June 24, 2016

HELL  NO!

Even those who don’t believe there is a hell,

know there is a hell. For starters, it’s when

home is no longer home.  You just don’t feel

any peace there. No chair is a favorite chair.

The air is stale. The ceiling fan is still. It’s

silent. It’s turned off - like God - who all but

disappeared that Friday afternoon. I have

the feeling that forgiveness is impossible.

It’s when a relationship, a marriage, a love,

a friendship has gone sour. You’ve been

dumped, dropped, forgotten, rejected - and

you don’t taste what’s in your half empty

glass -  only the Nausea. The divorce of

Being and Nothingness ended in a marriage.

You feel there is No Exit. It’s then you know

what  Sartre said, “Hell is - other people.”[1]

“Abandon hope, all who enter here.” [2] That’s

Dante’s warning in his Inferno. Wait! Have hope

all who enter into this poem. Be a prodigal. 

Return home. There are others. Dante also wrote, Purgatorio and Paradiso. Turn on the ceiling fan. Feel the fresh air of the Spirit breathing Christ’s peace into your upper room. There is an exit.There is Easter. There is forgiveness. 

[1] Jean Paul Sartre, Huis-Clos
[No Exit] 1944, scene v
[2] Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy,
Inferno [c.1310-1320] Canto III, l. 9

 © Andy Costello, Reflections 2016