Occasionally I hear people say things like: "Why don't priests preach on Hell?" For a start, priests use their homilies to break open the Word. It is not to vent on their personal hobby horses. Canon 767 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law states that: "... in the homily the mysteries of faith and the norms of Christian life are to be explained from the sacred text during the course of the liturgical year." In the Decree on the Life of Priests the Council Father taught: "... in every case their (the priest's) role is to teach not their own wisdom but the Word of God and to issue an urgent invitation to all men to conversion and holiness." (PO. 4) In any event, it is Jesus who preaches. We are his flock whom he feeds with his Word. We need to take seriously the Word we are given is a living and reliable account of the nature of God and the heavenly realities: "Today this scripture is being fulfilled in your hearing." (Lk 4: 21) Today Jesus preaches on Hell: "So it will be at the end of the age. the angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Mtt 13: 49-50) Elsewhere Jesus describes the state of Hell as: "outer darkness" (Mtt 8:12), "where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched" (Mk 9: 48) and a "great chasm... this place of torment" (Lk 16: 26 & 28) The Book of Revelation informs us: "Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire; and anyone whose name was not found in the book of life was thrown into the fire." (Rev 20: 14-15) Let us not diminish or deny the consequences of deliberately, consciously and freely rejecting God's love. Let us also pray for others, especially of our acquaintance, that they experience the joy of the Gospel and come to know the love of God which saves us from such a fate.
No comments:
Post a Comment