“I am and always will be the optimist, the hoper of far-flung hopes and the dreamer of improbable dreams.”—The Eleventh Doctor
The above passage is one of my favorite quotes from Doctor Who. There’s nothing exactly profound about it, but that’s often what’s so genius about The Doctor.
In the past, I struggled with being an optimist. I always preferred to see myself as a realist. Life is what it is, and it’s best to accept it and deal with it.
However, since I became Catholic, and thus began to see everything (not just my faith) in an entirely different way, I’ve found myself filled with hope for not just my own life, but the lives of everyone in our world, as well as the souls that have departed to the next. And since I have found that hope, I’ve begun to look at the concept of Hell, and it’s occupancy, in a much different light.
Some may believe that Hell is not a reality, that all people, no matter the conditions, will be saved. This view is called apocatastasis, and it is rejected by the Catholic Church.
The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, “eternal fire.” The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs (CCC 1035).
Perhaps Hell is not a spatial place as depicted in cartoons with flames ablaze and tortured people toiling away to a demon slave-master, but the Church assures us that it does exist, at least as a state of condition and, more importantly, as a consequence of our free-will actions.
We can be sure of the existence of Hell since Christ Himself spoke about it often throughout His ministry. Throughout the scriptures, Jesus speaks of being thrown into Gehenna, He speaks of angels casting evildoers into eternal flames, and He says that the road to Hell is wide and many will follow it.
But there is something interesting to note in the scriptures. Christ doesn’t speak of who has gone to hell, but who can go to Hell. He is warning us, you see, God does not intend for His creation to be eternally separated from Him. God does not “send” anyone to Hell. We send ourselves. We must accept that as an indisputable fact.
God predestines no one to go to hell; for this, a willful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end (CCC 1037).
We don’t know who is or who isn’t in Hell, and The Church has never declared such. In fact, not a single person on Earth can say who is in Heaven and who is in Hell. We cannot peer into either place and take a head count. Even for those who immersed themselves in evil and went to the grave defiant, we simply cannot know — with one-hundred percent certainty —where they are now.
Therefore, we can optimistically hope that Hell is empty — or at least scarcely populated. It is what Father Robert Barron calls a theologically grounded and reasonable hope. And shouldn’t that be our prayer? Shouldn’t we want everyone to make it to Heaven?
We can’t deny the fact that Hell is a reality and a very real danger to all of us. But that’s all the Church requires us to believe about it. As long as we are allowed to hope, I will continue to pray that all people find salvation in the end.
Call it a far flung hope. Call it an improbable dream, but I am — as The Doctor says —“always the optimist.“
20 thoughts on “Hell: Vacancy or No Vacancy?”
It is interesting that mankind is working to end capital punishment while God is
portrayed as someone who reserves the right.
Did you not read the entire article? We send ourselves to hell ( to God’s great sorrow) by rejecting him.
Well, I think it is impossible to send yourself to somewhere you
can’t imagine – but you can be taken there against your will – not
that I don’t believe in a type of hell, mind you. To put it another
way, if mankind finally overcomes condemning its own what would
that say about a God who could not ?
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Disagree to the nth degree. Augustine and Chrysostom in sermons both were sure Judas is in hell….BECAUSE OF CHRIST’S WORDS ON JUDAS…as were most Christians prior to the lovely 20th century when Popes even went over to saccharine city. Millions of criminals and pirates have died in the act of fighting and trying to kill law enforcement for millenia. Do you need a Church decree to tell you that very few ( thru insanity) of them are in glory? Is anyone on earth praying to Saint Judas the traitor?…of whom Christ said to His Father….” those whom thou gavest me I guarded and not one of them perished but the son of perdition.” The Church does not declare on something unless it is contested by large or significant groups and the Church never doubted where Judas is until..
….until the 20th century when severe sermons vanished along with Popes reading Von Balthasar who dared hope for an empty hell. Both St. John Paul and Benedict fell for Judas might be in heaven salami because the Church never declared it. That means the constant statements…all consistent on Judas…by Christ are chopped liver and are trumped by Church documents most of which historically are not even infallible.
St. John Paul expressed his maybe Judas made heaven in a book and Benedict expressed it in an audience…BOTH LOW VENUE…and not even Apostolic Letter level.
oi Veh
“Therefore, we can optimistically hope that Hell is empty…” is not the logical, foregone conclusion to your essay. It should be that Hell exits, that we should have a healthy fear of it, and that we should do everything we possibly can to avoid the grave, unrepentant sin that will land us there. The hope should be that we will be judged fit to enter Heaven.
Remember the sin of presumption? A false understanding of hope can lead to it.
There is no understanding of Christianity unless a person understands why God sacrificed himself under the pain and torture of the Cross for us and our sins. To reject the reality of the Cross is a terrible trap for the soul.
I believe you may have misunderstood the author’s intent. He wasn’t being presumptive about his own fate, he was being hopeful about others’. Huge difference.
I do not believe that I have misunderstood the author’s intent. His conclusion, beginning with the “Therefore…” paragraph near the end does not directly follow from his arguments. Inferences must be taken.
