'll be like oh father i'm not going to do that i'm not going to run away from god yes you do i do we do it every day every time that we don't follow his will we do that and so we want to be sure when i hear people like scott hahn say that you know i'm working out my salvation with fear and trembling it makes me go oh my goodness we all have to listen to this remember evil you've heard me say this before evil is not a real created thing father what are you talking about open the newspaper no it's a privation of something a lack a lack of something this is what it is god is goodness itself so when we remove god from our schools our courtrooms our homes our families our society we are removing god he is goodness itself and when we remove god we're not allowed to mention the name jesus or pray anymore we're removing goodness itself when you remove god who is goodness you remove goodness and that is a lack of goodness and that's the definition of evil that's basically what hell is a lack of the good the lack of god because you've separated yourself from him what is left is a lack of privation of the good that is what evil is a separation from god the choice to be separated from god who is the ultimate good results in the ultimate evil that is hell all right so remember that even though god is love he will respect our free will choices as the greatest gift we've received ever even though he loves us and always will we may refuse to reciprocate that love and choose not to love him to separate from him and we see it every day don't think just because you're a good person that you're automatically going to heaven that is not church teaching it's more than just not being a bad person you have to require and desire that union with god all right let's look at our next slide one of my favorite authors you've heard me say before c s lewis the gates of hell are locked from the inside this is what c.s lewis said this explains why a merciful god allows some souls to go to hell notice i said allows he doesn't condemn in their own twisted way they want to be there now again don't be sitting there thinking well then i'm in great shape father because i don't want to go to hell nobody wants to go to hell we choose it even though sometimes we don't even realize it in our choices like not caring about going to mass or not caring about worshiping our god their hatred of god then is something that's sometimes clandestine they don't even see it right it would make them miserable in heaven if you're miserable in church you're going to be miserable in heaven and so this is what we're trying to wake everybody up we'll explain this somebody wrote me a letter saying father i don't believe that well it's church teaching but we'll explain it all right now how does hell come about all right it's determined at your particular judgment then we will all have the general judgment you've heard me talk about this in a prior talk as soon as you die you go through your personal judgment where you will find out if you go to heaven hell or purgatory layover and then at the general judgment you'll find out about everybody else and you'll get your bodies back so let's look at our next slide at the general judgment the unjust will rise from the dead and the just will rise from the dead the just will get glorified brimming bodies shining with light and the unjust will be given a darkened body that's why that slide says what will our bodies be like in hell so instead of the spirit controlling the body like it does in heaven the body will control the spirit in hell in a carnal and twisted way and so this is what we have to look out for appetites are never satisfied and will never be quenched the more sin the darker the body now today normally for the first this is my 49th talk in this series and we have focused probably 46 of those 49 times on the positive love and mercy of god today is a reality that i would not be doing a good as a priest if i didn't educate you about the dangers of hell so please as you're listening here don't say oh jesus i don't want to hear this negative stuff no 45 out of 49 talks have been positive about god's love and mercy but if a priest never mentions the pitfalls or the traps that you could step into if you're out in the forest and you might fall into the quicksand or into the jungle and you could fall into the quicksand you would say to that guy why didn't you warn me why didn't you tell me this is why we're here today what's this goal of being here today because we love you as our marian helpers we care about you our job is to get you to heaven our our focus is mary and priests and brothers is to ensure that you know the faith so that you can live it and you can get to heaven and avoid this hell it's not meant to scare you it's meant to educate you and so let's keep going this is important now mark 9 4 describes hell as the worm that never dies so the other pain in hell is a pain of sense the greatest pain is the pain of loss knowing what you could have had in god but you chose not to that's the greatest one we were created to be with god but when we give that up and we turn away from it that's the greatest suffering in hell but there will also be suffering of the senses so even if a person however here's the good news father you're making me depressed today no no no we're gonna get to god's mercy here because that's the answer to all this but even if a person led a bad life they still have a chance for mercy you know the diary talks about in 1486 the diary st faustina and 1698 that god will come to the soul at the end of their life giving them the chance to repent my personal view on that is that's awesome but don't risk waiting that long repent here on earth repent now change our lives now so that we don't have to worry about the moment of our death and so that's the beauty of this message remember the devil's the one who desires your damnation not god he's the one who accuses us of sins you know that don't fall for his traps because he'll tempt you do it do it do it do it like you know maybe you're being tempted with impurity or drugs or alcohol or sloth or envy or hatred or lack of forgiveness and the devil will say come on do it do it do it do it and then you do it then he goes look what you've done your slime you're miserable and god's like yes you're miserable but that's why you need my mercy you see that's how it works all right so it's the devil who wants to see justice without mercy don't fall for this trap god sent his son to save us not damn us to open the gates of heaven not to throw us into hell remember john 3 16 god sent his only begotten son so that those who believe in him will have everlasting life god is love and he loves all of us and desires that we will be saved but this is not universalism there's a big debate going on right now with bishop baron and others about this universalism we'll get to that in a moment god wants this to be saved all of us but knows that some of us will reject that love and not be saved we are first and foremost responsible for our own salvation please don't also fall into that trap that i'll risk my own salvation to save my children no you might do that with your temporal life but you can't do that with your soul it's like you're on the airplane remember and they talk about if we experience turbulence and the oxygen mass fall from the ceiling what do they tell you put it on you first so then you can help others they don't tell you to grab it and put it on everybody else around you you'll die and so you also have to realize that i have to get my own soul in order first and then i can help others but you are first and mostly responsible for your own salvation not of your child don't you think that oh well you know i don't want to bring this up to offend my child i'm not going to go to church when he comes to visit because it'll be offensive to him and that's not charitable and i don't want to be