Hell

+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
28 Nov 2010

Does Hell exist after death?  How many might be there, why would they be there and what would be their punishment?

I am not sure how many adults are still interested in these questions, although as a young priest I can remember teenagers asking me during the parish mission which nights would feature the talks on sex and heaven and hell.

As a youngster I heard too many talks on hell, and then twenty years ago a series of road safety advertisements were shown on television in Victoria featuring horrific road accidents.  I wondered whether the author had received a Catholic up-bringing like mine and when I met him once at the football I was able to ask him.  Yes, the old sermons on hell had given him the inspiration for his traumatic ads.

Hell is defined as a state of permanent punishment after death.  Is such a state compatible with a creator God, who is good and just?

Christ spoke explicitly on a number of occasions about evil doers being punished after death, about the final separation at the last judgement between the sheep and the goats, the differentiation between the unselfish helpers and the self-centred who were blind to their obligations towards others (Mt. c25).

While Christians pray in the "Our Father" for God's Kingdom to come, entry is not promised to everyone.  The foolish virgins with no oil in their lamps cannot enter the wedding feast and at the final harvest the weeds will be cut down and separated from the wheat.  The rich and selfish man in hell sought just one drop of water from heaven, from the beggar who had once been at his gate.

I have no logical problem with purgatory, with the notion that many or most of us might die imperfect and need purification before we can enter into God's presence.  But the idea of individuals, a fellow human, suffering forever gives us a jolt.

Heroic goodness and terrible evil are both mysteries, outside the experience of those of us who live sheltered lives.  Often the scales of justice do not balance in this life.  Victims don't get justice.

Only God can always judge the human heart accurately, but the scales of justice have to balance in eternity.  Human freedom is often limited, but sometimes the human capacity to choose evil is frighteningly real.  It is possible to imagine Hitler, Stalin and Mao refusing forever to turn towards love and light.