FOUR WAYS
TO GO TO HELL
Today’s readings challenge us to avoid various ways of
“going to hell” as well as causing “hell” for other people.
OPENING IMAGE
In the Thirteenth Century, Dante Alighieri wrote an epic
poem called, The Divine Comedy or
“Divina Comedia”. In the 19th century, there was renewed interest in
this great work. Books, studies, lectures on Dante were in vogue. Wouldn’t it
be great in the Twentieth Century, if someone would put together a 13 part
series on Public Television, called, “The Divine Comedy”? If done well and with
commentary, it could be an extremely effective educational experience.
Hopefully, it would also be a conversion experience for anyone who would watch
it.
The Divine Comedy
has all the ingredients of science fiction and fantasy movies. It can catch our
imagination. In brief, Dante takes his audience on an imaginary journey through
the circles of hell, into purgatory, and then finally into heaven.
It seems that there have been people in every century who
have been fascinated by his message. What about us? Is it now time for the
people in our century to look at this man and this man’s powerful message?
Ours is the century of the here and now. Ours is the century
of The Denial of Death. Ours is the
century of the denial of hell. Ours is the century when we need to look at the
reality of heaven, as well as the absence of a sense of hell. Ours is also the
century of two world wars, Hiroshima and Auschwitz, Korea and Vietnam, millions
of abortions and millions of people starving to death. All we have to do is
open our eyes and we can see hell. All we have to do is open our eyes and see
the hope of God breaking through in the here and now. The human hope for:
Incarnation! Resurrection! Ascension! Pentecost! Redemption! “I have come that
you might have life and have it to the full” (John 10: 10)
Dante wrote with pictures and images. He visualizes hell, purgatory
and heaven for us. Where did he look to see what he saw? Of course, he had a
great imagination. But he also said, “I found the origin of my hell in the
world which we inhabit.” Read the poem and you’ll see what he means by that.
See whom he puts in hell and where he puts them in hell. It’s better than the
best soap operas.
The poet seems to see more than we see. Oscar Wilde said,
“We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell.” Or take T.S.
Eliot. He spent a lot of time reading Dante. And after pondering both Dante and
the beginning of this century, T. S. Eliot put Dante’s thoughts into new words.
For example, read his poems, “The Waste Land” and “The Hollow Men” and you will
discover two of his ways to describe this century.
In our century then, Dante could give us a sense of both the
Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Hell in the here and now.
HOMILETIC
REFLECTIONS
When we read today’s readings, especially the Gospel and the
Second Reading, don’t we get a picture of hell, both here and hereafter?
Jesus does exactly what Dante does. He tries to scare the
hell out of us. He tells us, it’s better to go to heaven crippled, missing an
eye, or a hand, or a foot, than to go to hell with a perfect 10 for a body.
In the second reading, James goes the same route as Jesus
and Dante. He describes people crying and weeping. He tries to get us to
visualize the rotting of clothes, silver and gold. He tells the rich, as well
as anyone else who is listening, that if you create a hell here on earth for
others, you are creating a hell for yourself here and hereafter. All those who
store up treasure by cheating or overworking others, better be careful. You
might think you’re storing up silver and gold. Actually you are storing up “a
burning fire ... as your treasure for the last days.”
So our readings are quite strong today. They are a warning
about hell. They are a prophetic cry for the Kingdom of Heaven. They give the
negative, so that we will move towards the positive.
PRACTICAL
CONCLUSIONS
Now to be practical, what I would like to do now is to
continue to reflect on today’s readings, and present 4 ways that they point out
we can go to hell, so that all of us will go the opposite way.
1)
Be Narrow and Jealous,
2)
Be Selfish and Greedy,
3)
Give Bad Example,
4)
Deny Hell and Forget About Heaven.
The goal is not to be sensational, but to do what Jesus and
James and Dante tried to do: Picture Hell, so that you won’t want to live
there. Picture Hell, so that you won’t make life a hell for anyone else.
Picture hell, so that your goal will be heaven for yourself and your neighbor.
1) Be Narrow and
Jealous
The first way to live in hell and create hell for other
people is to be narrow and jealous. Wilson Mizer wrote, “The most pitiful human
ailment is a birdseed heart.”
In today’s first reading, we see what a birdseed heart looks
like. Joshua, as well as two young followers of Moses, become jealous when two
men, with the interesting names of Eldad and Medad, begin prophesying in the
camp. The Spirit of God had come on both of them. Unfortunately, the Spirit
didn’t inform Joshua or the two young followers of Moses about it. They went to
Moses to try to drag him into their jealousy and closed attitude towards Eldad
and Medad. Moses answers with a big heart, “Are you jealous on my account? If
only the whole people of the Lord were prophets, and the Lord gave his Spirit
to the all!”
In today’s Gospel, we see the same human problem arise. John
becomes jealous of a man who is an exorcist, who uses Jesus’ name without
asking permission, or was it John’s fear of losing prestige? Jesus, answers as
Moses answered, “You must not stop him: no one who works a miracle in my name
is likely to speak evil of me. Anyone who is not against us is for us.”
A psychiatrist was visiting a mental hospital. While sitting
at lunch, the head of the hospital said to the visitor, in the presence of 5 or
6 of his staff, “See that lady over there: the one with the beautiful smile
behind the counter there, serving mashed potatoes. She is the most important
person in the hospital. In fact, she is the best therapist here. Everybody goes
to her with their problems: the doctors, the patients, the maintenance people,
the people in the kitchen. Would that we had 10 more like her.” Three of the
doctors on hearing that almost choked on their mashed potatoes in jealously and
anger. After all they were the most important people in the hospital. They had
laminated plaques to prove it.
