Ferverino

There was a priest in the Diocese whose preaching style was the stuff of legend. He is probably best known for once delivering a two-sentence sermon that was as effective as it was brief. He stepped into the pulpit one 95-degree Sunday morning and roared to the people (he never needed a microphone), “Well… if you think this is hot… Hell is hotter! You don’t want to go there.” Upon completion of these mighty words he turned and began the recitation of the Creed as he walked down the pulpit steps.
 
This particular style of preaching is known as a ferverino, meant to convey a message briefly, but usually longer than a mere two-sentence warning. Over the years, I’ve learned to pare down the Sunday Sermon when temperatures warrant it, into what I call simply my “Hot-weather homilies.”  You can decide for yourself which brings greater suffering: the summer heat, or my full-length preaching.
 
With the recent heat wave we’ve been dealing with, a column on the Fires of Hell seems warranted. There are some who believe that God’s mercy is so great that no one has gone to Hell, but the Lord Himself has said otherwise. He speaks not of Hell in the Gospels, but uses the epithet “Gehenna." Gehenna was and is a shallow valley outside of Jerusalem that served as the city dump. There was a perpetual fire burning there, which gave the Lord’s listeners a local point of reference for His image. He speaks of Gehenna in reference to the foreboding threat of “should your eye cause your downfall, better to gouge it out and enter Life blind than risk the fires of Gehenna.” (Matt. 18:9) When considering the Fires of Hell, we hear Him warn of “unquenchable fire” (Matt 3:12)… of “fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:41)… of “where the worm dies not and the fire is never extinguished” (Mark 9:48). Need I go on? My palms are sweating as I type this!
 
There is no direct mention of Purgatory in the Bible, but Catholics look to the Old Testament Book of Maccabees and its enjoinder to pray for the souls of the Dead as a clue to its existence. Dante speaks extensively of this place of purgation and purification in Purgatorio, the second book of his Divine Comedy. Fire is mentioned here, but only briefly, toward the end of this passage, where Dante must walk through a wall of flames before re-ascending to “the Earthly Paradise” and eventually make his way to Paradiso, or Heaven as we would call it. 
 
Well, I hope this little ferverino on hellfire might scare the hell out of us and point us toward the cool breezes of Paradise (Genesis 3:8). In the meantime, let us thank God for His mercy… and for air conditioning.