uncharitable because that's bad for both of our souls no the truth needs to be said with love got it okay now the goal is to aid our brothers and sisters through intercessory prayer to get them to heaven with us all right so how powerful is hell let's talk about this for a minute how powerful you know they had a survey for the first time high school seniors believe more than 50 believe that satan is every bit as powerful in god as god just god is good and satan is bad but they're both as equally powerful no hell is utterly powerless compared to the infinite might of heaven this belief that they're equal is wrong all right let's look at our next slide this is the powerful prayer of saint michael right the devil is infinitely lower than god in fact he's even lower than saint michael an angel equal at best but there he's getting his head stomped on by saint michael and there's the saint michael prayer right hell is only as powerful as we allow it to be this is important demons can reach your intellect they can put things in your mind they can tempt you but they cannot force you to act that is your will only your will is controlled by you and god doesn't even control your will if god controlled your will then there would be no hell we'd all be robots so factor in that's the only thing in the world that control your will is you god set it up that way that expression the devil made me do it false don't use that expression you made you do it the devil can tempt you but he can't make you do it now let's look at our next slide this is an awesome painting our lady that's her feet she's stepping on the serpent right by grace mary is even mary is greater she's greater in fact satan fears mary more than god why because he can halfway understand getting whooped up on by god god is god but to lose to a 15 year old jewish girl that's way more than his pride can handle even saint joseph is the terror of demons so they're not even as great as saint joseph indeed really all the saints so why are we giving him so much power it's only the power we give him do you not know that we will judge the angels first corinthians 6 3. so spiritual warfare isn't really a battle between god and hell which most everybody think it is god can't lose it really is between fallen angels and unfallen angels and we humans are caught in the middle the war obviously has been won by god but the battles will continue it's like world war ii by mid 1945 the war was pretty much over the allies had prevailed but there were still several battles like iwo jima and others that needed to be fought and there were casualties so god has won this war but we are still involved in individual battles for souls the battle is going on in your workplace battles going on in your family battles going on in your own life and you're trying to limit the casualties because god will ultimately win but how many souls satan takes with them as casualties is what we have to limit all right we dare we have to warn people we have to you know against the um the effect of the devil because sometimes people can get fascinated with evil you know the ouija board palm readers seances you know in fact you know that movie uh in the 70s the exorcist i actually read the true transcript for that in seminary in one of the courses i had on spiritual warfare and you know the transcript was scarier than the movie i was petrified reading it but i shouldn't have been and do you know how that boy got possessed by playing the ouija board with his aunt don't open those portals those are portals they can open portals because we want to know all things people say well that's not that bad father they were playing a game i remember we had an ouija board when i was a kid thank goodness we got rid of it because people think well it's just a game actually it's a portal because what you're trying to do is know all things what was the sin of adam and eve in the garden the great sin the great fall eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil they wanted to know all things they wanted to have the knowledge of god so it is more than just rejecting god that can get us into mess with demons it's glorifying ourselves i want to be like god that's why pride is the biggest sin and so we can open these portals through sins such as drugs and pornography as well so they can be through sins of pride like like the ouija board i want to know all things i want to talk to the dead i want to run a seance i want to be a medium with spirits or it can be through weakness like pornography and drugs all these things can open up portals don't let it in your house if you know some of this is going on in your house you as the guide and the leader of that house have to make sure that that stuff doesn't happen that that stuff doesn't happen in your house we can also open these portals through things such as unforgiveness through things that we do not understand that we have led into uh down the dark paths so hell then what is it it's a place of brokenness where people are only shadows of their former selves sorry we're closed sorry yes sorry um so hell is a place of this this um brokenness that we experience right here sometimes on earth there are only shadows of ourselves let's look at our next slide okay for whoever wishes to save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it what profit would there be for one to gain the whole world but to lose his soul or what can one give in exchange for his life this is matthew 16 25. now this is what hell is the selfish will lose everything but the charitable will become more fully themselves than ever this begs the question how many people will be saved you know a good friend of mine let's look at our next slide is ralph martin you want to see a great great theologian he teaches in detroit at sacred heart seminary i actually went to seminary with him at dominican house a good friend of mine excellent guy you want to read excellent work faithful to the teaching of the church read ralph martin this guy is great here's a picture of him with his book how many will be saved now yes he points the prophecy in scriptures tells us that the way to heaven is narrow and the way to hell is wide many saints and theologians like ralph martin say that it is likely that many will be lost that's backed up by church fathers church tradition that's backed up by scripture but others have said that we hope that all will be saved this is like bishop baron von balthazar even pope benedict xvi said it in a certain way so i want to explain something here on this i'm going to give you my theory all right how do we resolve this how do we resolve that some say many will be lost because that's what it says in scripture and others say that god desires everyone to be saved they're both true but yet are they contradictory all right i have a resolution to this now i'm going to give you just my opinion this is not dogmatic revelation but god is outside of time you've heard me say this in the final moments of every life on this earth every soul god has said he comes to them that's a private moment that's not known to any of us none of us know the state of a soul at the moment of death now if this is the case diary 1486 and diary 1698 if this is the case where jesus says i come to the soul at the moment of death we have to say wait a minute here we can't condemn those people we gotta pray for him because if god is outside of time our prayers even today that's my story of my grandmother i'm not gonna tell it here but you've probably heard it is when my grandmother took her life back in 1993 this priest told me 10 years later pray the chaplet for i said well father she's been judged she's she's died he says no god is outside of time there's no past for god there's no future for god there's one big eternal present moment for god so you can pray now and those prayers because god knew 10 years ago that you'd be here tonight praying