USCCB Mass Readings for Sunday, September 25th, 2022

For the better part of a decade, there has been some debate surrounding hell among popular theologians. In the United States, the question has been stirred up surrounding the theological opinion of well-known Bishop Robert Barron, the founder of Catholic media giant Word on Fire. Bishop Barron aligns his position with 20th-century Catholic Theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar. Barron writes regarding Balthasar's thesis in the forward of one of the newest editions of Dare We Hope That All Men are Saved? “The testimony of the Fathers is, he convincingly shows, just as multivalent and textured. To be sure, Augustine and many of his colleagues in the Christian West advocated the harsh view that the vast majority of men—the massa damnata—will find their way to hell. However, this teaching was countered by many weighty Fathers in the Christian East, including Gregory of Nyssa, Maximus the Confessor, and especially Origen of Alexandria, all of whom taught universal salvation, or something quite close to it.”[1]

Bishop Barron isn’t the only popular Christian theologian who dips his toes into the waters of universal salvation, or in the case of Balthasar—hopeful universalism. Theologian David Bentley Hart, in his book That All Shall Be Saved, suggests that universalists were not a minority force in early Christianity and believed that hell was similar to what Catholics would recognize as purgatory from St. Paul’s First letter to the Corinthians. [2] Hart goes further in his discourse, even repudiating both Balthasar and Barron’s hopeful universalism, “In fact, I have very small patience for this kind of “hopeful universalism,” as it is often called. As far as I am concerned, anyone who hopes for the universal reconciliation of creatures with God must already believe that this would be the best possible ending to the Christian story...”[3]

Hart’s comments on Balthasar’s et al. “hopeful universalism” gives away his “tell,” which is a position based on emotional sentiment that makes him believe [universalism] is the best possible ending for Christianity.  Naturally, this is true for many Christians in our modern era. Many cannot simply grasp the finality of hell with God’s love and justice.

Hart’s universalism rejects God’s respect for man’s free will.

What does our gospel explain to us today regarding God’s judgment and its finality?  I will certainly grant that under Jewish understanding, there are different places of hell. In particular, today’s gospel does not deal with Gehenna or hell as Christians have traditionally understood it—but Sheol. The understanding of hell in today’s gospel is secondary to the eschatological decision made by the rich man during his lifetime.

The rich man begs Abraham to send someone from the dead to warn his brothers of the judgment; of course, ironically, God will do this with Jesus’ resurrection—yet some still Do NOT believe. What is Abraham’s response?

But Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the prophets.
Let them listen to them.'
He said, 'Oh no, father Abraham,
but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.'
Then Abraham said, 'If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets,
neither will they be persuaded if someone should rise from the dead.'"

The parable teaches the faithful that the time for choosing God is in this life. And if we choose inward, if we choose wickedness, sin, and the ways of the world we choose it for the rest of eternity.

How can this be?

Pope Gregory the Great explains, “For the sinning of the wicked does have a termination, because their lives have a termination. They would have wished to live without end so that they might be able to continue in their iniquities without end. For they seek more to sin than to live. And they desire to live here always, because if they could continue to live they would never have to stop sinning.”[4]

Folks who go to hell choose it rather than God. So, Let us do everything we can during our earthly pilgrimage with the help of God’s grace to proclaim with great joy the gospel of repentance, and the forgiveness of sins. Let us call our neighbors to the Body of Christ in baptism and the sacraments of confession and the Eucharist so they can be infused with God’s grace necessary to live a life of holiness—so they can be saved!

[1] Bishop Robert Barron. von Balthasar, Hans Urs. Dare We Hope That All Men Be Saved?: With a Short Discourse on Hell – 2nd Edition . Ignatius Press. Kindle Edition.

[2] Hart, David Bentley. That All Shall Be Saved (p. 1). Yale University Press. Kindle Edition.

[3] Hart, 66.

[4] W. A. Jurgens, trans., The Faith of the Early Fathers, vol. 3 (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 1970–1979), 318.