March 31, 2015

                 HEAVEN AND HELL

From time to time people call our church

and ask to talk to a priest.

An appointment is made to meet with them

in one of three small meeting rooms

in the corridor just outside our parish church.

Well, this guy came in and after a few comments,

some chit chat – and all that – he uncovered – 
he showed me – he told me - the question 
he had in his fist – in his craw – on a piece of paper – on a piece of his mind:“Father I don’t believe in hell”   - and then he added, “And actually, I don’t believe in heaven as well.”

I paused.

I wondered.

Well that was short and sad – 
and short and bleak.

I said, “I’ve heard of the non-belief in hell – 
a lot – especially – on high school retreats – 
but the non-belief in heaven – well, that’s rare.”

“Well,” he added, “Is that all right to think this way?”

“Well, hell, what do you think?” I questioned back

to his question.

Silence. 

I knew, hey, I’m old, that one of the best tricks

of the trade in listening is questions is to

answer questions with questions. That’s 
an old time rabbi and Buddhist master’s trick.

Silence.

Then – so as not to be funny or cute or a SA

or use my degrees, I said,  “I don’t know!”

“You don’t know?”

“Right,” I repeated myself, “I don’t know.”

He said, “That’s all you’re going to say –

that you don’t know?”

“Correct and I’m not dying to find out.”

He said, “Is there any other priest I could talk to.”

I said, “Okay, but I’ll have to ask around and get back to you.”

He backtracked a bit, “You’re a priest”  and then he added,

“You have to believe in heaven and hell?”

I said, “Look the Bible quote I keep in mind is this one: ‘Eye has not seen; ear has not heard;

nor has it entered the human heart,  

what God has prepared for those 
who that love Him.”

Pause….

Then I continued, “I love God, so I’ll let him 
surprise me – what’s after all this.”

Silence….

Then I said, “Let me ask you a question,

‘Do you believe there is a heaven 
and  a hell here on earth?”

Silence….

Then he pulled the back to back question 
trick on me. “Do you?”

I said, “I do!”

“Ooooh,” he said.

Then I told him “That’s my answer 
to your question in the first place.”

He said, “It is?”

“Yep,” I said, “Once you start to figure out 
the existence of heaven and hell in the here 
and now – you might start believing 
in the reality of presence of hell in the hereafter.”

Then he said, “I guess I have to make an offer

to myself to think about all this.”

© Andy Costello, Reflections 2015