The First and Last Noel

 

“No Hell, no Hell, there is no Hell.”

My father, as a child, heard the refrain of the familiar Christmas carol this way. He took it as the essential Christian message.

Many do. After all, Jesus died for our sins, right?

A priest argues that the greatest danger to the faithful is not atheists, but universalists within the church; and he argues that universalism is the source and essence of what is going wrong in the church today.

Universalism is the idea that no one is in Hell. It is indeed a popular thought among the Catholic clergy. Bishop Barron has expressed this opinion, as at least a possibility: “we can hope.” The original translation of the Novus Ordo mass in English used to intone every Sunday that Jesus died “for all” –a deliberate change from the previous Latin “for many,” as if to promote the universalism heresy.

And it is a heresy; declared so in the times of Origen, who first propounded it.

It makes sense that this might well be behind the current push to “pastorally” downplay objections to divorce, pedophilia, same-sex unions, and the like. After all, why make such a fuss about sin, if nothing is really at stake, if we all end up in the same place? Then judgement only becomes unkindness, an extra burden on the shoulders of the “faithful.” Religion should be all about joy and forgiveness.

Happy, happy, joy joy. Who cares, after all, about beheaded children and the like?

Even if there is no Hell, this is not kind or charitable. All morality boils down to “love God and love your neighbour.” Turning a blind eye to sin is condoning predation on the vulnerable. The strong can look after themselves; the sufferings of the weak will multiply.

But if God exists, he must be good; for goodness is an aspect of perfection. And we know, through multiple rational proofs, that God exists. If God is good, he must be on the side of justice, for that is what goodness means. He must have created the world in such a way as to ensure ultimate justice.

Yes, there is also mercy. But mercy requires repentance and penance; it cannot be accepting and condoning the wrong. Otherwise, the wrong is itself eternal; there is wrong in Heaven.

Therefore, there must be a Hell. There must be some permanent punishment for those who do not repent and will not willingly make full recompense for their sins.

Preaching that we all get to Heaven anyway is ushering souls into Hell, and denying them the hope of mercy.