By Fr. Bud Grant
Back in the Garden
The St. Ambrose University Theology Department has been invited to take up our annual offering of a themed series for The Catholic Messenger. This year’s theme is “Migration.” Our first article was about the migration of caterpillars across a gravel road. This time, let’s talk about what happens when we die.
“All will be raised up,” St. Ambrose says, “but no one should lose hope, nor should the Just grieve the fact that this rising is for the whole human family, since the Just look forward to the first fruits of their virtue. All, indeed, rise up, but each one ‘in their own order, …’ the fruit of Divine Mercy is common to all, but the order of merit is distinct” (Excessu Fratris II.92). Note the implication is that the Just would be offended by the unjust being saved. Sit with that thought for a moment. The Just want to go to Heaven, but they also want the unjust to go to…well, you get the point. Not a particularly Christian sentiment, is it. Do we need a hell to keep us in line? Are we motivated by threats? Would we be evil if we weren’t afraid of consequences? Are we really that childish? Maybe Christ has more confidence in our goodness than we do.
Origen of Alexandria (c. 185-253 c.e.) thinks that, while only the saints will rise to heaven immediately upon death, the rest of us just have to wait until the “last day” (John 6:39-40) when there will be a great purging of souls until all are finally admitted to heaven. Only then will “God be All in All” (I Cor. 15:28). Julian of Norwich (d. 1416) reports that Christ told her that “all will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of things will be well.” A Loving God would not condemn anyone eternally.
These, along with dozens of other theologians from earliest times until today, are speaking of apokatastasis, a Greek concept that means all of God’s creation will be saved (Acts 3:21). Is this shocking? I should clarify that the heretical version of this argument would deny the existence of hell and abrogate free will. Fair enough. St. John Paul II provides an orthodox response, “Eternal damnation remains a possibility, but we are not granted…the knowledge of whether or which human beings are effectively involved in it (General Audience, July 28, 1999). Hell exists, he says, but we can’t say if anyone is there. As for the crime against free will? I ask you, who, in their compos mentes, would choose hell over eternal Union with God? Also, it is never too late to seek God’s mercy. Besides, what kind of God would refuse to offer mercy?
Not ours. God wills our salvation. This message is everywhere: Gaudium et Spes (1.45); the liturgy (Eucharistic Prayer II); our hymns (“All is well/with my soul”). Even the prayer of consecration that says “my blood which will be poured out for many” really means “for all” (the English is a too literal translation of a Latin translation of the Greek “polloi” (the many = everyone, Mk. 14:44).
In the Gospel, Christ said that it is the will of the Father that He should “not lose anything of what He gave Me but that I should raise it on the last day” (Jn.6:38-40). God wills universal salvation; God’s will is inviolate. In the Garden, Christ himself subordinated His will to that of His (and our) Father (Lk.22.42). Could it be that the message of the crucifixion is the efficacious salvific will of God for us all? Consider Rom. 8:31-39: “neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor powers nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (mic drop).
If you feel awkward or queasy about this profligate generosity, I recommend the “Prodigal Son” (Lk 15:11-32). Please let’s stop fixating on hell. Instead, let’s set our eyes on Paradise, where all of our brothers and sisters in Christ (even the one’s that offend us) will be found. Why would that grieve us? Isn’t it the Good News that we are all Bound for Glory? That’s the ultimate migration.
(Father Bud Grant is a professor of theology at St. Ambrose University in Davenport.)
