Is Hell Real?
Q: A friend of mine, who was quite upset this morning, told me that a newscaster had reported that Pope John Paul II said that heaven and hell were a “state of mind.” Is this truly what he said?
A: During his weekly general audience last July 28, the pope said that hell “is not a punishment imposed externally by God but a development of premises already set by people in this life....It is the ultimate consequence of sin itself, which turns against the person who committed it. It is the state of those who definitely reject the Father’s mercy, even at the last moment of their life....
“The images of hell that Sacred Scripture presents to us must be correctly interpreted. They show the complete frustration and emptiness of life without God.
“Rather than a place, hell indicates the state of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God, the source of all life and joy....The thought of hell—and even less the improper use of biblical images—must not create anxiety or despair, but is a necessary and healthy reminder of freedom within the proclamation that the risen Jesus has conquered Satan, giving us the Spirit of God who makes us cry ‘Abba, Father!’ (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6).”
Sometimes what the pope says (hell is real but more than the biblical images used to describe it) can become so drastically compressed in a news report (hell is a state of mind) that the summary distorts or even reverses the original message.
The text of the pope’s weekly audience can be found at: www.vatican.va, searching for the word hell.
A: During his weekly general audience last July 28, the pope said that hell “is not a punishment imposed externally by God but a development of premises already set by people in this life....It is the ultimate consequence of sin itself, which turns against the person who committed it. It is the state of those who definitely reject the Father’s mercy, even at the last moment of their life....
“The images of hell that Sacred Scripture presents to us must be correctly interpreted. They show the complete frustration and emptiness of life without God.
“Rather than a place, hell indicates the state of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God, the source of all life and joy....The thought of hell—and even less the improper use of biblical images—must not create anxiety or despair, but is a necessary and healthy reminder of freedom within the proclamation that the risen Jesus has conquered Satan, giving us the Spirit of God who makes us cry ‘Abba, Father!’ (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6).”
Sometimes what the pope says (hell is real but more than the biblical images used to describe it) can become so drastically compressed in a news report (hell is a state of mind) that the summary distorts or even reverses the original message.
The text of the pope’s weekly audience can be found at: www.vatican.va, searching for the word hell.
posted by See Tho Zhang Jacob at
7:11 PM
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