HOPEFUL CATHOLICS

In the real economy of the Mystical Body of Christ, intercessory prayer is essential for the ‘renewal of the face of the earth’. But can it bring about the eternal salvation of all humanity? Sr. Gabriella of the Incarnation, a Carmelite nun, gave her response to this question in an article from the website, Where Peter Is , January 17, 2024. (Her words are in italics.) ‘Pope Francis, in a recent interview , said “I like to think hell is empty; I hope it is.”… I would like to add my viewpoint on the matter…it is an extremely serious matter for me because it calls my whole vocation into question. I am a cloistered religious, a Discalced Carmelite nun, a member of a community totally dedicated to contemplation. We have no outside apostolate. Our apostolate is prayer for the Church and for the world. We don’t teach, we don’t nurse, we don’t run a retreat center. Our life is centered on prayer, liturgical prayer, and personal prayer. We are here to let God turn our every thought and action into prayer until, with His grace, we may be so united with Him that we will whatever He wills. One thing that we know that God wills is that “all human beings be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2: 4). [ Is that something that we, as contemplative nuns, should pray for? Certainly, if we will what God wills, then we should definitely pray for what He wills. Is what He wills possible? Is it possible that all human beings be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth? The answer to that is another question: can God want the impossible? Can God will what cannot possibly be done? If God wills something, then it is accomplished. There is a very interesting event described in the Gospel of Mark. ‘When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. So many gathered around that there was no longer room for them, not even in front of the door; and he was speaking the word to them. Then some people came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them. And when they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him; and after having dug through it, they let down the mat on which the paralytic lay. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven’ (Mark 2: 1-5). [3] I want to draw your attention to that last sentence: “When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘Son, your sins are forgiven.’” In every other encounter with people whom Jesus healed, he told the person, “Your faith has made you well.” Each person is saved by their faith. That is the general rule, but it doesn’t apply here. This situation was totally different. The paralytic was not saved by his own faith. The healing of his sins, was in response to the faith of those who brought him to Jesus. That is a gift that he received because of the faith of others. Can my prayers and the prayers of contemplatives and believers around the world cause all sins to be forgiven? Every sin that has been, will be or is being committed was lavishly paid for on Calvary 2,000 years ago. Countless times throughout the day, Catholics recite the Our Father. That prayer includes the words, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” There is enough grace through Christ’s sacrifice to save every human being ever created. I entitled this article “Can Prayer Empty Hell?” I do not know the answer to that question. Anyone who doubts the possibility that prayer can indeed accomplish what God wills, calls into question the very value of prayer, and therefore the value of the wholly contemplative life and the place of contemplatives in the Church. All I can say is that, whatever criticism I may receive for my viewpoint, it will not deter me in the least from praying that God’s will be done and that every human being will be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.’ More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of [ 4] Sr. Gabriella of the Incarnation speaks of Hell’s emptying, which may seem to refer only to our prayer assisting the souls of those who have died. We have to combine that intercession with prayer for the affairs of this world now. In so far as our prayers effect the salvation of souls, they effect the gradual renewal of the face of the earth. Wars, famines, and all the evil movements in society which are drawing people into illusion and corruption can all be turned about by prayer and truth. We often take up the sword to fight for truth, but less seldom do we persevere in intercession. The hardened spiritual warrior endures to the end until evil is overturned. Spiritual warriors When I speak of the ‘hardened’ spiritual warrior, I do not refer to those who summon up their wills and force themselves to persevere. There is another hardness which comes to the person used to contemplative prayer which is not of our own making, but the effect of grace. Prayer will expose us to the weakness in our own make-up leading to humility, but through it, grace awakens us to the inner strength which God is exercising in and with our spirits. I think it is what St Paul means when he talks of ‘the gift of faith’ (1 Corinthians12: 