choosing heaven, choosing hell

Lord, will only a few people be saved? —Luke 13:23

But remember, some who are now last will be first. And some who think they are first will be last. —Luke 13:30

Many of the saints said that no one is going to hell unless they want to. God condemns no one to hell, unless they themselves choose to live in hatred, evil, and disharmony. Then they are already living in hell here and now. God just gives them what their lives show they want.

Most of the world religions have some concept of heaven and hell. Why? Because human freedom matters. We have to be given the freedom to say no to love and life, and one word for that is hell.

Pope John Paul II, who certainly was not a liberal, reminded listeners that heaven and hell are not physical places at all; they’re states of being in a living relationship with God or choosing separation from the source of all life and joy. [1] And, if that’s true, there are plenty of people on earth who are in hell now. They often choose to be miserable, hateful, negative, and oppositional. They love to exclude people who are different from them.

                                                                        Richard Rohr,  Daily Blog 4/28/19

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Some people think a lot about heaven

Some people think a lot about hell

For some people heaven is a place “up there out there”

Where people walk around with robes and wings and halos

Perhaps on streets of gold

For some people hell is a fiery pit where people suffer eternal conscious torment

People use heaven to comfort, themselves and others

People use hell to threaten, or coerce,

Perhaps to motivate

And some people literally love the concept

Because it the ultimate “back” at those they dislike, those who have hurt them

The eternal “wait until your Father/Mother/God gets home”

But I think to think of heaven and hell as nothing more than

“places we go” after we die,

Places outside of this reality in which we now live

Is probably a mistake

Heaven and Hell may have eternal over tones

But they are also woven into this place we call earth

This experience we call life

And heaven and hell, at some profound level are what we choose

I am one of those who do not believe that God condemns people to eternal conscious torment.  That is it simply impossible if we insist that God is love

It is cognitive dissonance to go to that place

As much, right now, it is cognitive dissonance to say America is becoming great again.

I do believe people can live in what we might call hell

They can live in it here and now,

When they choose to live in hatred, evil, and disharmony.

And they may well carry that choice with them when they move to

“whatever is next”

For what is imprinted on our souls in this world

Goes with us when we return to that [One} from whence we came

Hell is then

Hell is also here and now

Turn on the news.  Scroll through your timelines on Facebook

Tell me hell is not real

When people choose hate, and greed

When people choose violence

God just gives them what their souls reveal they want.

Most of the world religions have some concept of heaven and hell. Why? Because

Heaven is then, but it is always here and now

Jesus always said

“the Kingdom is near”

When we say the Lord’s Prayer we plead for God’s way to be lived

Here on earth as it is in heaven

And as those connected with God

Filled with God

Empowered by God

It can be

We can bring the heaven into being here in now

Churches can be ‘outposts of the Kingdom”

(although they rarely are)

I suspect homes can be as well

We can open ourselves to love

We can be filled with love

We can let love spill forth from our souls

We can be compassionate, forgiving

Generous and kind

We can lift up

And reconcile

And heal

We can

This is why (as Rohr notes)

“Pope John Paul II, who certainly was not a liberal,

reminded listeners that heaven and hell are not physical places at all;

they’re states of being in a living relationship with God

or choosing separation from the source of all life and joy.”

When we choose hate, we choose hell

Because hate cannot live in the presence of God

And when we hate, we distance ourselves from

(God doesn’t’ distance us, we distance ourselves

 God is always, always, always, seeking to draw us close)

When we choose greed,

Or violence

Or Bullying

Or lies

Or dominance

We choose hell

When we choose compassion, we choose heaven

Because compassion is the way of the Kingdom

The way of the One who is Love

And as we choose the way of God

We find ourselves closer to God

More open to God

More awake to God

And its heaven

How do we know if a person is in heaven or hell?

Look into their eyes

Listen to their words

Watch how they treat other people

The haters, the bullies

Those who want to exclude the refugees

Drive cars into people who they think are Muslim

Are addicted to power (and guns and violence)

They I suspect are in hell

And when they carry all that stuff with them into whatever is next

They will not feel very comfortable in the presence of LOVE

It will indeed be hell

Those who love?

Who feed the hungry?

Welcome the stranger?

When they find themselves in the Presence of all that is Sacred
I suspect they will feel “at home’

Dorothy Day often said  “All the way to heaven is heaven.”

But, as Rohr notes, the opposite is probably also true

“It’s hell all the way to hell.”

Each day we choose our path

Our destiny

We can live connected with God

Empowered by God

We can be life and love

Or we can live ”in constant opposition to others and life itself?” (Rohr)

We can be miserable, insecure, angry and cruel,

We can embrace that way in ourselves, our country our leaders

What is it going to be?