On the basis of the New Testament, one thing is certain: if someone is unwilling, God does not leave it there. It is with God, as with the shepherd who goes after a wandering sheep. God seeks reconciliation with the unwilling, as did a person who went to Jerusalem to offer sacrifice.
John Predmore, S.J., is a USA East Province Jesuit and was the pastor of Jordan's English language parish. He teaches art and directs BC High's adult spiritual formation programs. Formerly a retreat director in Gloucester, Massachusetts. Ignatian Spirituality is given through guided meditations, weekend-, 8-day, and 30-day Retreats based on The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Ignatian Spirituality serves the contemporary world as people strive to develop a friendship with God.
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Thursday, April 3, 2025
Spirituality: Gerhard Lohfink, God does not stop reaching out to you
Hell is not something God impose on people. Hell can only be something that God does not want, in any case and under any circumstances. Then hell would be something a human being chooses for oneself.
If one fundamental option is directed immediately towards God, everything is simple and clear. The human person, and death, stands finally before the one whose face she, or he has always desired to see.
These people make a fundamental decision, perhaps for goodness, truth, justice, humanity. They have shot the truth in various ways, and they now stand before the absolute truth, who has a face. They have desired the good, and now in death, they behold what they have longed for as goodness and the one God, the absolute good. They have battled for a just society, and now they understand that in doing so they have reached out exactly for what is the will of God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They have worked for Peace, and now they stand before the God of Jesus Christ, who desires nothing other than a people who bring peace and reconciliation to the world.
Is This All There Is? page 169
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