When involved in evangelization, the evangelist should not only talk about what Jesus accomplished in His Cross and Resurrection. As important as that is, the evangelist should also help others look forward to the future that Jesus won for us. Through His atonement, the Lord has provided for us hope in a beautiful reality. Let’s break that hope down into three different aspects: the Ascension, the Second Coming, and Eternal life.
Ascension
The Ascension is, in one sense, an historical event. In Acts 1:9, in the sight of the Apostles, Jesus ascends to heaven to sit at the right hand of His Father. This is mentioned again in Ephesians 1:20-22 — that God “seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come. And he has put all things under his feet.” Likewise, the same Apostle says elsewhere in 1 Corinthians 15;25, “He must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.”
The Ascension is when Our Lord assumes His kingship. Our Lord is king over all the spiritual powers of the cosmos and that’s what gives the Church the power of exorcism — through the Sacraments and through the Rite of Exorcism. Christ is King, He rules over all spiritual powers, all angels and demons. He has defeated all the demons and through His resurrection He has even defeated death and granted us eternal life.
This triumph of Christ’s kingship in the Ascension was manifested and takes place even now through the Church and in the Church; in her Sacraments, her evangelization, her prayer, and in her liturgy. The Church is making the reign of Christ manifest and real in the world. The Church is conquering evil spirits. The Church is defeating death and communicating eternal life to people.
The Second Coming of Christ, the Final Judgment, and Hell
This work of Christ will come to complete fruition on the Last Day. Saint Paul promises us that human history is not going to continue on unchanged forever. In 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, Saint Paul says, “Listen, I will tell you a mystery! We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.” This is what Christians are looking forward to: Christ is going to return, ending human history, raising all men from the dead, making the final judgment of the just and the wicked (in justice and mercy), and inaugurating the Kingdom of God in its fullness.
It is critical that we do not forget or downplay the truth of the Second Coming of Christ and the Final Judgment. The book of Acts shows how this Final Judgment can be included in the proclamation of the Gospel: “God … commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed.”[1] The Gospel calls for repentance, because (among other things) Jesus Christ will come to judge the living and the dead. At the Final Judgment, every human being will get the just and merciful fruits of their deeds on earth as part of the public, cosmic judgment of all — the final “settling of accounts” where the wicked will be punished, the just will be purified and saved, and creation will be renewed.
The Final Judgment is taught clearly in Sacred Scripture. Romans 2:5-10 says,
On the day of wrath … God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. For he will repay according to each one’s deeds: to those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; while for those who are self-seeking and who obey not the truth but wickedness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be anguish and distress for everyone who does evil … but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good.
Here, Saint Paul speaks of a judgment on the actions of our life; but remember: our actions are expressions of our desire. First, something is desired by our will, and then it is acted upon. The desires of our heart are expressed in our actions.
We will all be judged by our response to God, the true Good; and our earthly deeds will be revealed for their correspondence to the Good God. At the same time, the full plan of God, in its perfect goodness and love, will be made fully manifest. The Catechism teaches,
In the presence of Christ, who is Truth itself, the truth of each man’s relationship with God will be laid bare. The Last Judgment will reveal even to its furthest consequences the good each person has done or failed to do during his earthly life …
Through his Son Jesus Christ [the Father] will pronounce the final word on all history. We shall know the ultimate meaning of the whole work of creation and of the entire economy of salvation and understand the marvelous ways by which his Providence led everything towards its final end. The Last Judgment will reveal that God’s justice triumphs over all the injustices committed by his creatures and that God’s love is stronger than death.[2]
At the Final Judgment, justice will finally reign. And in that way, the righteous, poor and oppressed, will finally be delivered from their oppressors, and rewarded for their faithfulness and perseverance. Because they loved God and showed that love through their lives and their actions, they will get what they love, what they want, namely: God. For those who loved themselves, not God, and showed this through their actions, they will receive themselves; and having oneself in place of God is “hell.” The just have been chosen by God’s grace, and did not reject Him. The wicked, on the other hand, have definitively chosen against God; they’ve rejected Him. Hell is the eternal consequence of that choice.
Hell is a topic that frequently arises in evangelization. People have a problem with hell; they wonder, “How could a good God send anybody to hell?” Some people, who are otherwise inclined to believe and accept Christianity, stop short because they have difficulty understanding and accepting the idea of the judgment of God, and especially of hell. Behind the doctrine of hell is found the full divine authority of Jesus Christ, for the Sacred Scriptures He inspired teaches it, and he is the one, more so than any other person in the Bible, who speaks about it. Bringing up this fact may be helpful for such people.