So we see jealousy and narrowness, not only in religion, but
in all areas of life or should we say death? Those in religion don’t have a
monopoly on jealousy and narrowness. But those who are jealous and narrow have
a monopoly on creating hell for others.
2) Be Selfish and
Greedy
The second way to go to hell and create hellholes for others
is to be selfish and greedy. This is obvious. It doesn’t need too much
explanation.
Dostoevski said, “What is hell? I maintain that it is the
suffering of being unable to love.”
Hell is the inability to love. It’s the inability to give.
It’s the inability to share. If there is any one message that Jesus proclaimed
from the housetops, it’s that. Read Matthew 25. You go to hell, if you don’t
give cups of water and clothing, if you don’t visit the sick and take in the
stranger.
Or read today’s second reading again. James does not tell us
that being rich is the problem. The problem is either in how we get our money
or in the not sharing of it. In today’s gospel, we hear those strange comments
about plucking eyes out, cutting hands and feet off. Obviously, Jesus is not
telling us to start cutting ourselves up. He’s telling us that eyes are for
seeing others in their needs and not just ourselves. Hands and feet are given,
so that we can better serve our brothers and sisters. Hands are for giving a
glass of cold water or a cup of hot coffee. Hands are for helping, not hurting,
especially children. Hands are for patting others on the back and not
ourselves. If you don’t use them to make this a better world to live in, you
might as well not have them.
Be selfish and greedy and you start living in hell. Start
being selfish and greedy and you start making living for those around you a
hell as well.
3) Give Bad
Example
The third way to go to hell is to give bad example.
Today’s gospel, which contains a series of very early
catechetical sayings of Jesus, also warns us about not giving bad example to
the “little ones”. Bible commentators point out that the “little ones” could be
new believers, as well as little children.
Sweet, sweet Jesus, doesn’t seem so sweet, when we listen to
his saying about the millstone being tied around our neck and being thrown into
the sea. Picture that saying along with the words about cutting off one’s hands
and feet and plucking out one’s eyes, and you’ll see that Jesus is talking
pretty strongly to us today. Yes, he could tell us to look at the birds of the
air, but he could also paint some pictures with sticks of dynamite for a frame.
Dante puts people like Judas and Lucifer, Brutus and
Cassius, down at the bottom of hell because of their betrayals. We are warned
quite clearly about leading others into temptation.
But what do we zero in on when we think of bad example and
temptations? Too often we limit temptations and bad example to sex and movies
and drugs. We get hot and bothered about those who invite young people to try
drugs.
But what about all the invitations we give to others by our
behavior and our values? What do we stress as important in life? Is it stuff?
Money? Watch our for Number 1? What are we pumping into the minds of the next
generation?
Do we ever read and discuss the gospel with others we live
with? Do people ever see us praying? Do others ever see us putting in a full
day’s work for a full day’s pay? Or do we tell new workers, “Coast. The boss is
never around?”
4) Deny Hell and
Forget About Heaven
The fourth way to go to hell is to deny it exists, to forget
about the Kingdom of Heaven and only concentrate on the kingdom of stuff in the
kingdom of the here and the now.
We have here perhaps one of the main values of pushing
people to read Dante’s Divine Comedy.
In this the Twentieth Century, we have heard more and more people get off
statements about not believing in hell anymore. It’s as if by denying
something, we could make it disappear. Try that principle next time you catch a
cold or get a dent in your car.
The New Testament and our Creed affirm Sunday after Sunday,
that there is a heaven and a hell. “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, what
things God has prepared for those who love him.” The gospels, like Dante, take
us through imaginary trips to both heaven and hell.
And why? It’s to warn us of their reality, both here and
hereafter. It’s to warn us to serve others and not be self serving. It’s to try
to challenge us to do our part to make this world the Kingdom of Heaven and to
try to put an end to the hell some people have to face each day.
Our pope, John Paul II, in his social statements, keeps
warning us about the hungry and the thirsty of our world, the poor who are at
our doorsteps. And what image does he use to try to wake us up? So often it’s
the image of heaven and hell in the story of Dives and Lazarus. Read it. It’s
in the 16th chapter of Luke. It’s much shorter than The Divine Comedy of Dante. But it too
will scare the hell out of us. (Cf. Luke 16: 19 - 31). Now of course, heaven
won’t be resting in Abraham’s bosom and people won’t see a big chasm between
heaven and hell. But what is real is that there are people in our midst today
who are living in hell and we walk by them every day. Of course, we can apply
this parable of Jesus only to people on the bowery and miss people in our own
homes. The people Jesus warns us about not seeing might even sleep in the same
bed with us or eat at our table. They might be in the same office with us or in
the same bench in church. Do we see them? They might be starving for affection
or a good word. They might be starving for a better job or more food. Do we see
them? They might be starving for a second chance. Do we know they exist at our
very door step? If we don’t, we are already in hell.
CONCLUSION
Poets like Dante, prophets like Jesus, tells us then, that
we have a choice: heaven or hell? We can choose to be:
1)
Jealous or generous?
2)
Selfish or self giving?
3)
Giving bad example or giving good example?
4)
Dying in heaven or living in heaven?
The choice is always ours. And as Moses says at the ending
of today’s first reading, “If only the whole people of the Lord were prophets,
and the Lord gave his Spirit to the all.” Surprise! Listen to Jesus, and you’ll
find out that he has. If only, we would accept that Spirit. It would be heaven!
There would be no more hell!