the divine mercy chaplet god can take those graces from that divine mercy chaplain and apply them back to your grandmother at the moment of her judgment to actually help her say yes to god and be saved where ordinarily she wouldn't have been this is the story of the four men in the paralytic when that man was sick they lowered him to the feet of jesus the man on the stretcher did nothing he didn't mumble a word jesus didn't look at him and say your faith is healed you he looked at the four men on the roof and he said their faith has healed this man that's intercessory prayer take your loved ones and bring them to the feet of jesus even if they've died 10 20 years ago because god is outside of time 10 20 years ago god knew you'd be making that prayer today for your loved ones and he'll give them that grace at the moment of judgment before they are sentenced and maybe that grace will be enough for them to say yes to god an incredible concept and so this is something that's important our prayers might help them now we can't release them from hell once the soul is in hell that's eternal that's permanent but we're talking at the moment of judgment give them one last chance to say yes using the grace of your prayers even from years later because god's outside of time it's incredible now we may potentially be able to help every single soul that is ever lived if we all prayed if every one of us prayed did penance sacrifice offered masses for every single one of these souls that had it would take all the people of the world to do it we could save everyone now some may still reject jesus this is true even with all that grace some may still say no but i tell you there would still be a lot mary said to um to the children fatima many souls go to hell because there's nobody to pray for them she wasn't talking about the fact that only those dying at that very moment she was talking about souls throughout history so we may potentially help every soul we can have massive sacrifices devotions offering our sufferings even today for those who have died a while ago our salvation all salvation and grace comes through christ but christ's body is the church so you can have these masses or prayers whatever it is offer up holy communion for them that's incredible how you have the ability to help people make it to heaven that's why we're here this is why i do this this is why brother mark and i now dale's with brother mark helping him today this is why we go through this we'd much you know the human sense whether it be fishing but in the spiritual sense we know no this is where we're supposed to be right now helping you to get to heaven all right let's look at our next slide this is why cardinal ratzinger made an important statement he said it should be kept in mind that prophecy in the biblical sense does not mean to predict the future everybody thinks that everybody thinks prophecy means to predict the future no he says it is to explain the will of god for the present and therefore show the right path to take for the future that means that when mary came at fatima and said if you do not do prayer and penance a great war will break out and russia will spread her heirs but if you do what i tell you you will avoid that so prophecy is contingent it's not written in stone benedict said so basically the future is contingent it's not set in stone these are warnings so that we can get on the right path it's the same with hell hell is warned we are warned of it in the gospel so we get on the right path in the same way hell and damnation these are warnings because hell and damnation could be the same type of thing a warning a prophetic word like you know jonah remember joan in the bible a word was given to jonah a prophetic word was given to jonah by god it was true prophecy and he said nineveh is going to be destroyed what happened was nineveh destroyed no he went and preached the word he warned everybody they changed they fasted they did they responded they repented they put on sackcloth and ashes and nineveh was not destroyed your soul may be on the way to damnation today we are here with you saying no no we're going to put on sackcloth and ashes and peel to the mercy of god it's not so much that we can flog ourselves or or starve ourselves to do it we do it because god's mercy we turn to him and say lord jesus christ have mercy on me a poor sinner you know as i said mary said to the children of fatima that prayer has this kind of power our lady showed the children hell saying that as we're poor sinners go because there aren't enough people to pray and make sacrifices for them this is why we hear this is why the association of mirror and helpers prays for you and you pray for us my goodness jesus says in scripture all the time where two or more are gathered together there i am we have hundreds of thousands of people gathered together in our association their god will be that's why i pray for you every day when you are a marian helper i pray for all those who call the right to us those are asked us for prayers all those we've promised to pray for all those we are obligated to pray for that's what being a mirian helper is all about wow mary also taught him that prayer to pray for everyone to be saved now that's not universalism please don't write me a letter and saying father chris that's universalism that's not what we're talking about here look at the words of mary oh my jesus forgive us our sins save us from the fire of hell and lead all souls to heaven especially those in most need of thy mercy we pray that every day at the rosary we pray for those most likely to be damned with the real hope that they can still be saved through prayer now they have to accept it and there are some that will not am i saying that there are no souls in heaven no that's a heresy it's called universalism i'm sorry no souls in hell am i saying there are no souls in hell no that's a heresy it's called universalism dr robert stackpole did a good writing god bless them on this whole controversy going on right now and i'm not going to take sides here i just want to tell you what was said let's look at our next slide this is a really good book called catholicism by bishop baron and dr robert stackpole writes on this very respectfully i'm not we're not here to point fingers or or say you know this is heresy or anything we're just pointing some things out that dr robert stackpole did in his writing he said the bishop baron does some great work in this book a catholicism he said but there's some parts there that start to wander a little bit and he wanted to point them out to keep you on the right path bishop baron said we must hold out at least the hope that all people will be saved he says we can because nobody is definitively in hell the church has never said even hitler or stalin is in hell now the odds are pretty good but you don't know hitler could have had a brain tumor or possessed by the devil we don't know remember that story the guy who shot the people at the bell tower at the university of texas in the 1960s everybody was screaming let him rot in hell they did an autopsy and found out he had a brain tumor the size of a golf ball so we really don't know that he was fully culpable for what he did now bishop baron says because we've never said anybody's in hell we have the hope that all people 100 percent will be saved dr robert stackpole says let's not go so fast here he says because we don't know for sure that any particular soul is in hell doesn't mean that nobody is right dr robert staples says we know the fate of mankind from scripture tradition and reason we know that some souls are in hell if you say that no souls are in hell that's universalism if you say no souls will ever go to hell that's a heresy we know that hell exists we just don't know which ones they always say you'll be surprised when you get to heaven they say you'll be really surprised who's there and you'll