A Reflection on Hell

"The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." - Matthew 13:41-42

As part of my Passion Week observance, I fast on Good Friday. The pangs of hunger, the headaches, the general misery from these few hours sans sustenance provide a small reminder of what my Savior endured to free humanity from the bondage of my sin nature.

Terri Schiavo is encountering that on a much more pronounced level. Father Rob Johansen documents Terri Schiavo's Exit Protocol (the instructions the hospice staff are to follow during her starvation and dehydration death) which describe what she is going through during the process of being killed. Catholics in the Public Square summarize the effects from the lack of nutrition and hydration.

I have the ability to distract myself from my puny pangs of discomfort. Terri cannot. She can only lay there accompanied every second of every minute, hour upon hour, by the catastrophic effects occurring in her body. She is completely alone with her suffering; separated from that which sustains her and with no remedy.

Isn't that what Hell is like? The suffering, the torment. Separation from that which sustains us (God). The weeping and gnashing of teeth where the worm never dies. The difference is that Terri's Hell on Earth-induced death will end with the death of her earthly body. While horrific, our self-appointed medically omniscient gods divine her earthly hell will last from five days to two weeks.

But the eternal hell won't end. The worm never dies.

On this somber Good Friday, we encounter this eternal reality and the fact that through Jesus Christ's sacrifice and our acknowledgment of that sacrifice, his angels will not throw us into the "fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth" but will quench our thirst with His very being.

It is something to remember especially in light of the injustice of this world, that there will be perfect justice one day from which those not covered by the blood of Christ will be weeded out.

If published accounts of her faith are true, Terri Schindler-Schiavo will not be counted a weed and her brothers and sisters in Christ will one day find out if "she wouldn't want to live like that."