Catholic Replies
Editor’s Note: Sheila Kippley is an authority on Natural Family Planning (she and her husband John co-founded NFP International) and on the benefits of breastfeeding (see her book The Seven Standards of Ecological Breastfeeding). She has summarized these benefits in an article (“Breastfeeding Does Space Babies and So Much More”) in the online edition of Homiletic & Pastoral Review. You can read the article at www.hprweb.com.
Q. In the Scriptures, Jesus says that the souls in Hell scream and grind their teeth. Does this imply that they are in a physical state? — J.D., Pennsylvania.
A. No, since those in Hell, like those in Heaven, will not have their physical bodies until after the final judgment at the end of the world. What Jesus said was that the avenging angels of the Lord will “at the end of the age” round up “all who cause others to sin and all evildoers. They will then throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth” (Matt. 13:41-42).
Although, after the Blessed Virgin showed the three Fatima seers a vision of Hell in her July 1917 appearance, Lucia described the vision in these words:
“Our Lady showed us a great sea of fire which seemed to be under the earth. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now falling back on every side like sparks in a huge fire, without weight or equilibrium, and amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear. The demons could be distinguished by their terrifying and repulsive likeness to frightful and unknown animals, all black and transparent.”
However, even without physical bodies, the souls in Hell can suffer excruciating pain, as attested to by St. Teresa of Avila, who was mysteriously transported to the regions of Hell one day while at prayer. “These awful pains of the body were insignificant as against those of the soul,” she said. “Oh! These embraced such fear…such oppression, and such agonies of heart that…never, never could I succeed in describing this internal fire, this sense of despair, the most terrible of all the pains and torments. I could not see who it was that tortured me, and yet I could feel myself being crushed and burned. But the pain of all pains was this interior flame, this despair of the soul. In this terrible place there is no hope of relief.”
Q. A friend asked me after Mass why Jesus descended into Hell and then rose from the dead on the third day. This same friend goes to Communion but does not believe in Confession. He says that he can talk to God and have his sins forgiven. What should I say? — W.B., via e-mail.
A. On the first question, Jesus after His death on the cross went to the abode of the dead where the souls of the just were waiting to be redeemed and taken to Heaven. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (n. 633), the Bible calls the abode of the dead “hell,” which is Sheol in Hebrew and Hades in Greek, because those who wind up there are deprived of the vision of God. This was true for all persons, whether evil or good, who died before Jesus’ redeeming death.
Their state was not the same, however, as Jesus illustrated in the parable of the poor man Lazarus, who after death was transported to the “bosom of Abraham,” but remained separated by “a great abyss” from the rich man who had ignored his plight while they lived on earth (cf. Luke 16:19-31). It was these just souls, whom St. Peter called the “spirits in prison” (1 Peter 3:19), that Jesus delivered when He descended into “hell.” He “did not descend into hell to deliver the damned, nor to destroy the hell of damnation,” says the Catechism, “but to free the just who had gone before him” (n. 633).
On the second question, how does your friend know that his sins have been forgiven when he talks to God? Does God speak to him and let him know that all is forgiven? Is your friend really honest with God when expressing sorrow for sins? Or does he judge for himself what is and is not a sin? Can we just imagine him saying to God, “You know, Lord, I don’t think a particular thought, word, or deed was really sinful, so there’s no need to mention it”? Your friend wouldn’t get away with that if he were talking to a priest in Confession.
Of course, we can talk to God directly and express sorrow for our sins, and we should do so with an Act of Contrition every night. But Jesus wanted us to confess our sins to a priest. That’s why on Easter Sunday night He gave the apostles the power to forgive sins in His name (cf. John 20:22-23). He said whose sins “you” forgive will be forgiven and whose sins “you” retain will not be forgiven. But how can the priest know which sins to forgive unless the penitent tells him the sins?
The advantages of going to a priest for Confession are that it teaches us humility, imparts grace to us, gives us the assurance that our sins have been forgiven when the priest pronounces the words of absolution, and lets the priest give us advice on how to avoid sins in the future. In his statement on Reconciliation and Penance, Pope St. John Paul II urged Catholics to confess their sins often to a priest, saying that “it would therefore be foolish, as well as presumptuous, to wish arbitrarily to disregard the means of grace and salvation which the Lord has provided and…to claim to receive forgiveness while doing without the sacrament which was instituted by Christ precisely for forgiveness” (n. 31).
Q. My nephew, baptized and confirmed in the Catholic Church, no longer attends Mass or considers himself religious. He has sent me and my family an invitation to his upcoming wedding to a non-Catholic woman. The wedding is not in a church and, to the best of my knowledge, will not be officiated by a Catholic priest or deacon. Moreover, I recently learned that they were married some months ago in a civil ceremony by a judge in their living room. He said that was done mostly for “practical reasons, including insurance, taxes, and to make the name change process a little easier. We wanted to be able to celebrate with more people, but due to COVID that just wasn’t safe.” What do I do in this situation? Should I attend the upcoming event? — Name and State Withheld.
A. Canon 1108 of the Code of Canon Law says that a Catholic party can contract a valid marriage only in the presence of a Catholic bishop, priest, or deacon, who as the official witness of the Church must ask for and receive the consent of the parties in the name of the Church, and two other witnesses, whose function is to attest to the state that the marriage actually took place. By taking part in a civil ceremony, your nephew is objectively guilty of two sins — disobeying the law of the Church by entering into an invalid marriage and disobeying the law of God by planning to engage in acts of fornication, i.e., sexual acts outside of marriage.
One hallmark of a faithful Catholic is to follow the teachings of the Church established by Jesus to help us get to Heaven. Another hallmark is not to give bad example by pretending that it is no big deal to violate the teachings of Jesus and His Church. It is a big deal for your nephew to enter publicly into serious sin, thus separating himself from God and jeopardizing his eternal salvation. It would be bad example for you, as a faithful Catholic, to cooperate in his sin by attending the ceremony.
We are well aware of the family pressures to attend such a ceremony, having been through them ourselves when we declined to participate. We know that there could be hurt feelings on the part of your nephew and his family, but you need to explain to him that, while you love him, you love Jesus more, and you do not want to do anything that would harm your relationship with God. That includes attending a ceremony that you sincerely believe to be contrary to God’s plan for married couples.
Taking this stand will not be easy, but Jesus never promised His faithful followers a rose garden. In fact, He said that we, like Him, would have crosses to carry in this life, but there will be a great reward for fidelity to Him. We will ask our readers to pray for you and for your nephew, and for all who find themselves in this predicament in our morally challenging times.
