Hell – CREDO CXVIII

 
Theologically speaking, hell seems to be a nightmare place decorated with every form of torture; Dante’s Inferno is the best travel guide. The Church for centuries has depicted it graphically and symbolically as a place no one would choose to go to, and so sticking to the rules and conforming strictly and consciously keeps society in order. Psychologically, there is a trap however, because we end up judging ourselves and others, and unconsciously this results in our projecting our Shadow on others, both personally and collectively, perhaps forgetting what even the Bible cautions: Judgment is mine saith the Lord!

Now, along comes Dorothy L. Sayers, the British detective story writer, a member of the Oxford “Inklings,” and also, believe it or not, a serious theologian! She happens, in my estimation, to have written one of the wisest things I ever read! It has to do with hell.

    The fires of hell are the flames of God’s Love rejected!

The wisdom of that statement rings true, and it heals the split between good and bad and places us back where we truly belong. In my first Credo, I express my dislike of the various names we give to the Mystery and offer an expression used by my grandfather Basil King in one of his brief novels, In Abraham’s Bosom. In it a character speaks of “a Vast Certainty!” and ever since I came across it, it is what I consciously term the Mystery. “The Tao that can be defined is not the Tao,” and since our egos function through duality, we cannot define God! So we either humbly accept or reject that “Vast Certainty.” And that, as I come close to stepping out of my mortality in this life in my 88th year, is what I have come to. But Sayers’ words are worth considering. I truly needed to share this before I depart!

It requires no definition but also no doubt! It works for all creation and every religion and every person. It is what Jung meant when he said, “I do not believe . . . I know!”

lovingly,
ao