Episode Transcript  

One

Is there any chance it might not be true?

It is very understandable that people want the possibility of Hell not to be true. Nobody likes to think that they might go there, and certainly nobody likes to think that someone they love might go there. But the fact remains that Jesus repeatedly affirms the possibility of going to Hell forever. He said, “If your hand or foot or eye should cause you to sin, cut them off or pluck them out; because it’s better for you to enter into life crippled, than to have two hands and go to hell, into the fire that cannot be put out.”

So we know with certainty that Hell exists, it lasts forever, and that the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell immediately after death. 

St. Faustina gives a testimony of it in her diary. (Diary 741) “Today, I was led by an Angel to the chasms of hell. It is a place of great torture; how awesomely large and extensive it is…I am writing this at the command of God, so that no soul may find an excuse by saying there is no hell, or that nobody has ever been there, and so no one can say what it is like. I, Sister Faustina, by the order of God, have visited the abysses of hell so that I might tell souls about it and testify to its existence…But I noticed one thing: that most of the souls there are those who disbelieved that there is a hell.”

Two

Our Freedom

How could a loving God allow people to go to hell? Because He gives us freedom, and real freedom means we can choose what is not good for us. We can choose things like envy, resentment, pornography, or drug abuse, even when we know these things are self-destructive, damage our relationships, and separate us from God. We are free not only to choose them once but to persist in them.

Now, if heaven is perfect union with God, who is love, you can’t enter heaven while still clinging to what destroys love. That’s what a mortal sin is: choosing something that’s fundamentally opposed to love of God, love of neighbor, and love of self. If we’re not healed or purified of that choice, we simply can’t be in heaven, not because God rejects us, but because we’ve rejected what heaven is.

This is the risk of freedom: God won’t force us to love Him. If we freely choose to live apart from Him, now and forever, He will respect that choice. That place or state of separation from God is what we call hell.

Three

God loves us unconditionally

God loves us unconditionally. Love is expressed by giving. And two of the greatest gifts He gives are: existence and freedom. And because His love is unconditional, He won’t take those gifts back, no matter what we do. That’s what “unconditional” means.

So God won’t annihilate us. And He won’t stop us from choosing what is self-destructive, what separates us from Him, or what alienates us from others. In other words, He won’t take away our freedom.

If we want to spend eternity in twisted self-indulgence, He will let us. And if that’s how we’re living now, what’s to say we won’t keep making the same choice forever?

Four

God’s Punishment

Doesn’t Scripture describe hell as God’s punishment, with fire and worms that never die? Yes, but we must understand what God’s punishment really means. It often simply means God letting us suffer the natural consequences of our own choices.

In the Old Testament, God’s “punishment” was often letting Israel reap the fruit of its own foolishness, bad kings, civil war, and exile. Like a parent who tries again and again to stop a child from touching a hot stove, eventually God says, “If that’s what you want, I won’t stop you.”

In this life, God constantly interrupts our sinful patterns through pain, through grace, through people who call us back. But if we insist on rejecting Him, He will eventually honor our freedom, “If you want to get burned, I won’t stand in your way.”

The fires of hell aren’t physical, not at least until the Resurrection of the Dead. Until then, souls can’t burn like wood. But the torment is real: the misery of being alone, broken, and unwilling to be healed. That’s what hell is. And we’ve all tasted it in small ways when we’ve turned away from love. But here’s the hope: if you don’t want that, then turn back now, especially in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Because God never sends anyone to hell who doesn’t freely choose to go.

Five

Repentance

Hell is not the place of sinners who have repented too late. It’s the place of sinners who refuse to repent. It’s a place where sinners embrace their vices, their guilty pleasures, tighter and tighter, forever.

So the main question you should ask yourself is: Are you still capable of repentance? When you think about the sins of your youth, things you have done that are incompatible with Heaven, do you think of them with fondness? Or do you think, “Dear God, please, I don’t want to do that. I don’t want to be angry. I don’t want to think such horrible things. I don’t want to say such horrible things. I don’t want to look at such horrible things. I don’t want to make myself do such horrible things. Forgive me, Lord, and save me.”

If you can still say that, if you can still want to say that, then be of good hope. You’re on the path to Heaven. 

Suggested Resolutions:

Choose one resolution for today to help you grow closer to God, or create your own. Here are some ideas to inspire you. 

• What are the guilty pleasures you’re holding onto right now? Do you want to be stuck with them forever, or do you want to detach yourself now? Start by giving them up, just for one week, to practice detachment.

• When you’re tempted by sin, reflect on the consequences of your actions, the practical outcomes of that choice. Think back on similar sins from your past and remember what that kind of regret is like.

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