Commentary on the Gospel of
Reality of Hell
Curiously, right after speaking of God’s power to cast someone to hell, Jesus speaks of God’s amazing care for humanity. This invites a brief reflection on hell. The concept of hell and its eternal damnation does not exist in the Old Testament. Hell is a New Testament reality, made possible only when one definitively rejects God’s mercy offered in and through Christ. Whereas hell is a reality, we have no idea if anyone is definitively cast into it. It is significant that the Church firmly declares, through beatification, that some souls are in heaven; yet she has never officially declared that someone is damned in hell, not even the worst criminal in the world. But there is one thing the Church knows and proclaims: that one person has surely gone to hell – Christ himself! Christ’s descent into hell, which we proclaim in the Creed, is the very testimony of the depth of the reach of God’s love and care for each of us.