even be more i'm sorry you'll be very surprised who's not there but you'll be more surprised at who's there people who you didn't think i thought that was interesting now we can't we cannot logically conclude from the fact in the liturgy that we pray for the souls of all the departed that we can believe that means that all souls a hundred percent will not go to hell we can't take that view we pray for all the faithful departed because we don't know so everybody's open for prayer well father what if i pray for somebody and they are in hell then god gives your prayers to somebody else all right we don't know the depth of the human soul at the time of death some might repent we don't know that we may not see that right that some might repent some might not some that might repent does not necessarily make it likely that everyone will some will some won't there are some people the tradition was stalin shook his fist in anger at god and cursed god in his last moments that would be damnation because that's the only unforgivable sin final and penitence final failed every to repent all right let's keep going we know from scripture and tradition that everyone will not be saved this is daunting so we want to pray because we have a chance to help them while we're still alive so right now that you do not know any one soul is in hell even stalin or hitler we do not know so you have the chance to pray especially for those souls that were entrusted to you children parents relatives we do know well father how do you know that there are souls that will be lost we know from the two thieves they were next to jesus one was saved because he appealed to god's mercy and one was lost because he did not let's take a look at our next slide jesus told saint faustina and the priority of his divine mercy let's read what jesus says i do not want to punish mankind now here we're into the mercy of god but i desire to heal it pressing it to my merciful heart i use punishment when they themselves force me to do so my hand is reluctant to take hold of the sword of justice diary 1588 notice i am preaching the mercy of god the mercy of god is he doesn't want to punish he doesn't want to grab that sword of justice but if we force him to he has to because god is mercy and justice but he wants to be merciful first so my my purpose of this talk today is to say let's not force god's hand right that's the purpose all right this is this is important so when souls do force his hand he wields that sword in a way that still respects human freedom what do you mean father well jesus told to saint faustina when sinful souls bring all my graces to naught meaning they reject his graces i begin to be angry with them leaving them alone and giving them what they want that is the worst punishment being left alone by god he doesn't have to torture you well that's not my god you're right it's not my god either he doesn't do that well my god would never beat up on somebody and club him over the head and torture him my god wouldn't either that's not what jesus is saying here jesus is saying i will leave you to yourself you reject me okay i will let you go it's like a relationship a lot of guys have been stupid over the years where a girl breaks up with them and they won't let them go the smart guy says i'm heartbroken i'm devastated i'll pray for you i'll always love you i always care about you and if you ever want to talk i'm here but if you wish to go i have to let you go because i love you what's that phrase love someone and set them free and if that the love was meant to be they will return we can't force them this is what god does with us that matches the catechism 1453 this is why the diary's so powerful it matches the catechism it calls hell a state of definitive self-exclusion meaning you choose to pull away from the communion of god so as a result saint faustina was convinced of the reality of hell because some souls choose to do this like many saints she had a frightening vision of hell and the miseries of the lost souls there she saw the souls so we do know there are souls there this in fact is my next slide let's read what saint faustina said jesus said i want you to write this down what you saw about hell and she said i am writing this at the command of god so that no soul may find an excuse by saying there is no hell she saw it or that nobody has ever been there she sees him and so no one can say what it is like meaning we didn't know what was bad how come you didn't warn us saint faustina is saying oh it's bad faustina says that they saw fire that will penetrate the soul and burn without destroying it a terrible suffering that is purely spiritual spiritual and so we'll talk more about in a minute what heaven or hell is like is it a real place we'll talk about that in a moment so we need to remember that god's wrath here is not an emotion well father it says god doesn't change how can he go from being angry to repenting that's because we write in anthropomorphological or anthropological terms that we make god out to be a human in a sense even though jesus was human so that we can better understand him god's anger is not an emotion his anger is a metaphor for his justice and his total opposition to evil especially on repentant evil all right god is not an ogre god wants everybody to be saved god wants to shower his mercy on everybody god wants to bring you to heaven god wants to be with you god wants to to do all this but you have to accept it the whole point of my talk here is not to say god is mean my whole point of the talk is saying god is love accept it hell is simply not accepting that i want to be god that's the fall that's the pride that's the first sin i'd rather reign in hell than serve in heaven that's pride remember that the souls condemned to hell actually deserve this punishment because justice is giving someone their due and these souls want to rule reign in hell not serve in heaven they have betrayed the infinite love of god without any remorse or regret what burns these souls the most is knowing what they could have had but they gave up because it'll all be revealed to them after death all the people say well i don't need god i don't want god i'm not into all that religion stuff they will see after they die everything that they foregoed in their decision everything they gave up and that will cause misery faustina's main purpose in telling us about hell was actually to magnify god's mercy wow father sure doesn't sound like it to me god wants to preserve us from harm he wants to warn us about our self-destruction this is why he told saint faustina to share it and this is why i'm sharing it with you father i don't like you how negative you are no this is god's warning to us so that we don't self-destruct only our lack of repentance and trust will cause this the choice is ours but god is still merciful how could god be merciful if he allows this by allowing souls to reject him that means his love is authentic that he receives from you god thereby respects our dignity of freedom god will never force people to open their hearts to him and force them to repent he doesn't want robots also god knows that for souls who truly despise him and don't think that i'm talking about just you know devil worshipers there are many people that live their life like god doesn't exist they don't outwardly condemn god or say i hate god but their daily actions portray that could care less about praying or the graces god knows for these souls to have to see him face to face forever especially souls that let's go back to the devil worshipers those who do hate god to see god face to face forever would make them even more miserable than their self-chosen exile away from him in hell that's crazy father well listen to what cardinal newman wrote heaven would be hell to the non-religious well that's an interesting comment isn't it heaven would be held to the non-religious those who don't