One of the ideas that seems to be gaining currency these days, even among high ranking clerics, is the delusional expectation that hell may actually be empty. This is implicit Universalism, the belief that God’s mercy is so expansive that every human soul will be saved in the end. This is not only heresy but a direct contradiction of the words of Christ himself. “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to perdition, and those who enter it are many.” (Mt. 7:13)

Such a view further leads one into the grave sin of presumption upon God’s mercy through a denial of His unerring justice. One of the dilemmas of Christianity has ever been its attempt to square the compassionate God of Mercy with the dread God of Justice. Is God just a giant cuddly stuffed Panda or the vengeful Calvinist judge casting souls into eternal hellfire with bland indifference? Of course, both images are gross exaggerations which have see-sawed back and forth throughout the Church’s long history, under the titles of laxism v. rigorism. Today we are in a period of extreme laxism ~ a loss of spiritual discipline and vision which grew as a counter-reaction to the excessive rigors of Calvinism and Jansenism. The pendulum swings to and fro, and seldom does it rest in the middle.

The danger of the current lax spiritual climate is that the ensuing casual forms of Christianity have left the greater number of Catholics and other Christians with the false impression that what they do doesn’t really matter because they are entitled to salvation. God’s mercy is so overwhelming it will disregard the more sordid details of one’s personal life and habits. God, as many like to boast, “accepts me just as I am.” And perhaps this mentality explains why the practice of sacramental confession has fallen off a cliff since Vatican II. Our secular culture has greatly encouraged the idea of entitlement so that a sort of spiritual welfare state which complements the physical welfare state has taken root in the minds and hearts of many Christians. The underlying theme seems to be that we have some inherent “right” to heaven, regardless of our actions or track record.