How can you believe in a loving God who sends people to
hell? This is just one of the many
questions asked by people who struggle with their relationship with God and
their faith. Their hope of an inadequate
answer allows them to keep God at distance and the ability to dismiss our very
challenging faith; a faith that asks us to a live a life of trust in God and
for others.
The answer to the above question is found in the Scriptures
we heard this weekend. The answer lies
in our free will and choice. There also
must be a correction to their original question. It is not God who sends us to hell, it is we
who send ourselves there by our choices!
The souls in hell are not there because of God, but because of the
individual choices that put them there.
In our reading from Sirach (also a choice Moses gives to the
Israelites in the book of Deuteronomy) the option is clearly given: We can choose
to trust in God and live for Him, or turn to the world and dismiss the
teachings of God. Jesus confirms it in
the Gospel, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law…but to fulfill
[it].” And once again, we are given a
choice, to follow Jesus Christ or not. So,
let us be challenged by these readings.
Let us look at the choices we are given, and let us choose to trust in
God and serve those around us.
"Our
free will is the only thing that is really our own. Our health, our wealth, our
power - all these God can take from us. But our freedom he leaves to us, even
in hell. Because freedom is our own, it is the only perfect gift that we can
make to God" ~ Venerable Fulton J. Sheen
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