A Word on Heaven, Purgatory, & Hell

Lent Day 4 (2/25) The Art of Dying Well w/ St. Robert Bellarmine

“But it also hath a still more excellent advantage, because it may become the gate from a prison to a Kingdom. This was revealed by our Lord to St. John the Evangelist, when for his faith he had been exiled into, the isle of Patmos: "And I heard a voice from heaven saying to me: Write, blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. From henceforth now, saith the spirit, that they may rest from their labors: for their works follow them." Apocalypse xiv. 13

Truly "blessed" is the death of the saints, which by the command of the Heavenly King frees the soul from the prison of the flesh, and conducts her to a celestial Kingdom; where just souls sweetly rest after all their labors, and for the reward of their good works, receive a crown of glory. To the souls in purgatory also, death brings no slight benefit, for it delivers them from the fear of death, and makes them certain of possessing one day, eternal Happiness. Even to wicked men themselves, death seems to be of some advantage; for in freeing them from the body, it prevents the measure of their punishment from increasing. On account of these excellent advantages, death to good men seems not horrible, but sweet; not terrible, but lovely. Hence St. Paul securely exclaims: "For to me, to live is Christ; and to die is gain having a desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ:" and his first Epistle to the Thessalonians, he saith: "We will not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them that are asleep, that you be not sorrowful, even as others who have not hope" (iv. 12.)…

From these considerations then we may conclude, that death, as produced by sin, is an evil; but that, by the grace of Christ who condescended to suffer death for us, it hath become in many ways salutary, lovely, and to be desired.”

(HEAVEN) St. Robert Bellarmine contemplates on another advantage of death which is the great reward given to the saints of resting in Christ, their Beloved. Any progress made in this Christian life is fueled by being captivated with Christ, and so it should be no surprise that this is the greatest prize of HEAVEN for the saints (i.e. holy ones). Knowing this, it should challenge us to do a deep examination of our motivations and affections. Do we long to do God’s will or our own? Do we hunger for God or choose lesser things over Him? Be reminded that if your heart does not ache to be with Christ at times in this life, then you may not be aiming for Heaven and could be in spiritually dangerous territory. Christ isn’t just the reward of Heaven, but He is Heaven as St. Catherine of Sienna once wrote, “All the way to heaven is heaven, because Jesus said, "I am the Way.”

(PURGATORY) Bellarmine also mentions the advantage of death for those going through purification and particular judgement (i.e. purgatory) as well as those even in Hell. Let’s begin with purgatory. Bellarmine states that a great reward for those in purgatory is the certainty of their salvation. They are in the ‘mudroom’ or ‘ante-chamber’ of Heaven, but they haven’t quite made it to the Wedding part yet. Fr. Mike Schmitz compares purgatory to a flight delay in Minnesota on the way to Hawaii. Though there is a layover, the passengers hopeful and joyous knowing that they are going to be living in Paradise (Hawaii) forever! They have hope, joy, peace, patience, and are filled with the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Like the Israelites, they are certain that they are going to make it to the Promised Land but due to embracing spiritual immaturity and weakness in this life, they experience a bit of a delay in the wilderness. However, they are not without Christ, but are actually closer to His presence than in this life. Like the Israelites in the Wilderness, Christ accompanies those in purgatory as a luminous cloud and pillar of fire guiding them on their journey Home (i.e. the Beatific Vision or ‘Deep Heaven’). If you would like to learn more about the Church’s 2,000 year history of praying for the dead for their purification, you can watch the video below or you might enjoy my book, ‘The Ascent,’ which goes into greater depth.

(HELL) Lastly and a bit shockingly, Bellarmine states that death is even an advantage for the wicked who die in hell. Why? Because they cease from doing evil on the earth. Their assets and bank accounts are essentially frozen. They are no longer able to invest in projects that destroy themselves and humanity. God allowed death to come into creation not only as a physical sign of inward spiritual death, but also because it put a certain limit or threshold to the growth of evil in a person. Can you imagine what the world would be like if the Pharaohs of Egypt, Caesars of Rome, and dictators of world history (Hitler, Stalin, etc.) never died?! It would be an even more hellish, awful place. Thankfully Hitler did not live forever and his death, in some sense, brought peace to the world. Europe could rest from his hellish destruction and begin rebuilding.

The death of Hitler wasn’t just an advantage to the world however, but also to him. Although Hitler is likely experiencing greater self-torment than most people in Hell, it could have been worse if he had lived ‘forever’ (or until Christ’s Return), because he essentially would have become more and more demonic. (Kind of a scary thought). In this view, death ‘froze’ Hitler’s actions, quarantined him from humanity, and prevented him from piling up more and more sin and more and more divine judgement for himself. In this sense, death even helps him as strange as that is to say. This is what Bellarmine means when he says, “Even to wicked men themselves, death seems to be of some advantage; for in freeing them from the body, it prevents the measure of their punishment from increasing.”

Since we are on the topic of Hell, I should add that there are many views on Hell that are acceptable within Christian Orthodoxy. One view derives from some of the fathers of the church (as well as the Catechism of the Catholic Church), which describes the nature of Hell as being trapped in your own self-destructive sins. Put this way, the fire of Hell is ‘friction in the soul’ and ‘living’ with the torment of one’s own conscience. The Catechism states that Hell “deprives us of communion with God and therefore makes us incapable of eternal life, the privation of which is called the ‘eternal punishment’ of sin… Every sin… entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures.” Punishment, it goes on to say, “must not be conceived of as a kind of vengeance inflicted by God from without, but as following from the very nature of sin” (CCC 1472).

Whatever Hell is like and will be like, we can all agree that it is best to avoid it, which is why we should live a life totally in the arms of God’s grace and continually walk the path of repentance until our dying breath. Lent is a season that reminds us of the 4 last things— Death, Judgement, Heaven and Hell— but it is also reminds us that the sure way to Heaven (and joy now) is not in our own strength, but by fixing “our eyes on Jesus who is the Author Perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2).

Be entirely and forever His,

Kyle