want you to hear the word jesus in their presence those who condemn you because you're you're religious heaven would be hell to those people that's why we need to pray for them in paradise lost john milton quote satan as i just said better to reign in hell than serve in heaven and as we said c.s lewis said the gates of hell are locked from the inside so hell is of a manifestation of this it's god's mercy believe it or not giving people what they want justice is giving them what they're do and in in in mercy is seeing through it to keep his promise you know but some theologians they question the fairness of this how could god give everlasting punishment for temporal crimes i think that's a great question my crime back in college one time in my life i got intoxicated one time and i'll never do it again i was in college it was a dumb thing it was a stupid thing why lord would you punish me for eternity for a temporal passing stupid mistake honest mistake in the past well have i repented from that yeah well then there won't be everlasting punishment have you learned from it yeah then there won't be everlasting punishment do i see the errors of my ways yeah well then there won't be everlasting punishment so these theologians we should say when it does look at it that way it is really just for god to punish souls forever who don't repent why because their evil temporal deeds have had a permanent impact they've affected the rest of their existence both on this world and in the next it is really just for god to punish those souls forever not punishment in a way vindictiveness but in a way of justice is it really yes or no all right keep in mind what it is it's betrayal of god's infinite love and if we don't repent from that we're saying we don't want anything to do with them this is really an infinite crime justifying an eternal sentence because i'm never going to repent forever well then the consequences are forever moreover many of the worst mortal sins do have everlasting effects on the victims think about a murder if somebody was murdered for example not only have you taken the only earthly life of that person and this could be abortion think about this for a minute not just cold-blooded murder in terms of with a gun or something but abortion is murder not only did you take away the only earthly life that that person would have but it prevents the life from others that would have been born to that person now is it true that mistakes could have been made women were scared they felt forced into absolutely is there forgiveness for that absolutely i have a special friend that had an abortion and i keep telling her that that little baby is now praying for you in heaven because that little child knows you didn't mean it you made a mistake you didn't understand it you thought it was a lump of tissue not a real human person because that's what society told you our decisions do have eternal effects and so that's why heaven and hell are eternal but you can repent you can say you're sorry you can come back to god there's no unforgivable sin except not asking for forgiveness that's the only unforgivable sin the very fact that you walk into the confessional is enough to say god i'm sorry all right let's look at our next slide we got a couple more left here all right see this you ever wonder why there is no repentance in hell and nobody can ever get out that's kind of a staunting picture isn't it all right why why is it why can't they get out why is there no change there because time as we know it changes on this world but there's no time in heaven or hell i told you that so there's no change souls are frozen in their chosen state at the moment you die so your state and say well then father i'll just convert on my deathbed no don't push it because you die in the state that you live if you've been living accepting god you'll die in a state of accepting god and for all eternity you'll live in that state if you've died rejecting god you'll die in a state of rejecting god and you'll live in that state for eternity souls are frozen in their state of either love of god or cold-hearted rebellion and hatred there's no longer any possibility after death for growth no longer any possibility of repentance that moment of judgment is our key that we hope our prayers from the future or the present can help those souls their hardness of heart was fashioned by the misuse of their free will in this world in fact we've all known them i was on that path we use and misuse our free will until the fact that it's no longer available anymore we misuse our own free will until we no longer had any freedom left to do otherwise time is up that's why there's no change after death that's why hell is eternal all right last couple notes here some challenge the doctrine of hell saying it contradicts god being all powerful god can get you out of that sure if he wants to violate your free will but god will never violate the greatest gift he ever gave you he limits his own omnipotence what is omnipotence all powerful he limits it he doesn't want to force you to love him and trust him this would not result as we said in true love and trust not an authentic love that's freely given let's go back for a minute to father baron he claimed that we can reasonably hope that all every single one will ultimately find salvation let's go back to dobert dr robert stackpole addressing this he said you know none of the 115 billion people who ever lived didn't face trouble if none of those 115 billion people ever lived how many people are live on the earth right now seven and a half billion how many people does science tell us that they estimate have lived since the beginning of the world 115 billion seven and a half billion are live today 115 billion since the world began as the estimate if none of those 115 billion who whoever lived are lost it isn't reasonable to believe that they were free if you had every single one of those 115 billion not lost were they really free because man we struggle in this life we struggle with original sin with concupiscence we all have disordered passions and desires we're constantly being attacked by assaults and temptations of satan the the after effect the consequences of our own sins that haunt us and those of the others we could it we could fall to pride or despair so to say that there is reasonable hope that every single person has ever been saved dr robert stackable says doesn't match up it doesn't match up against the reality of human free will in a fallen world there's too many choices out there and some choose for the wrong thing don't be one of them but then how can jesus ignore dr robert staple says forever the cries of anguish of those who are lost wouldn't jesus hearing the cries of those in hell move his heart now it's important here that we do not romanticize the cries of the damned let's look at our next slide sorry this is a little you know i mean it's a little scary in hell there is weeping and gnashing of teeth what does that mean that's a metaphor for actually hatred it's not a metaphor for repentance it's a metaphor for hatred the damn don't weep for their sins they don't repent nor do they weep at all for those whom they've hurt they weep only for themselves faustina heard it in the visions and the cries in diary 741 she says oh of horrible despair hatred of god vile words curses and blasphemies this is what hell is like above all they blame god for everything if jesus were to reach down into the pit of hell and pull them out they would spit on his hand don't be one of them you might think well father i would never do that well every single person probably would say they wouldn't do that but we do it every day with our choices if god is willingly speaking to us through the church and guiding us and we blatantly willingly ignore it we're spitting on his hand and so don't fall into that our lord loves us he wants us to be with him that's