9). We sense a strengthening within ourselves which we only occasionally are aware of. It is a strength which will come out plainly when we are tested most strongly. I write this on May 4 th , the feast of the English and Welsh Martyrs. In the Office of Reading Pope St Paul VI writes about the serenity, fortitude and forgiveness they all displayed as they were being publicly executed, sometimes through hanging, drawing and quartering – the pregnant St Margaret Clitherow was crushed to death under a heavy door which was loaded by more and more stones being put on top. She maintained her courage and fortitude. On the same day we celebrate many Carmelite priests and religious slaughtered during the dreadful Spanish Civil War. Such fortitude is a gift of God, but it grows steadily in the spirits of the person who contemplates. It calls them to persevere in intercession. This is the ‘faith’ Jesus talks of when he says it can move mountains (Mark 11: 19). These friars and nuns were martyred after suffering dreadful torture. The gift of fortitude, promised to those who witness to Christ unto death, has been poured out over centuries, and never more so than in our day and age. The Martyrs’ blood fertilises fields in which the Kingdom of God will flourish. They endured the horror of their imprisonments, tortures and deaths, turning them into "spiritual sacrifices". These offerings were all shot through with contemplation of God’s love, and also prayer for humanity. Such prayer has inexorable effect on all of humanity.

LOVE IS A FUNNY THING Love is a funny thing. Even when someone patently does not deserve it, they may still be loved by a spouse, a mother or a father. Could Hitler’s mother still love him if she was shown the catalogue of evil which he inflicted on the world? We cannot say no to that. It is possible. Love is a funny thing. Jesus tells us the story of the Prodigal Son, to whom his prodigal father gave half his wealth, the fruit of hard work over half the father’s life. The son was a full-on wastrel, totally absorbed in himself, with no respect for others or care who he hurt - look at how his brother was crippled by bitterness. But the father longed for his return and was eager to fan the faintest flame of sense in the prodigal’s heart. Jesus told that story of far-fetched paternal love, to jump-start his listeners into considering the boundless love of God the Father. He doesn’t play it down. It is a glimpse of the pure and infinite love that he experienced in his dealings with his Father, a love far greater than we can dream of or hope for. He knew it was the dynamic of the inner life of the Trinity. It is the dynamic which energises all of creation. Could God love Hitler? Undoubtedly. There is a great Christian book, ‘The Shack’ by William Paul Young which was made into a film. The main character, Mack, turned his back for a moment on a camping holiday, and his six-year-old daughter was abducted, probably by a paedophile, and subsequently murdered. He blames himself and will give himself no rest until he has retrieved her body. During one of his search trips to the campsite he meets each member of the Trinity. Two episodes stand out. Firstly, Jesus gives him a vision of happy children playing in heaven. His little girl is there radiant, and for a brief moment they hug. From then on his all-consuming self-accusation has gone – he knows she is safe and happy. Could Jesus save Hitler? He has done so, on the cross. In a manner we are unable to plumb the depths of, he actually took into his heart all the sin of Hitler and raised it up to cover it with the Father’s love. He knew all the vile consequences of Hitler’s hideous actions and actually felt all those worlds of suffering and destruction in his own being, and he still opened it all up to the medicine of our Father. What did our Father do with all of that? In his infinite wisdom and love, and with perfect power to cure all sin, he elaborated remedies for every single horrible action. The child, who was orphaned as she survived the murder of her family in the gas chambers, which crippled her emotionally for the rest of his life on earth, was lifted into the Father’s arms, held against his cheek and filled with the tenderest love, which heals all wounds and brings human hearts to wholeness. It happened in eternity not in time, but its effects had worked forward in time to assist the limping orphan in her survival and journey here on earth. Every single sin has been remedied in the infinite love burning within the Trinity. We are left with the question of whether St Julian of Norwich was correct when she declared that “All will indeed be well, and all manner of things will be well”. We can hope and pray that this will prove true. Is Hitler capable of repenting and making the journey of purgatory to his own salvation? Yes – the same with Stalin and all the loathsome abusers throughout history. What has that got to do with me? Are all these evil people out of the reach of my influence? Through intercession, Jesus shares his work of redeeming with his people. I can pray for Hitler, and offer up