Today, October 13, 2012, I set aside my standard agenda for the afternoon and felt strongly that I should return to the theme of hell in my writing. It is, and has been for millennia, a nagging subject. Nearly every society that has left records offers opinions about hell as a flaming location, presumed by some to be in the bowels of the earth or sun, and the place of the damned from among earth’s population. Escape is thought virtually impossible, or if escaping there is a wandering about in the bowels of hell. Mythological persons have attempted to rescue beloved family members from hell, but failed – except for Christ who is seen as visiting hell (the place of hades, the place of the dead) and making some celebration with those who preceded his time on earth, persons to be approved of God. We have allusions/illusions to death matters.
In an extensive program today the History Channel carried a lengthy program about hell from history, from literature, from presumed sites of hell, from beliefs emanating from people and cultures from the world through various eons of history. The program included the work of current archaeologists studying various sites presumed to lead to the gates of hell – sites such as Mount Masaya (paradoxically pronounced messiah) and Xibalba in South America, Mt. Hekla in Iceland or Erta Ale in Africa. The program included references modern and ancient of persons who at the point of death, returned from the edge to recite stories of hell (as they also recited stories of paradise). Christian concepts were included in the TV program without attention to the linguistic interpretations of Bible passages related to hell and its meaning. The accent was on concepts of burning, of torture, of an abyss, and similar accents. The public response to queries about belief in hell, according to the program, held a continuing belief in punishment and suffering for the individual related to sin. The accent of the program that Dante’s description of hell made and continues to make public a Christian expression of what hell is like, and how it functions. Torture is made extreme, but not arbitrary. The whole matter relates to the presumed issues related to sin and death.
Another feature of this day was an article in The Week magazine for October 19th. The item under the People section referred to Woody Allen. A member of the entertainment industry, Allen made his reputation as a first line director of cinematic pictures in which he appeared often as one of the actors. From England, Oliver Burkeman wrote about a conversation with Allen about growing old. According to Allen: It’s a bad business . . . . it’s a confirmation that the anxieties and terrors I’ve had all my life were accurate. There’s no advantage to aging. You don’t get wiser, you don’t get more mellow . . . . You have to fight your body decaying, and you have less (sic) options. . . . The only thing you can do is what you did at 20 – because you’re always walking with an abyss right under your feet. According to Burkeman, Allen does what he does to get his mind off, the horror of mortality through distraction. To escape his dominate self-preoccupation, at 76 years of age, Allen directs a cinematic picture once a year, or writes for actors so that sheer effort, stops him from dwelling on death. Basketball games get his mind off the larger issues.
I was in high school when Allen was born so have many years more of life than he. I find aging doing to me the things that Allen said were not available. They are available, but he is not looking for them in the right place, or situation, or context. I find whatever meaning of death to be more than matched by the consequence of Christ having addressed the larger issues of life, and giving me grace to accept his offer to meet and satisfy them – to comfort and peace. Whatever is hellish for human beings need not be so. A fire can be tragic and therefore hellish. Firemen in their presence make it much less so even if the suffering persons have stoked the fire. Christ stands between mankind and whatever the negative evaluation may be. The invitation to safety is with the faith risk of those in danger. The fireman can carry to safety anyone he invites to accept his service. He would not try if he doubted. We would not accept his invitation if we doubted. Faith is found in my choices. Spiritual matters are unchangeable with God – so we have firm revealed steps from natural to spiritual issues *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020