4th Sunday of Easter

Christ has Risen, as He said He would, Alleluia!!!

 “Many Catholics underestimate the power of hell and the possibility they may end up there", says pastor and author Msgr. Charles Pope. He said 21 of the 38 parables in the Gospels are about hell (often referred to as Gehenna)... “Nobody loves you and me more than Jesus, and yet nobody spoke of hell more than Jesus,” he told Raymond Arroyo on his EWTN television show The World Over on Thursday…

“Jesus warns that many are on the wrong path. And we’ve got to stop and make a decision and be more urgent about this thing in our life,” he said. “And if I can say one thing about the Church today, we don’t have any sense of urgency. Everyone [assumes] ‘The deal is done; who needs to be saved? We’re already — it’s already taken care of.’ And that’s not true.” Even many daily Mass-goers reject hell, he said which he chalked up to what he called “a cultural trend where I think we’ve reduced love to mere kindness.” It’s possible for people to go to hell because people are free to choose God or to reject God, he said. “You can’t force someone to love you. And that’s why there’s a hell,” said Msgr. Pope, “It’s not about an angry God trying to keep people out of heaven, but rather a deeply loving God who is very reverential of our freedom, and He stands at the door and knocks. He doesn’t barge in.” “And we have to recover a sense that we have a decision to make, whether we really want to be with God in heaven one day — the real heaven, not a made-up one”… “But the ones I’m worried about,” he continued, “are the defiant, who shake their fist against the Church and the teachings of Scripture and say, ‘Look, I will not be told what to do. I’m going to celebrate my lifestyle, celebrate my abortion, celebrate a lifestyle that God calls an abomination,’ whatever, or celebrate greed or violence. ‘And I don’t think there’s anything wrong. I don’t need forgiveness.’” Msgr. Pope said a lack of urgency about salvation afflicts not only laypeople but is “among the clergy and bishops,” too. “We’re all distracted by minor worldly things and souls are being lost. And it’s like, ‘You need to make everybody feel nice and feel included.’ But what if they’re going to hell?” Msgr. Pope said.

A second reason to emphasize what’s at stake in the spiritual battle for heaven and against hell, he said, is that without the battle for heaven, “there’s also no joy.” “If you don’t know the bad news,” he said, “the Good News is no news.”

[Msgr. Charles Pope is a priest of the Archdiocese of Washington and the author of a new book called The Hell There Is: An Exploration of an Often-Rejected Doctrine of the Church, published by TAN Books and available at EWTN Religious Catalogue. < https://www.ncregister.com/news/msgr-charles-pope-new-book-on-the-doctrine-of-hell >]

The quoted article excerpts above may seem like a very strange topic for a Pastoral Notes in the wonderful & glorious season of Easter! We are supposed to be rejoicing in Christ’s Victory. His vanquishing of death itself. Why speak of hell now in the season of Easter? Precisely because Christ’s suffering, death & resurrection was to open up the “narrow way” that leads to heaven (Mt 7:14). His victory & resurrection makes Heaven possible. Yet, this possibility requires more than His promise. It requires our purpose & choice. It requires us choosing the narrow way in our life. We indeed rejoice in Christ’s Resurrection, but we must see in that Resurrection also the call to make needed & necessary changes & choices in our life in the present, today, Now!

It is said, “A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.” Our journey to heaven started with Christ’s first step on the Road to Calvary. Will you take up your cross and follow Him? This is the only way that leads to heaven. Jesus is the only ‘Way, Truth & Life” (Jn 14:6).

Nothing Less than saints for the Holy Family of God.

Holy Family, Living Resurrection Glory on the Path to Heaven, Pray for us.

~ Fr Jeremy M. Gries