spiritual sacrifice for him. I may not be inspired to do that by the Holy Spirit who directs all prayer, but in my prayer of intercession for the whole world, God may take some of it and actually apply it to Hitler. You would think that one would have to pray for hundreds of years to work through such a task of intercession, but we are ignorant of the enormous power of the prayer of love. The spiritual world is the realm where faith moves mountains, and "a single act of pure love can do more good than many exterior works"(St John of the Cross). God takes our weak efforts at prayer and shoots them through with the infinite light of his love, so that their effects are out of all proportion to our effort. When will we really believe in the wonderful generosity of God and the power of intercession? It may be that we have been dispirited because we have often asked God for specific results without them being granted, but that is because we have not penetrated enough into sharing the love of God which is active in ways too deep for us to understand. The more we contemplate and know the love of God, the more we submit all our requests to his wisdom. Then the Holy Spirit leads us to release in prayer graces whose key has been specially reserved for us to turn. He longs for us to join in his spiritual outpouring of grace. What about Hell? When I write these thoughts I am very conscious of the firm teaching of Jesus about hell and judgment. But I am struggling to reconcile that with the principle teaching of Jesus about the infinite love of God. The understanding of the Good News has developed over the centuries. For example, in past ages, Christians have killed eachother over arguments about how to interpret the faith. That wasn’t Christian - it was broken human beings, not yet able to let the love and the guidance of God lead them. Today we reject violence carried out in the name of God. Is it possible that we are beginning to allow God’s utter love to break through our age-old anger and frustration which causes us to want to punish evil doers and make them pay? Are we about to become so involved in intercession in our age that we can realistically hope for the salvation of the whole human race? In another episode in ‘ The Shack’ Mack challenges God the Father to severely hurt the murderer. The Father answers him by turning the tables, and challenges him to pick which of his other two children are soon to die painfully. He cannot make such an awful decision, they are both precious to him. God explains that this is what it is like for him. How can he choose to maim one of the children he created? Whatever the murderer has done he is still God’s child. No one can deny the dreadful potential of every free-born human being to choose to reject God and flee to everlasting hell. Our freedom is too enormous to prohibit that possibility. But the judge we face when we die is not a heartless God reading out a list of indictments. It is our entering into the light of the infinite love of God. and, in that light, seeing ourselves as we really are, and realising our unworthiness. Each of us will judge ourselves and have to make the decision either to entrust our broken selves to the call of his love, or to remain shrivelled in our closed selves, which is hell. We truly have the potential to remain in that state for ever. But at the very heart of Christian activity is intercession: through prayer and sacrifices to play our part in completing the work of Christ. That is how the totally powerful grace of God is preparing humanity for eternal life. Is it not possible, now that we are in the age of deeper redemptive intercession, to hope and pray that all human beings can be saved? What about God’s Justice? God is strict. There can be no deviation or change in God. All things are obliged to be brought into line with his decrees; that is what righteousness means. When I write that, it sounds like a cold wind will blow all things into a rigid, pre-planned arrangement. But the wind is not cold; it is warm and wholesome. God’s justice is nothing more than his absolute resolution for his love to fill and order all creation well. We sometimes speak of the immense suffering of Jesus as demanded by the Father in reparation for all the sins of humanity. But the key is the word ‘reparation’. It is all about repairing us, for which both Father and Son are prepared to pay any price. Jesus’ life and death revealed that there is something of deep pain in God until we are all back home in the warmth of his mansions, fully alive and complete daughters and sons. Jesus was willing to endure the pain of all our wounds opening in himself, so that the Fathers ointment could sooth and heal us, enabling us to freely choose life with our Father. Justice is the no-holds-bared functioning of love. Jesus tells us: “I tell you most solemnly, whoever listens to my words and believes in the one who sent me has eternal life; without being brought to judgment he has passed from death to life” (John 5: 24). The justice of God is joyfully at work helping us achieve rightness, not loading us with condemnation.