For Hell to be empty or nearly so, unrepentant grave sin must not be (or very rare as to be extraordinary), or for that matter, sin of any kind must not be, or for Hell not to exist in the first place. Are these ideas not contrary to the teachings of God in the New Testament and the Church down through the ages?
Have not these ideas been promulgated by the Modernists in one form or another for a century?
Why is it that the Confessionals are empty in most parishes week after week, if not because folks have lost their Faith and have presumed too much about the state of their souls?
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Raymond,
The reason we can’t as you note optimistically hope that Hell is empty…is Luke 13:24 where Christ says, “…for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able.”
Someone’s wrong….either Christ or Matthew Tyson or my eyes as I read Christ at that verse.
Christ is saying many will go to hell. He is not saying most but He is saying…many. Revelations says the number in Heaven will be so many that you can’t number them:
Rev.7:9
” After this I saw a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne, and in sight of the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands..”
That should hearten Matthew…but if he keeps omitting Lk 13:24, he errs along with some highplaced prelates.
That’s a very Calvinist-esque form of reasoning. Christ brought hope so that everyone could have access to salvation and you make it sound as if he set up his own private club that only a few people could get into.
I just don’t understand what’s so horrible or dangerous about having the hope that Hell is empty OR scarcely populated. Am I in spiritual danger in hoping that many have escaped eternal separation from God? I make it very clear in the blog that Hell is real and that it is a danger to everyone. This is not a progressive lunacy or emergent church heresy. It is not a statement that Hell is empty or that Hell doesn’t exist. It is a hope.
Why would you object to that? For the sake of probability? Realism?
Wow…you feel free to ignore two things: Christ saying many will not enter Heaven in Luke 13:24…and me noting Revelations 7:9 that you won’t be able to number the very many in Heaven that number will be so great. Maybe you reacted to my below post up here but now look at the post of mine you only seemed to have read. Regroup.
Didn’t Our Lady of Fatima say souls were falling like snowflakes into hell?
I think the danger in saying there is a good chance hell is empty is that some will take it to mean no one WILL go to hell.
This is a misuse of private revelation. To wit:
http://catholiclane.com/catholics-and-private-revelation-part-ii-the-voice-of-tradition/
We can say someone is in heaven. That is why saints are canonized.
I concede to that point. However, I can say that the only time we know that is when the Church declares it so, and it is a time of rejoicing. There are multitudes, however, that have have never been officially declared Saints by the Church who may be in Heaven. We simply don’t know until the Church says otherwise. The hope, as I talk about here, is that many, many, many people are rejoicing in eternal glory.
Why is it that people who think that hell is empty (or are open to the idea) always throw out the possibility that hell isn’t a real place.
If hell is just a state and there are no people in “hell”, then how can we say “hell” exists? After all, it wouldn’t exactly be an “empty hell” because a state, as opposed to a place, can’t be empty
More specific to this article, the author himself admits that Jesus says the road to hell, or “hell”, is wide and that many will go “there.” How can that square with the non-existence of hell?
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At Fatima, our Blessed Mother told the 3 little children that many souls go to hell because there is no one to pray and make sacrifices for them. Also, she told them that most of them go to hell because of the sin of impurity.
Kindly do not misuse private revelation!
http://catholiclane.com/catholics-and-private-revelation-part-ii-the-voice-of-tradition/
If hell were empty then Christ’s words concerning Judas would make absolutely no sense. Christ declares in Matthew 26:24 and in Mark 14:21 that ” It would have been better for that man if he had not been born.” Now if Judas EVER went to Heaven and enjoyed the Beatific Vision then this statement by Our Lord is false. Even if Judas had to endure the longest and most painful purgatory imaginable if he ever eventually went to Heaven then it would in fact be better for him to have been born because he will eventually enjoy the Beatific Vision for all eternity. Conversely, if Judas went to hell then Christ’s statement makes sense. Because in that case not being born in the first place would be better than going to hell for all eternity.
Beyond this there is also the Letter of Jude, which declares that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah are currently in hell with the fallen angels (Jude 1:6-7).
Also see: Matthew 7:13-14 (many enter the the way that leads to destruction, few find the way that leads to life), Matthew 7:21-23 (not all who call on the Lord will enter the Kingdom of Heaven), Matthew 13:41-42, Matthew 13:49-50, Matthew 25:41-46, Luke 13:23-30, John 15:6, Romans 2:3-8, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, Galatians 6:7-8, Ephesians 5:5-13, 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10, 1 Peter 4:17-18, etc., etc., etc. Add to this all the citations others have listed below and the argument that either no one (or only very few people) are in hell begins to crumble.
Lastly, if hell is only populated by a small minority (for example, Judas, Hitler, etc.) then the motivation to evangelize weakens because that neighbor of yours who doesn’t believe in Christ and lives a sinful life will be saved anyway, right? Furthermore, such a notion makes Christ’s Incarnation, suffering, and death almost meaningless. Why bother enduring all of that if the possibility of damnation is so remote?