Yes, in Catholic teaching the choice is between eternal existence in complete and overwhelming happiness or eternal existence wallowing in our own misery.
Just as we can attain heaven by implicit as well as explicit faith, so hell too can be our portion without explicit rebellion. It is possible for us to drift and slide into hell by a life with self at the centre and callous indifference to the needs of our fellow man (cf. St. Matthew25: 41-46). As Catholics we need to ask such questions as the following: Am I willing to give practical help, by way of money and time , to the poor in my parish?; Am I willing to invite the lonely or umemployed for Sunday lunch and not just my friends?; Am I willing to defend the poor or mentally ill when they are the subject of unfair condemnation or abuse?. If we can answer such and similar questions in the affirmative, then we can be sure that Heaven is rejoicing and that we ourselves are “…laying up…a good foundation for the future, (and taking) hold of the life which is life indeed” (1 Tim.6:19).
Heaven and Hell make life the serious issue that it is. A Heaven without a Hell would remove the bite from life’s drama. C.S. Lewis once remarked that he never met a single person who had a lively faith in heaven without a similar belief in hell, surely the greatness of our salvation is measured by the terror of the thing that we are saved from isn’t it?
It is true that the whole course of this life is a state of probatiion. Nertheless, if we are seeking to be zealous in good works, such as the ones refered to above, and trying earnestly to live up to the arduous requirements of the New Testament, we can have a measure of hope (not presumption as is the case with some Protestants) and not become dispirited in our Christian pilgrimage. It is the continual abiding in Christ and keeping His commandments that is the key for apart from him we can do nothing (St. John 15: 1-11); by abiding in Him we will bear much fruit and therefore have confidence at the Judgement.
However, it is an inescapable truth that all baptized Catholics are faced with the choice of Heaven or Hell in so far as they must give dilligence to make their calling and election certain; puting it simply they cannot rest on their catholic profession and not be pro-active in living the life of faith. This was so with the Jews in the O.T., who were called to be God’s peculiar people and holy, it is so with us today ( See Deuteronomy 30:15-20).
Warmest good wishes
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