5 June 1990
Orense, Spain

My dear Friends of Jesus Christ,

First, let me say how honored I feel that so many of you have come here today to celebrate the Eucharist with me. You are a diversified group of people. Some are young; some are less young. Some are married; some are single. Some are strong and healthy and some are less so. There is a diversity of nationality also. You are Spanish and I am Irish, but we are all united in Jesus Christ, Who has called us here today to offer with Him the Sacrifice of the Mass, in the unity of the Holy Spirit to the glory of God, the Father in heaven.

In today's first reading St. Peter turns the minds of his people towards the distant future. He writes: "Look for the coming of the day of God and try to hasten it. Because of it the heavens will be destroyed in flames and the elements will melt away in a blaze. What we await are new heavens and a new earth.... You are forewarned, beloved brothers. Be on your guard lest you be led astray by the error of the wicked and forfeit the security you enjoy." (2 Pt 3:12-13, 17).

It is good for us from time to time to reflect on the only two alternatives that await us after our deaths--everlasting life or a state of everlasting death which is separation from God and from all whom we have loved in this life. It is certain that the urgency of salvation, the urgency of the choice that each individual adult person must make of one or other of these alternatives, was a strong motivating force in the life of St. Vincent. He loved the poor and did an enormous amount of work to relieve their sufferings. Let us never forget, however, that St. Vincent's eyes were always on the horizons of eternity and of what follows after our death. What we call the eternal truths--death, judgment, hell and heaven--were very real for him and constantly before his mind. He has told us that for twenty years before his death, he never retired to rest without preparing himself to meet Our Lord as judge.

In recent years we have not heard people talk or write so much about hell as they did in previous centuries. What has been emphasized for us is the infinite mercy and goodness of God which He shows to us sinners. That emphasis is good. However, it is important that we should not lose sight of that which is an eternal truth, namely, the existence of hell. The Church does not tell us that anybody is there, but she does clearly teach that there is a possibility that people may find themselves in hell for all eternity. If a person should have the frightful misfortune to find himself or herself in hell, that would not be the choice of God for the person, but rather the person's own choice. During our lives we are shaping--by what we do or leave undone, good or evil--the sort of eternity which we wish to have. St. Peter in today's first reading reminds us that we are awaiting "a new heaven and a new earth." (Ibid., v. 13). The truth is, although we cannot see it, that every good action of ours is constructing those new heavens and a new earth. Jesus Christ is working in and through us to bring about His Kingdom which, when completed, will be a "new heaven and a new earth." (Ibid.).

There is a story told of a man who in this world had been used to every luxury. He died and he arrived in heaven. An angel was sent to conduct him to his home. They passed many beautiful houses, and the man thought that each one, as he came to it, must be the one allotted to him. When they had passed through the main streets of heaven, they came to the suburbs and a part of the city where the houses were much smaller. At last they came to a house which was little more than a hut. "That is your house," said the angel. "But I cannot live in that", said the man. "I am sorry," said the angel, "but that is all we could build for you with the material you sent up." Heaven and hell are consequences of what we choose for ourselves during our lives, and God respects those choices. Jesus Himself has said: "The hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear His voice and come forth; those who have done good things into a resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment." (Jn 5:28-29).

Perhaps you feel that what I am saying is very depressing. If so, we should reflect on what Jesus said the night before He died: "I am the way, the truth and the life." (Jn 14:6). Through the Church and through the Sacraments, Jesus is trying to coax us and persuade us to accept that life which He is offering to us, and not the condition of everlasting dying which is hell.

When we pray the first Eucharistic Prayer and when we have almost reached the consecration, the Church places on our lips the prayer: "Save us from final damnation and count us among those whom You have chosen." Yes, may God save us all from final damnation. May we be found worthy to take our place at the banquet table in heaven, a foretaste of which we have when we eat the bread of life in the Eucharist, that bread of life which He promised one day when He spoke outside the synagogue in Capernaum. "This is the bread which came down from heaven.... He who eats this bread will live forever. This He said in the synagogue as He taught at Capernaum." (Jn 6:58-59).