“The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all who cause others to sin and all evildoers. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears ought to hear.”

In the ✠ Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

This passage in particular naturally presents itself as a challenge to many preachers, including myself. These holy words from our Lord and Savior have been weaponized and misrepresented by humans to condemn other members of the human family in pre-judgement of their salvation for centuries. We see this by many Christians who explicitly and outwardly spew hate against our neighbors. But even more subtly, we also see this in our own congregations– against each other and even amongst ourselves.

It begs asking the question of what even is the place of gnashing of teeth anyway? If we were to ask Lucia, Francisco, and Jacinta, the three children who were visited by Our Lady of Fatima in 1917 in Portugal, they would be very illustrative in their descriptions. In Lucia’s own words, as later recorded in her memoirs, she said: “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 amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repulsive likeness to frightful 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.” The children were profoundly affected by this vision, which contributed to their later lives of prayer and penance. The Roman Catholic Church has officially endorsed the Fatima events as worthy of belief, and Popes Pius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul II, Benedict XVI, and Francis have all made hefty endorsements.

CS Lewis, a legendary theologian and Christian apologist thinks otherwise, however. In his work “The Great Divorce,” Lewis presents an allegorical vision of Hell as a gray, dull town where it’s always raining and everyone is distant from each other. The residents are free to leave at any time for Heaven but often choose not to, either because they’re comfortable with their habits or they have nurtured some resentment or desire that they refuse to give up. In this sense, Lewis viewed Hell less as a place of fiery torment, as it is traditionally conceived, and more as a state of self-chosen isolation from God, others, and one’s own best self.

In “Mere Christianity,” Lewis wrote, “In the long run the answer to all those who object to the doctrine of Hell, is itself a question: ‘What are you asking God to do?’ To wipe out their past sins and, at all costs, to give them a fresh start, smoothing every difficulty and offering every miraculous help? But He has done so, on Calvary. To forgive them? They will not be forgiven. To leave them alone? Alas, I am afraid that is what He does.” Essentially, Lewis viewed Hell as a product of human freedom. God has made a way for people to come to him, but he also respects their free choice to reject him. This notion is sometimes summated by the saying “the doors of Hell are locked from the inside”.

As is evident, there is a wide range of theologies regarding what happens in Hell, who goes there, and why some are sent there. This becomes further complicated by the fact that many allegorical depictions of Hell in the western world are inadvertently conflated with the fictional work of Dante Alighieri’s “Inferno”, wherein nine concentric circles, each of which punishes a different category of sin with a torment that reflects the nature of that sin.

It is important to note that regardless of one’s own personal theological opinion on this matter, that we center our hearts on the truth that Christ Jesus has already prevailed over the gates of Hell, and through his Passion and Holy Sacrifice, has purchased the salvation of all of our souls. We also know from the Gospels that those who were victims of public casting of stones were actually the closest to receive God’s grace and mercy.

My siblings in Christ, the best way we can assure our place in the Kingdom of Heaven is to help make Earth as it is in Heaven. Through radically recognizing the Christ in all peoples, we use our souls and our bodies to invoke God’s grace and mercy in our communities. Rather than quick condemnation, we ought to trade in our judgment gavels for opportunities of patience and empathy.

Pope John Paul II’s Prayer to Our Lady of Fatima

Mother of all individuals and peoples, you know all their sufferings and hopes. In your motherly heart you feel all the struggles between good and evil, between light and darkness, that convulse the world: accept the plea which we make in the Holy Spirit directly to your heart, and embrace with the love of the Mother and Handmaid of the Lord those who most await this embrace, and also those whose act of entrustment you too await in a particular way. Take under your motherly protection the whole human family, which with affectionate love we entrust to you, O Mother. May there dawn for everyone the time of peace and freedom, the time of truth, of justice and of hope.