why he's doing this and so he has to ignore those curses and blasphemies that he hears from the souls in hell these cries have no right to be heard their blasphemy their hatred this is why even in the bible jesus jesus warns us repeatedly about the dangers of eternal loss matthew 25 says both heaven and hell are eternal not temporary other passages make it clear that some will remain impenitent to the very end they'll never repent many saints of the church down through the ages have seen visions of hell like saint faustina there's also the famous vision of the children at fatima remember the three secrets of fatima you've probably heard that the three children got three secrets of fatima what was the secrets of fatima the first one was a vision of hell they saw it was real mary saw the children but was with them let's read what mary said we have a slide for that mary said you have seen hell where the souls of poor sinners go to save them god wishes to establish devotion to my immaculate heart if what i say is god many souls will be saved say after each mystery o my jesus forgive us our sins save us from the fires of hell and lead all souls to heaven especially those who are most need of thy mercy so you see the difference here everybody god wants all souls to be saved the reality is is not all souls want to be saved so this is why we pray and i think that's the discrepancy between bishop baron and dr stackpole and them trying to understand each other i think it's powerful i think it's a lot to learn there so we don't know the answer to the question of how many souls will be saved there's differing views many saints have said that the souls that are lost will be many and in the end only a few will be saved what are you talking about father these are saints of the church yeah saint augustine saint albert the great saint bernard a clear vote saint thomas aquinas saint teresa of avila saint francis liguri i could go on and on this is based on our lord's words when he was asked who will be saved let's read what our lord said our lord said enter through the narrow gate for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction and there are many who enter through it for the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life and there are few who find it please don't send me letters i'm only telling you what our lord said because i don't want to be in front of our lord someday and i be condemned because i chose not to teach you help you or show you the way to heaven and one of the ways to heaven is the avoidance of hell now the ultimate way is through love of god but remember there's three levels of holiness the purgative the luminative and the unitive way these are the three ways you get to heaven the unit stuff for the top the highest is unitive you want to be with god purely to love him nothing for yourself nothing in it for you just because god is god and he deserves all your love that's the height of holiness the unitive way now if you're not that high maybe you can make the second level down the illuminative way that is i want heaven and i want to be with god because there's something good in it for me paradise that's not the ultimate way but it is a way and then the base or the most basic but still able to save you is the purgative way which means i don't want to go to hell you know that's enough to save you it's not the ultimate way but it is a way to save you so this is what i want to teach i'm thinking okay if i can't generate the total perfect love of god maybe i can start on the ground level because this is how i came to god i'm not afraid to admit that i came to god originally because i was fearful i didn't want to be lost for all eternity then that grew into there's something good in this and then that grew into my gosh my lord my god you deserve every ounce of my being now i still got a lot of work to do when it comes to love of my neighbor because god says both and so we're always a work in progress i still get frustrated i still struggle with impatience we all do we're a working patient we're working patient we're a work in progress you all know i love my cameraman giuseppe but the other day he forgot to post something and it didn't happen so i'm like giuseppe he's like oh my gosh i forgot i'm like giuseppe so you see we have to we're always a work in progress all right so these are the words of jesus now god's plan of salvation then people might ask was it so poorly conceived that the majority of humanity will be lost man that sounds like god kind of really his plan really wasn't the best it's kind of like an army general going in and he loses 90 of his men yeah the 10 that survived they captured the hill but man he lost 90 percent of his troops is that really a good plan hey that's a great question and i love this answer that dr robert stackhold proposed he wrote something very interesting i want to share with you he said jesus said that only a few will be saved by that perhaps he means that only a few will go straight to heaven when they die so while a quote few attain eternal life upon death and go immediately to heaven and quote unquote many to eternal loss he doesn't use the word most he uses the word few and many but he doesn't use the word most so dr staple says maybe most will actually go to purgatory for a time of purification wow i thought that was a real interesting explanation in fact in his encyclical saved by hope space all they by pope benedict xvi he actually supported this perspective but will many be saved dr martin ralph martin i say is a good friend he's a great theologian you can always trust him he argues that if say salvation is guaranteed to virtually everyone catholics are not likely to be filled with a passion to spread the gospel or the faith around the world with any urgency because there's no need everybody will be saved much less to make the kind of personal sacrifices that are needed to bring unbelievers to christ like martyrs why would a martyr want to die if everybody's going to heaven anyway this is contrary to god's jesus great commission to go and preach the gospel to all the nations i thought oh man now dr martin uh ralph martin has a great point so i'm sitting here thinking about all this this is fascinating so this is what we have to look at we have to look at that as i said about 10 minutes ago the reality is there are some souls in hell saustina's song question is how many we don't know we never will know we do know some have chosen that path we pray that our loved ones will not we pray that they will be saved so let's go back to these saints who point out that hell is real i have a video here from father mike gately in his second greatest story ever told divine mercy found in the second greatest every story ever told by augustine institute that did a segment on hell now there's nothing really gory or graphic here but it could be a little scary to children so if you have children watching this maybe i don't want them to be scared because it does show some demons going after some human souls so if you need to pause it here at this point it's only a minute and a half so understood if you need to do that but please take a look at this video by augustin institute because this is how the three children at fatima described what hell is like synonymous [Music] [Applause] our lady showed us a great sea of fire which seemed to be under the earth plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form like transparent burning embers all blackened or burnished bronze floating about in the conflagration now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke now falling back on every side like sparks in a huge fire without weight or equilibrium and any tricks and groans of pain and despair which horrified us and made us tremble with fear the demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repellent likeness to brightful and unknown animals all black and