Before I go whence I shall not return, to the land of gloom and deep darkness, the land of gloom and chaos (Job 10:21-22)

March 4, 2017                                                                                                                                     The Memorial of Saint Casmir

Hell is real.  People go there.  God makes us free.  He desires the love of free creatures.  And freedom by definition demands that free creatures are presented with alternatives.  Hell is the alternative.

We are called to love God, to follow his commandments, as Our Lord told his apostles the night before He poured out the last drop of Blood and Water from his most Sacred Heart to save us.  But this Sacrifice was only to open the door to Life, not to force us to walk through.  We are free.

Hell was created for those who choose not to love God.  What a strange choices this is, but Sacred Scripture and our own experience confirm that this is true.

He loved to curse; let curses come on him! He did not like blessing; may it be far from him!                                                                                 (Psalm 109:17)

For some mysterious reason, the mystery of iniquity as Saint Paul calls it, there are some who choose Hell.  To understand this one must be able to understand the human heart, and as the prophet Jeremiah reminds us: that is the purview of the Lord and of Him alone.  But Hell is a choice, and that is what we must always remember.

No one, and especially no Catholic, will get off at their Judgement by claiming that it is unfair or that they didn’t know.  God in his Mercy grants to each of us what we desire and we were made to desire Him, and Him alone.  If we choose something else we fail and consign ourselves to destruction.  We do not wish to follow the Law of Love, the Law of Charity, the Law of God then He grants us to live in a place where there is no Law.  No law, no order.  Complete and total chaos, the deprivation of everything that you were made for.  Perhaps this is the source of the disequilibrium that the children saw.  And there is something else.  You will not be alone there, nor will you be the most powerful inhabitant of Hell.

You will be subject to the fallen angels, and angels are infinitely more powerful than you are.  Here they can tempt you and trick you and generally make your life miserable, but even the greatest sinner while he is here on earth is still protected from them in some measure by God’s grace.  There you will not have that protection, because you have told God by the way that you lived your life that you do not want it.

Here you have told God that you are the master and the author of life and of laws and that you can do whatever you want.  In Hell you will wake up to the awful reality that this is not the case.  In Hell you will be a slave to the fallen angels who hate you.  Yes they hate you with a malice and a loathing that you cannot imagine.  Do not forget: you were created to take the place they forfeited in Heaven.  And if you were baptized, confirmed, and/or God forbid ordained you were given the Sacramental graces not only to replace them but to destroy their kingdom on earth, and that mark will stay with you forever.  And because you were stupid enough to despise your destiny and become their slaves they will loathe you all the more.  And all of this is quite real.  You know it in your gut.  You know it when you can’t sleep at night.  You know it when the endless distractions you fill your life with still won’t drive any of this away, but make it worse.

Repent and don’t go there.  The message of Fatima can be summed up in these words: don’t go to Hell.

All of the prophecies about nations and popes etc. are important because the currents of history can help to lead people toward Heaven or Hell but the bottom line is this: Don’t go to Hell.  Save souls from Hell.

O my Jesus forgive us, save us from the fire of Hell, lead all souls to Heaven, especially those most in need.