Fire and Brimstone vs Kindness and Mercy

A “fire and brimstone” sermon used to be deemed necessary to get a person out of a sinful funk.  In other words, in order to convince a person to stop his/her sinful behavior, a clergyman would confront the person with the reality of Judgement Day and the likelihood that they would have to spend their eternity in that god-awful place we call “hell,” where the fire never extinguishes and the falling brimstone is like hot coals perpetually raining down.  And such a sermon can be effective, certainly, considering that particularly cruel condition that is eternal damnation on the horizon for this person’s soul.  As Jesus said:  “It is would be better for that man if he had never been born” or “It would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck and he be thrown into the sea ...”  (Matt 26:24 and Luke 17:2).

But you never hear of “fire and brimstone” being used today.  Today, it is “kindness and mercy.”  Most clergymen today seem to want to be more “pastoral,” meaning that they act and speak out of kindness, with smiles and welcoming committees and the promise of mercy on Judgement Day.  Or, perhaps the concept of final judgement isn’t even mentioned.  They think that the sinful person is more likely to react negatively to fire and brimstone and eternal damnation and would then never be seen in church again.  And this would be a correct in many cases.  Sinful people don’t want to think about their eternal destiny.  And those persons would instead react positively to thoughts of mercy, kindness and eternal happiness.  But to me, it is still important to mention forgiveness in the same breath.  People must be made conscious of their mortal sins, of the Catholic track to forgiveness, and of the consequences of rejecting God’s mercy.  It is very important.  Eternal damnation and its opposite, eternal happiness, are not figments of someone’s imagination.  Jesus talked about them all the time.

What got me thinking about this is last Sunday’s gospel at Mass – the story of a Canaanite woman whose daughter was tormented by a demon.  Jesus seemed to respond cruelly to her, using the metaphor of food given to dogs to mean his assistance given to a Canaanite woman and her daughter.  The implication was that it would be of no use.  But she did not give up.  She said she picks us scraps of food from the table of her masters, which I took to mean bits and pieces of faith that are Jesus’ words.  Jesus was thereby convinced that she had “great faith” and he then cured her daughter (Matt 15:21-28).

I believe, then, that what it takes is “great faith” in order for us to avoid the fire and brimstone of damnation and to be kindly and mercifully welcomed into heaven.  I don’t care what your lot in life is, that is, what your sin is.  You can fill in the blank.  Everyone, please, take Jesus’ advice and go and sin no more (John 8:11).  A place of such happiness that we cannot even imagine awaits us.  Amen.