Question 8.134

8.134 In the final analysis, does hell exist, or is this just an old-fashioned fable to frighten people?

Hell denotes a definitive separation between God and man. But God never sends someone to hell; damnation is the result of a free choice. Thus, hell exists through an unshakeable will to cut oneself off from God.

However, although no one seeks suffering, the decision not to acknowledge God results in unavoidable consequences. Separation from the Father is a serious act, because man cuts himself off from God, whose son he is. Hell is the opposite of flourishing in God. This suffering is compared to a burning fire because there is nothing more terrible than to kill one’s parents, to make them disappear definitively from one’s heart and from one’s sight.

Today hell is a problem that has been completely erased from approved thought; Satan has even become a sort of purely fictional character. Hence the devil rejoices, because his acts are forgotten and hidden.

Nevertheless, the visions of hell granted to the great saints of the Church are terrifying. I would like to cite the words of Saint Mark, which are particularly clear: “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, where the worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. For every one will be salted with fire” (Mk 9:43-49).

Hell is a reality, not an idea. The depictions of the Last Judgment over the entrances to cathedrals are explicit. Certainly, in the West, we have insolently dismissed the question of hell. But in Africa, we believe in the harmfulness of the forces of evil. It would never occur to anyone to deny their existence, their misdeeds, and their methods.

Even today, the devil’s shrewdest trick is to make people believe that he does not exist. However, Pope Francis has not been afraid to talk about Satan from his first Mass after his election to the See of Peter, when he declared: “When we do not profess Jesus Christ, the saying of Léon Bloy comes to mind: ‘Anyone who does not pray to the Lord prays to the devil.’ When we do not profess Jesus Christ, we profess the worldliness of the devil, a demonic worldliness.”

In the Gospel, Christ says explicitly that it is possible to drive out the devil only by prayer and fasting. The Church cannot remain silent about such a powerful teaching.