transparent this vision lasted but an instant how can we ever be grateful enough to our kind heavenly mother who had already prepared us by promising in the first apparition to take us to heaven otherwise i think we would have died of fear and terror okay so again we show that because mary showed it she showed it to children 10 8 and seven years old so while i did say yeah maybe children should watch it i keep thinking well mary showed it to a ten-year-old an eight-year-old and a seven-year-old that was the vision they had why because she said i want you to pray for these souls prayers of children are little i'm sorry prayers of little children are great don't tell your children oh you're just a child you don't need to go to church or you don't need to pray you're just a child child's prayers are some of the most powerful that's why mary asked them to pray for these souls so you know what i want to do i'm going to go ahead and end today's talk with one last reading from saint faustina and then we'll end for the day but i want to come back next week and finish this talk because i want to get to next week what we do to avoid this what we do to guarantee we don't fall into this path so i'm going to finish today what hell is like with the words of saint faustina but then we're going to come back next week and we're going to say i'm not going to let that happen we're going to get back on track and with the mercy and love of god there's nothing to fear we don't want to fall into that satan uses pride fear and confusion don't fall into that and so we'll end today with just some words from saint faustina about describing hell and then we'll finish next week in part two of this talk all right in diary passage 153 i've got the diary of saint faustina you can see that i have with me if you need a copy you can get it on shopmercy.org st faustina said in paragraph 153 one day i saw two roads one was broad covered with sand and flowers full of joy music and all sorts of pleasures people walked along at dancing and enjoying themselves they reached the end without realizing it and at the end of the road there was a horrible precipice that is the abyss of hell souls fell blindly into it as they walked so they fell this is a picture you see on your screen that's a picture that saint faustina really she didn't draw this but i thought that picture on your screen was a good example of what she's now describing that they walked right off the edge the preposit i'm having a tough time with my words today precipice of hell she said the souls fell blindly into it as they walked so they fell and their number was so great that it was impossible to count and i saw the other road or rather a path for it was narrow and strewn with thorns and rocks and the people who walked along it had tears in their eyes and all kinds of suffering befell them some fell down upon the rocks but stood up and immediately went on at the end of the road there was a magnificent garden filled with all sorts of happiness and all these souls entered there at the very first instant they forgot all their sufferings that's heaven so jesus never promised us comfort on this earth we will have all eternity for that as i always laugh you know people have been pressuring me i know most of my employees like father go leave get out of the office you need to rest father i always laugh because i think oh they just probably want to get rid of me for a while i always say well no we have all eternity for resting we have very limited time on this earth that's the suffering sometimes the thorns and the thickets but when we get to the end it's a garden of paradise that's the message here now that's one paragraph of saint faustina let's read the last one paragraph 741 and we'll end today saint faustina said in paragraph 741 today i was led by an angel to the chasms of hell it is a great place or a place of great torture how awesomely large and extensive it is the kinds of tortures i saw the first torture that constitutes hell is the loss of god remember i said that's when these souls realize what they could have had but rejected the second is a perpetual remorse of conscience basically again what i just said the loss of what they realized they could have had the third is that one's condition will never change man that would be rough the fourth is the fire that will penetrate the soul without ever destroying it which means the suffering will continue a terrible suffering since it is purely spiritual it is a purely spiritual fire lit by god's justice the fifth torture is continual darkness and a terrible suffocating smell and despite the darkness the devils and the souls of the damned see each other and all the evil both of others and their own so you're living amongst evil for all eternity the sixth torture is the constant company of satan the seventh torture is horrible despair and hatred of god vile words curses and blasphemies that's what we just talked about five minutes ago these are the tortured suffered by all the damned together but that is not the end of the sufferings there are special tortures destined for particular souls these are the torments of the senses each soul undergoes terrible and indescribable sufferings related to the manner in which it chose to sin wow there are caverns and pits of torture where one form of agony differs from another so basically if your sin was gluttony you will be tortured with extensive probably forced eating if your sin is sexual you will probably be violated by the demons and the sexual sins of that way this is very troublesome in terms of what our lord's trying to wake us up to please again understand i'm only reading the words that jesus told saint faustina to give us do i like doing this no but do i feel i have to as a priest yes saint faustina says i would have died at the very sight of these tortures if the omnipotence of god had not supported me let the sinner know that he will be tortured throughout all eternity in these senses which he made use of to sin i am writing this at the command of god so that no soul may find an excuse by saying there is no hell or that nobody has ever been there and so no one can say what it is like the devils are full of hatred for me but they had to obey me at the command of god what i have written is but just a pale shadow of the things i saw but i noticed one thing that most of the souls that are that are there are those who disbelieve that there is a hell so saint faustina is saying most of the souls that are there are souls that didn't believe it existed how terribly souls suffer there consequently i pray even more fervently for the conversion of sinners this is why god is teaching this this is why i'm telling you this so that we can pray even that much harder for the souls that we know that are on the wrong path the ultimate love is not not offending people the ultimate love is preventing them from falling off the cliff i incessantly plead god's mercy upon them oh my jesus i would rather be in agony until the end of the world notice she doesn't say for eternity to the end of the world admits the greatest suffering than to offend you by the least sin o my god will do whatever it takes to get us back to him and what we just read might be the only motivation for some souls praise be to god however a soul comes back to god either the purgative the illuminative or the unitive way out of pure love for god kumbaya out of there's something good in it for me all right gotta work with it but even in the purgative way out of fear of hell god can still motivate you to avoid this again that's the only reason i'm saying this but next week come back because we're gonna continue with the answer to all this what is the way out of all this what is the way to hope what is the way to look forward to and not be fearful god's mercy but don't be guilty of despair or presumption those are the two opposite ends of the spectrum despair is