I’m not surprised at your question, Juan Ignacio. In talks, in discussions, in conversation about the afterlife there is always someone who does not believe in hell. It’s a hot proposition. How can God send a person to hell to torture them cruelly for all eternity? And that for a single unforgiven mortal sin. There is no proportion between human sin and divine punishment. Your query comes in time. Very recently I’ve come across the most amusing argument I know against the existence of hell. You’ll enjoy it. It is based on the Golden Rule of the gospel and of all scriptures in all religions that, in its simplest expression, says, “Don’t do to others what you would not like done unto yourself”. God would not want to be sent to hell to suffer for all eternity, consequently, if he wants to keep the rule he himself had set, he cannot do to others what he would not like done unto himself. That’s his own Rule. Are you convinced?

When hell is discussed there is always someone who comes up with a witticism. They say: Hell exists, but it is empty. Nobody goes there. This saves at the same time God’s and the Church’s honour, as the existence of hell is many times asserted in the Bible and it is a dogma of faith for Catholics which would make into a heretic anyone who would deny it and they would go to hell precisely for having denied it which is the limit, so that the existence of hell is upheld at any cost; and on the other hand it saves also the serious thinking of many who cannot conceive such a punishment, as hell remains empty, thus saving God’s honour. Some even quote Pascal who is supposed to have said that already. Hell exists but it’s empty. And everybody is happy.

The pity is that that’s not true. Even if Pascal said it. Hell is not empty. Those who repeat the saying forget that the separated angels, the devils, many and angelical in their origin, are already there. They are heating up the cauldrons and sharpening their tridents. Complete with horns and tail. Hell is inhabited since times of old. Besides it would be ridiculous if God would threaten us all our lives with the prospect of hell, only to tell us at the end that it was all a joke. And then there is the consideration of the heavy expenses involved in running hell, the maintenance of the cauldrons, the burning oil, the large spaces along so many centuries and ages, particularly now in the midst of the financial crisis we are in, if all that was going to go waste. Well, the notion that there is hell but it is empty does not hold water. Even if many of you uphold it cheerfully.

Maybe the right solution lies in humility and simplicity, in recognising that we don’t know much about what is awaiting us in the realms beyond, and in trusting that God will somehow manage to make his justice and his infinite mercy converge. We’ll see it some day. In heaven.

Meanwhile the best approach is humour. When I was young there was abstinence from meat on Fridays, and eating meat on a Friday was a mortal sin. Hell sin. The norm was later changed, and in its place the faithful were recommended to do some good work on Friday, like giving alms or reading the Bible or visiting a church or helping somebody, always without the weight of sin. And one could eat meat. The New Yorker brought out a cartoon those days in which Satan appeared on his throne in hell between fire and smoke before his demonic councillors and was asking them: “What are we to do now with all those that are here for having eaten meat on Friday?”

I can also tell something that happened to myself while hearing confessions – without breaking the seal. In those times of many years ago a man, who had not come to know about the change, came to confession and accused himself of having eaten meat on Friday. I gave him absolution, as in his conscience he had sinned since he believed he had, but then I explained to him for the future that the pope had changed the rules, there was no more sin and he could eat meat on Friday if he wanted to. He answered vehemently: “The pope may say whatever he wants, but it is a sin to eat meat on Friday and it will always be!” More Catholic than the pope. He was a Goan, of course. I gave him a good penance.