In this materialistic and sceptical age, people can pompously declare that the great teachers of the mystical journey of love with God like Saints Paul of the Cross and Charles de Foucauld are deluded. They dismiss them as suffering from a weird form of mental sickness. Those critics sound like the flat earth believers of old. They close their eyes to the evidence. I listened to an engineer talking about how she thinks. She sees everything graphically in three dimensions. She even sees the type and size of screws involved in the machine she has in mind. She can then create it exactly. Few of us can think like that. But it is one of the types of thinking within the wide range of human abilities. We gladly rejoice in her gift and benefit from its results. At the same time, we can study her methods and gradually develop our own engineering insights. It is the same with the saints. To see the world exclusively in materialistic terms is an easy temptation in this age when physics and science in general are dazzling us with increasingly useful insights. People can be so impressed that they want to explain everything in mathematical and mechanical terms. We coin mottoes like ‘follow the science’, but science is a vast field in which there are often more questions than answers, and much admission of ignorance. Some branches of science deal with human behaviour. These study and quantify how people act and feel and think. From this they seek to predict how situations and personalities will generally play out, but that is far from exact because there are “X factors” in every person which are unpredictable. One of the branches of science which is most prone to difficulty in this regard is psychology. Often, from a purely materialistic point of view, it will deal only with the physical working of the brain and nervous system, the bio-chemistry involved in thought and emotions, and patterns of behaviour, in order to predict statistically how people will act - much of mental sickness is dealt with through medicine. Many psychologists refuse to deal with anything that cannot be measured. That automatically excludes the spiritual and mystical dimension of human beings. Their simplistic way of justifying their prejudice is to dismiss these experiences as delusion. To view human behaviour and personal experience as simply material is rather like a person who can only conceptualise items in two dimensions. They would have no access to the experience and insights of the engineer I mentioned above. I experience a similar deficiency myself, because I am partially colour-blind. I can see colours, but they must be very different to how most people see them, because a lot of the time I do not understand what they are talking about. It would be folly for me to think that they are all deluded. When people look at mystical experiences, such as those of St Paul of the Cross, and bracket them as delusion, they are demonstrating their own type of blindness, even folly. This is especially mystifying when there is so much evidence of the benefits of much of mystical experience. I trust other people’s colour sense because they exhibit such commonality, and it is obvious that they and others derive great benefits from their experience. I would love to paint, but if I tried people would laugh at my efforts. But I can still appreciate beautiful paintings and be inspired by them. At the very least it would be right for sceptics or aggressive deniers to examine whether the countless mystical experiences benefit or hamper people. That is not to deny that there can be real delusion passing itself off as mystical experience, but here the strong teaching of the Church about discernment of spirits should be acknowledged. In a great book, Is Faith an Ilusion ?, the former President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, Professor Andrew Sims, demonstrates how people of faith generally live longer and are less prone to mental sickness than non-believers. He also states that more and more of his colleagues are abandoning their systematic dismissal of spiritual matters because they observe the evident benefits. Nowadays, under the banner of ‘health and safety’ we spend so much time banning and avoiding troubling realities that we are in danger of losing the sense of adventure. There is no greater adventure than ‘exploration into God’. [2] I often see small children on the beach trying to create a pond in the sand. They then dash down with their buckets to fetch water from the sea and pour it in. But they are left with an empty crater, and give up. Fallen human beings are like that; they sense the vastness of God like children sense that of the sea, and they try to reduce it to a scale that they can manage. You can’t manage God. Many of these small children have not been taught to swim, and so shrink back from the waves. They do not know their own ability to float and move in the water. It is like that for those who shrink from the ‘exploration into God’.