Preaching Hell

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In our RCIA meeting of which I am a trainee Catechist we had a lively discussion on Mortal sin in which Hell was mentioned. Our Parish Priest said afterwards that Hell should not be mentioned at RCIA meetings :confused: and others mentioned that Hell should not be preached on.
That got me thinking about the statements of Jesus in the Gospels I think I heard it said that over 80% of the statements in the Bible concerning Hell came from Jesus. In 42 years of being a Catholic I can never remember a single sermon on Hell from a Priest but THE PRIEST JESUS CHRIST preached regularly on Hell. Obviously Jesus preached also on Heaven and Salvation 👍 so I dont want this to be a negative thread.
My question is, what percentage of the sayings of Jesus in the Gospels is on Hell and Damnation does anybody have a good abacus out their.
God Bless
 
A quick search of the RSV shows that hell (eternal punishment/fire) is mentioned 18 times in the NT and only once in the OT.

I remember when I went through RCIA we did talk about hell or eternal torment at least a couple times. We talked about if it is really a cauldron of fire or more like a cold barren spiritual wasteland totally absent of God’s love.

Looking back, it kind of surprises me that we actually talked about it, considering the deacon and sister that ran the RCIA program were on the liberal side. I also haven’t heard much talk of it since.

You know what I tell people who refuse to teach about hell or don’t believe in it, “You’ll believe when you get there”. Satan’s greatest wish is that we just pretend he is not there so he can go about his business undisturbed.

"O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who have most need of your mercy."
 
Meditation on the four last things is a traditional one. The four last things can be listed as death, judgment, heaven, hell. Various saints recommend this, like, say, St. Francis de Sales. Or try St. Catherine of Sienna.
 
I’ve only heard our priest talk about ‘that other place’ once in 10 yeas, and only for a few seconds. It really caught my attention…you could tell the word ‘hell’ was about ready to come out, but he ‘caught’ himself and called it ‘eternal punishment’,. I wanted to bad to scream 'It’s called hell! People need to know about itl!!".

Why is this a four letter word in some parishes? Why are priests so hesitant to teach the honest truth? It’s such a disservice.
 
I’ve only been attending mass for about two years (I was received into the Church last year), and I can say that I’ve heard several sermons on hell. Thank God I’ve been blessed with a holy and orthodox priest.
 
I don’t know of any discouragement of preaching hell as a matter of direction or rule. What I can say is that neglecting Hell is probably a very good pastoral strategy – you know, “Keep your eyes on the prize.” Concentrate on the goal not the obstacle.

Maybe I am dead wrong. Still as I see it, the mission of the clergy is to try to round up people for Heaven. If they do this well, then Hell can legitimately be ignored, because nobody has to go there. At best, the preaching of Hell might permit us to classify people into those Heaven or Hell bound. That doesn’t seem to be too useful beyond making a few self-righteous people even more smug.
 
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USMC:
The following link is to a sermon on hell given by St. Leonard of Port Maurice. If you haven’t read it, you ought to; then we should all send it to our preists to read.

thecatholicfaith.blogspot.com/
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Actually, the link is here now:

thecatholicfaith.blogspot.com/2006/02/little-number-of-those-who-are-saved.html
 
I go back and forth on this one. On the one hand I wouldn’t mind hearing a good sermon on Hell. I believe there is an irrational fear among homilists that talking about it will scare off some folks, which is a bit arrogan IMHO as the Holy Spirit does all the real conversion work, anyway.

On the other hand, it seems we should be wanting to go to Heaven out of love of God versus being afraid of Hell. So it does have merit to promote the prize versus the punishment.
 
The problem is that so many people don’t even think Hell really exists because they never hear it mentioned. In fact, I would venture to say that a certain amount of the rampant immorality that exists today is because today’s youth grew up without hearing of hell.
 
The subject of whether or not a priest should preach on Hell takes on a whole new importance when you consider that Our Lady showed the children a vision of Hell at Fatima.

Those were very young children (10, 9 & 7 years old), especially by today’s standards where our children see all sorts of scary garbage on TV.

That should tell us how important the subject of hell really is!
 
Read this…

divinemercysunday.com/vision.htm

God wants us all to fully understand what Hell is, thats why Our Lady of Fatima and Jesus Himself have made known to us through visionaries what hell will be like - we only need to have ears to listen.
 
i think we should preach more on hell so that more people can get saved.maybe that is a wake up call for the lukewarm christians.
 
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anthonygilroy1:
i think we should preach more on hell so that more people can get saved.maybe that is a wake up call for the lukewarm christians.
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I couldn’t agree more. It definitely worked for me. I am repulsed at the whole lovey-dovey, buddy Christ Gospel that is so often preached. I WANT to be challenged. I WANT a lot to be expected of me. The thought of Hell made me snap out of my indifference and apathy. If the Blessed Virgin Mary thought it was a good idea to show the children at Fatima Hell, then I think that’s a pretty good sign that we oughta be preachin’ it! :yup:
 
In first grade, the Sisters of St. Joseph passed around worksheets that had a pretty horrible rendition of Hell on the front. I knew right away that I did not want to go there. That was back in 1958. I don’t think it did all that much harm to me and there were no lawsuits. I remember my Mom saying that one parent did complain. On the other hand, I think I paid a lot more attention to the Catechism when it came to making my First Communion and Confession. A little bit of fear never hurt anyone.
 
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