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salvation of all the people we know. To help Christians react when friends joke about committing sins, a holy priest wrote: “There is a hell. A trite enough statement, you think. I will repeat it, then: there is a hell! Echo it, at the right moment, in the ears of one friend, and another, and another.” Was Jesus trying to scare us when he described hell as fire and eternal pain? He was doing us a favour by telling us about something that really exists. He warned us that there are two roads: “Enter by the narrow gate, since the road that leads to destruction is wide and spacious, and many take it; but it is a narrow gate and a hard road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” (Mt 7:13-14). Don’t think everyone will automatically make it to heaven. There are some who will go to heaven only if you speak to them clearly. There will be occasions when you are the only one who can remind a friend or relative: “People who do evil will never inherit the kingdom of God. Make no mistake: the sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, the self-indulgent, sodomites, thieves, misers, drunkards, slanderers and swindlers—none of these will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Cor 6:9-10). God does not want anyone to go to hell: “he wants everyone to be saved and reach full knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:4). However, he does not force us. He leaves us free to choose between good and evil. Anyone who refuses to repent must be “thrown out into the darkness outside, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth” (Mt 8:12). If God allowed the damned into his kingdom, it would be unjust. How could the saints live in peace if heaven were full of people continuing to do what they did on earth, being selfish and sowing seeds of hatred? Jesus calls hell the “eternal fire”. The damned will suffer pain worse than anything on earth. Why would God, who is full of compassion and mercy, allow someone to suffer like that forever? Here lies the “mystery of iniquity”. Even if the damned could go to heaven they would suffer because they will do anything to avoid God’s presence: “Everybody who does wrong hates the light” (Jn 3:20). Even those far from God can repent. This is what St Paul experienced personally: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. I myself am the greatest of them; and if mercy has been shown to me, it is because Jesus Christ meant to make me the greatest evidence of his inexhaustible patience for all the other people who would later have to trust in him to come to eternal life” (1 Tim 1:15-16). Fr Joe Babendreier is a Chaplain at Strathmore School, Nairobi. E mail: [email protected]
VATICAN NEWS
POPE FRANCIS WRITES TO PARISH PRIEST FRIEND IN ARGENTINA
Today I received your letter of May 1. It gave me much joy. The account of the patronal feast brought me fresh air. I am well and have not lost my peace in face of a totally astonishing event, which I hold as a gift of God. I try to maintain the same way of being and of acting that I had in Buenos Aires, because if I were to change at my age it would certainly be ridiculous.” It is the beginning of a normal letter between two distant friends, linked by strong affection. A letter that becomes extraordinary, however, when one learns the name of the sender: Jorge Mario Bergoglio. The Argentine daily “El Clarin” published the message of response today, which Pope Francis sent last May 15 to a priest friend, parish priest in the province of La Rioja, Father Enrique Rodriguez, whom the Holy Father affectionately calls “Quique.” The Pontiff writes: “I didn’t want to live in the Apostolic Palace. I go there only to work and for audiences. I live in Saint Martha’s House, which is a boarding house, where we were guests during the Conclave. It houses bishops, priests and laymen. I am visible to people and I lead a normal life. A public Mass in the morning, I eat at table with everyone, etc.” “All this does me much good and avoids my being isolated,” adds the Pope. “ “Quique, affectionate greetings to your parishioners. I ask you please to pray
for me and have others pray