Of course I agree whole-heartedly with everything Bishop Barron says about hoping that all will be saved and how hope does not equal knowledge or expectation that all will be saved. The sermon taught me the term “apocatastasis” for the heresy of knowing all will be saved – very interesting. I very much believe in the Godly characteristic of seeing the good in people – and this hope that all will be saved aligns with that. So, I was also giving a big AMEN when he speaks of God being about love only. I believe that too. Yes God gets angry but it is out of love for those who are abused.
My biggest criticism perhaps came at the very beginning, where I thought his explanation of hell was rather lame. He gives an emphatic “of course” to the question of whether hell exists, but his reasons are not so convincing especially in a world where the numbers of unbelievers are increasing. How can they relate to this equivalence of hell with resisting God’s love or the usual formulation of being separated from God? It sounds like a definition straight from people obsessed with God and religion – and it is little reason for any reaction from them but derisive laughter.
And yet there are millions of people, believers and unbelievers, who if you ask them if there is a hell – they too will give an emphatic “of course!” And it is because they have BEEN THERE! I KNOW hell exists because I see it right here on the earth in the inhumanities of man in the treatment of their fellow human beings. And compared to THAT hell, Bishop Barron’s anguish at resisting God’s love or even the classic fiery furnace is a JOKE! It is frankly an INSULT to those who have experienced hell on earth themselves. (and if you are wondering… I am not one of them – I just have the empathy to see it. At most I have merely peered over the edge of the pit and shuddered.)
My vision of hell is nowhere near so lame and tame. By comparison finding myself in one of the Hollywood versions would have me smirking. My vision of hell is being eaten alive by our own sins… our own self-destructive habits tearing down everything good within us until WE become the evil we hate most. That is the hell I fear!
Bishop Barron’s analysis of “enter by the narrow gate” using Luke 13 is superb! Of course my own frequent ranting against entitlement and against making God a Christian property is quite in agreement with everything he says at the end of the sermon.