Q:
My
question is the Catholic Church teaches that
we are all God's children. If this is so, how can He send someone He
loves
to Hell for all eternity? And what is hell like?
-E.W.
A:
The
reason God can
send someone
to Hell is because He's God. Making those decisions is one of the perks
of the job. (That, and the clothes, of course.)
The Church would say God
doesn't send people
to Hell, though. People choose that for themselves.
Admittedly,
no one actually chooses hell by saying "Hey, eternal punishment
sounds great! Sign me up!"
But by choosing to commit
sin, by choosing to
not have a relationship with God, that person is choosing something
other
than Heaven...since that's where God is.
An all-loving God loves His
children enough to
give them free will to choose whether or not they want to love Him
back.
And actually, if a person
hates the very idea
of God - when that person dies if they were stuck with God for all
eternity
in heaven...it'd be like hell for them!
Remember, the Catholic
Church has never stated
a specific person is in hell (which is good news for me after I die!).
Only God knows the human heart. Only God judges. But it's also the
Church's
job to remind us that Jesus talked about Hell a lot - and that it does
exist. Who ends up there only God knows.
What is hell like? It's separation from God who is love. That might be
the easiest explanation. In terms of human explanation, picture it as a
place where there's a lot of Yanni music playing in
the background. It's a very, very painful spot to be.