Also important is familiarizing people with the Scriptural teachings on hell. In Scripture, hell is described as a “lake of fire,” but also as “outer darkness.”[3] In hell, “their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.”[4] It can be helpful to explain that the doctrine of hell is taught in Scripture using these images, which are primarily metaphorical. You can tell people that God is using these images to teach us; we ought to pray and reflect on the meaning of these images, letting them instruct and challenge us, instead of making ourselves stand in judgment over God’s Word.
Let’s do some of that reflection here. While “the fires of hell” is certainly an image of the torments of those who reject God, there are different theories concerning the precise nature of this fire. Some suggest that at least in part, they are physical flames imposed as punishments upon the wicked.[5] Some suggest that they are the flames of our own lusts from living lives of giving in to our sinful passions. Hell, then, would be the state of being consumed with those sinful desires for eternity. Another way of understanding the fires of hell is to say that the flames of hell are the flames of God’s love. The Sacred Scriptures say both that “God is love.”[6] and that “God is a consuming fire.”[7] They also say that only the righteous person can “live with the devouring fire … with everlasting flames.”[8] Hell, under this idea, would be the flame of God’s love experienced by those who hate and reject Him.[9]
When we combine this idea with the biblical image of hell as “the outer darkness,” we can make an additional speculation about hell. The idea of “outer darkness” suggests that hell is “as far as possible from God.” That would be, in a sense, a mercy from God because (as we’ve said) God’s presence is painful for those who hate Him. When one is not prepared for the presence of God through a life of openness to Him and approaching Him, then that divine presence would be incredibly painful. In mercy, then — as well as in judgment — God sends the wicked far from Himself into “the outer darkness” where he or she is not exposed as intensely to the heat and light of His burning love. In that outer darkness, one can have oneself, without God (as much as is possible), which is what one had been choosing throughout one’s life. This can be a way to explain hell when dealing with people who may be troubled by this teaching given to us in Scripture and the Tradition of the Church.
The Catechism says:
We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love him. But we cannot love God if we sin gravely against him, against our neighbor or against ourselves: “He who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” Our Lord warns us that we shall be separated from him if we fail to meet the serious needs of the poor and the little ones who are his brethren. To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God’s merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called “hell.”[10]
Eternal Life in the Kingdom
Separation from God in hell is the punishment for sin, but Christians hope for better things: eternal life in God’s kingdom. In Revelation 21:3-4, Saint John describes that final state of the Blessed. He says, “See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his people, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.” Likewise, Saint Paul speaks of eternal life when he says, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him.”[11] The Catechism says, “This mystery of blessed communion with God and all who are in Christ is beyond all understanding and description. Scripture speaks of it in images: life, light, peace, wedding feast, wine of the kingdom, the Father’s house, the heavenly Jerusalem, paradise.”[12]
It is important to emphasize this future with individuals as we evangelize. Everyone is looking for hope. In looking around ourselves in the world, everything seems to be in decay. There are wars, famines, destruction, hatred and enmity between different groups. Is this all there is, or can one hope for something more? Hope for eternal life engages and elevates the desires of the human heart; our evangelization needs to focus on that hope. As they say, “you catch more flies with honey than vinegar.” It’s not so much the fear of hell, but the hope for heaven that can motivate individuals to make that response of love to God’s Love. The Catechism speaks of this hope:
We can … hope in the glory of heaven promised by God to those who love him and do his will. In every circumstance, each one of us should hope, with the grace of God, to persevere “to the end” and to obtain the joy of heaven, as God’s eternal reward for the good works accomplished with the grace of Christ. In hope, the Church prays for “all men to be saved.” She longs to be united with Christ, her Bridegroom, in the glory of heaven:
Hope, O my soul, hope. You know neither the day nor the hour. Watch carefully, for everything passes quickly, even though your impatience makes doubtful what is certain, and turns a very short time into a long one. Dream that the more you struggle, the more you prove the love that you bear your God, and the more you will rejoice one day with your Beloved, in a happiness and rapture that can never end.[13]
[1] Acts 17:30-31.
[3] See Revelation 20; Matthew 8:12.
[4] Mark 9:48.
[5] This is a common view for many Fathers of the Church. The magisterium of the church, however, doesn’t hold definitively that these fires are physical. They might be or they might not be.
[6] 1 John 4:8.
[7] Hebrews 12:29.
[8] See Isaiah 33:14-15.
[9] We see this dynamic even in this world. People who are far from God, that live lives of rejection of God, frequently don’t even want to get near a church, for example. Anything that speaks of God’s presence is really distasteful for them.
[11] 1 Corinthians 2:9.