there's no hope for me i'm going to be lost i'm a goner i'm going to hell no god doesn't want anybody to go to hell don't despair the other extreme is presumption well it doesn't matter what i do god so merciful he would never let me be lost yeah he won't you might so don't make those choices yeah it's easy for me to say it up here and say it don't think i'm not there with you in this battle every day is a battle when i do my examination of conscious i'm like lord how am i ever going to be saved but then i turn to god's mercy yeah i've made a million mistakes but god's mercy is there for us to get back up remember saint or mother teresa god doesn't care if you fall seven times as long as you get up eight [Music] this is what we look forward to just don't leave the hands of god get to his sacraments get to his mask get to his church read the scriptures pray pray pray do a little penance do a little sacrifice hope and pray for the conversion of sinners and we have nothing to fear the point of this was not to scare us the point of this is to correct us and god will do whatever it takes to do that praise be to god so thank you this is part one we'll finish part two next saturday live we hope you'll join us as we discover how we can avoid this what do we need to do and i'll talk more about scripture and i'll talk about a lot more stuff next week so to finish god bless all of you you know i talk about the power of this in my book brother mark and show we have a special going on right now for any donation get my book called understanding divine mercy you can get it on the divine mercy org udm for understanding divine mercy or you can call the number on your screen 800-462-7426 and get a copy of that for any donation it'll help understand this and most of all focuses on god's mercy as the answer to all of this and finally if you've noticed a theme here the theme of this is we can help each other our last slide is mic prayers have.org it's dot com or dot org either one but the whole point of the association is us to get you to heaven and you help me get to heaven and i help you get to heaven and all our marians help each other get to heaven and all our marian helpers help each other get to heaven when we stand together as united army under the veil of mary we can't be defeated let's limit the casualties we already know mary wins the battle she's crushed the head of the serpent but let's not lose any more souls let's pray for them let's get them on the right path as hard as it is you might say you know honey i know you're cohabitating with your boyfriend but let's sit down and talk about this i'm sure there's alternatives well mom i need to do it for financial reasons and maybe sometimes those are understandable but we need to understand god's commands and we try to live them in a way that we see that we're giving ourselves to god maybe it's addiction to alcohol or addiction to to some deep sin or maybe it's unforgiveness or or maybe it's hatred or maybe it's selfishness or maybe it's pride whatever it might be remember humility is the queen virtue the saints always tell us that there are many souls in heaven that have committed many sins there are souls in heaven that have taken drugs that have stolen items that have looked at pornography there are souls in heaven that have sinned but there's not one soul in heaven with the vice of pride and likewise they said there's many souls in hell that did good things our souls in hell that sat in the pew there are souls in hell that donated to the soup kitchen there are souls in hell that did many good things but there's not one soul in hell with the virtue of humility that's how we stay out of this mess praise be to god and let us turn to his mercy and that is an opportunity for you to do it mic prayers it doesn't cost anything it takes but 10 seconds there's no cost just sign up let us pray for you our daily masses our daily prayers are for you all of our marian helpers pray for us and we become an army and i would love to meet all of you in fact i gave mark two last final slides if you get an opportunity to join me i would love to meet you personally this is a a beautiful opportunity coming up uh from october 14th to the 24th of this year i'm going with stephen ray if you've never been on a stephen ray pilgrimage they are simply the best stephen ray is a good friend of mine a convert to the catholic faith an incredible guy that gives you the best pilgrimages you can find and october the 10th 14th through the 24th join me in the footsteps of saint paul will be taking and greece has now opened up i believe you do not require a vaccination but we'll give you more information call peter at 413-298-1303 or visit marion.org pilgrimages to learn more and then finally i'll be joining another great guy deacon harold silvers also i believe a convert to the shrines of france and this will be in 2022 next year from june 30th i think you could see it on your screen to july 2nd or june 22nd to july 2nd i'm i'm sorry it's on the screen it's on the screen but i know it's the end of june june 20th to july 2nd i think okay i got it june 20th to july the 2nd and there we are visiting the shrines of france you can get an opportunity to meet me talk with me i would love to have you guys so if either of those two work out for you please join us we would love to see you then and until next week may almighty god bless you the father and the son and the holy spirit amen there is probably no better time ever before or after than right now than to get closer to god you see you cannot love what you do not know so we want to help you to love god a little bit more by knowing him instead of sitting at home on your couch watching reruns of miami vice like my cameraman giuseppe no i don't i think that we have an opportunity now more than ever to learn our faith that is why i have produced a new video dvd series that can be used as small groups and parishes or right at home on your own couch it is called explaining the faith these are my 13 favorite talks i've ever done that are regarding what we need to know about jesus mary confession communion why would a good and loving god allow suffering and especially a walk through of the entire mass from the start to the finish and everything that you need to know about it tell you what here's a quick clip in the church it's just not come to stand sit and kneel it's to engage in this most incredible mystery this is what it is the church what makes the catholic church the church of christ is the sacraments the sacraments are just symbols they do something they're actual grace sacraments if you remember your definition from catechism are efficacious signs meaning efficacious they do something they're not just symbols they're efficacious signs of god's grace instituted by christ and entrusted to the church by which divine life is given to us we have it so that christ can enter into us and live in us now if we don't receive him worthily what happens we lose that grace so please consider now is the time to get closer to god and we're going to show you how as i said this dvd series has 13 talks that you'll be able to learn more and share your faith with everyone that you love to help get yourself and them to heaven so please visit shopmercy.org or call 1-800-462 to understand our faith better than ever before and to hear it explained in a way like never before thank you and god bless you you

Channel: Divine Mercy

Views: 292,570

Keywords: What is Hell like, What is Hell like Catholic, Catholic teaching on Hell, how to avoid hell, Church teaching on Hell, Church teaching what Hell is like, Catholic teaching what Hell is like, Discover what hell is like, what hell is like, Explaining the faith, fr Chris Alar, Alar, Catholic teaching, Catholic, Catholic view of Hell, Catholic Hell, Catholic Judgment, Judgement

Id: G_4sA2KKl_U

Length: 86min 45sec (5205 seconds)

Published: Sat May 15 2021