Nothing Else Matters

September 11, 2024

The central theme of this narrative is that none of what that you think, say or do during your life will matter (to you) if you don't make it to heaven to spend eternity with God after you die.  Think about it.  If your soul ends up in hell, of what consequence will anything be that you did during your life, no matter how good or kind you were?  Being nice to someone is no guarantee that you have an automatic admission ticket to heaven!  This doesn't mean than an act of kindness has no value because it does.  It likely had a positive effect on the person it was directed towards.  It's just that your 'act of kindness won't matter to you if you 'miss out' on the opportunity God is giving you to be with Him forever and you subsequently end up in hell. 

Your entire life here on Earth will have been wasted as far as you are concerned.  When I say, "Nothing Else Matters", this doesn't mean that everything you think, say or do doesn't matter, it does!  Family matters, friends' matter, life matters, love matters.  But all of this will really only matter to you if you 'make it' to heaven.  And if you do make it to heaven, then everything you did, or said, or thought during your lifetime will definitely matter.  You have to put God first; allow Him to guide you through your life and follow the path He has set out for you.

There are a lot of good people in this world, no matter what faith they follow and regardless of whether they believe in God or not.  These folks are just downright good people, good because they're kind, loving, gentle people, people who care about others and go out of their way to help them.  This includes, but is not limited to, good Christians, good Muslims, good Buddhists, good Sikhs, good Jews, good Hindus, good Mormons, and good atheists just to name a few.  And of course, God loves all people, loves them deeply as His own children, always reaching out to them, gently calling them so they will not only find Him, but will choose Him and eventually spend eternity with Him in heaven.

Do you believe that you are a good person?  The question I'm asking here is this; will it matter how good of a person you are if you spend your entire life never giving God a second thought, or worse, convincing yourself that God doesn't exist?  It got me thinking about good people the world over who have turned their backs on God, giving Him nothing in return for all the love, graces, and blessings that He lavishes on them.  Will they make it to heaven just because they are good people?  Can they sin with impunity for their entire life and then rely on the mercy of God alone to get them there?  Maybe, maybe not.  God alone will be the final judge.

In St. Matthew's gospel, Jesus says to His disciples, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter through it are many.  How narrow the gate and constricted the road that leads to life. And those who find it are few." (Matthew 7:13-14, NAB¹).

St. Luke writes in his gospel, "Someone asked him, 'Lord, will only a few people be saved?' He answered them, 'Strive to enter through the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.'"  (Luke 13:23-24).

St. John writes in his gospel, "Thomas said to him, “Master, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?”  Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, then you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him.” (John 14:5-7).

 I think it's important for all of us to understand that when we die, we don't get to choose from millions, or thousands, or hundreds, or even dozens of different places where we will spend eternity.  We will have a choice of two, heaven or hell (you can read about purgatory here, which, for many, may end up being part of their journey to heaven).  We will actually make this choice while we are here on Earth, living out our days from conception to our (hopefully) natural death.  During our lifetime, God gives each and every one of us many, many chances to choose Him, up to and including the moment of death.  A very good friend once shared an old Irish proverb with me that goes something like this, "There's time twixt the bridge and the water for a prayer."  Basically, this means that even a suicidal jumper has the opportunity to connect with God at the last moment of their life, a God brimming with mercy and love, who will never give up on any of His children.  If we reach out to Him in our last moment, as we take our last breath, as our soul is about to leave our earthly body, God will be there, reaching out to us, loving us.  Will your immortal soul pass through the narrow gate and into God's loving embrace?

There is no end of imagery available on the Internet that could be used to represent heaven.  I originally thought I wanted to have a few images here on this page but as I looked through the myriad of choices available, I didn't find anything that that would appropriately represent heaven.  However, the photo below feels like 'heaven on earth' to me so I have included it here.  What a beautiful photograph!

I remembered that God has already told us in St. Paul's writings, “What eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and what has not entered the human heart, what God has prepared for those who love him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9).  Or, from the prophet Isaiah 800 years before Christ, "No ear has ever heard, no eye ever seen, any God but You working such deeds for those who wait for Him." (Isaiah 64:3).  So, rather than try and depict a heaven that we are incapable of imagining, allow me to say that it is real.  How do I know this?  Because God has told us it exists and that's good enough for me.

In heaven we might well have no family or at least no family members who made it.  This would create sadness or other deficits we don’t attribute to those in heaven.  Corinthians 13:12 suggests that we will “fully know” each other, adding to the idea that connections will be rebuilt in heaven based upon a better understanding of each other than was possible on Earth.

I personally worry about friends and even family members who have turned their backs on God and are not living righteous lives or giving consideration to God for all that He has done for them.  How will they make it into heaven?  How can I be happy in heaven if they aren't there to share it with me?  The only conclusion I can reach is that a place of eternal happiness and renewed understanding would remove any concern I might have for those who didn’t choose God.

We are frequently told that hell is a "place" of fire.  Preachers of old often threw in 'brimstone' when they talked about the horrors of hell.  No one is really going to know what hell is like until they get "there".  Again, hell is not so much a “place” that one can be “thrown into” in a literal sense but it is more a state of being.  Hell is, as CCC 1033 says, “[the] state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed.”  And when it comes to the punishments of hell and purgatory, CCC 1472 says, "These two punishments must not be conceived of as a kind of vengeance inflicted by God from without, but as following from the very nature of sin."

I personally wouldn't wish hell on anyone, not even my worst enemy.  To me, it's a state of unimaginable pain, suffering and dread.  As I write this, I consider the permanence of hell to be inconceivable, but we know it exists because our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ told us so.

If God tells us that we cannot imagine heaven, how can we possibly imagine hell.  What if hell is nothing more than the 'absence of God' and this separation from Him is the 'fire' that burns within us, the understanding and the knowledge that we will never be with Him, doomed to an existence without His love and mercy forever?

Mortal sin is why souls end up in hell.  There are three conditions that make an act a mortal sin:

 - It must be an act of grave matter that is…

 - Committed with full knowledge and…

 - Deliberate consent.

All three conditions must be met for a sin to be a mortal sin.  If one condition is seriously lacking, the sin is not mortal — it is considered a venial sin.

The punishments of Hell are just and merciful in the eyes of God.  No fallen angel or reprobate soul can act with justice and mercy. 

First punishment: deprivation of God's presence and all the joys of Heaven.

Second punishment: the worm of conscience.  The soul is infused with knowledge of their life: good and bad acts are understood by the person with correct moral judgment.  Then, in Hell, the person is tormented by the certain knowledge that they deserve Hell because of their own free choices, despite all of the opportunities they had to repent and change their ways.

Third punishment: active sufferings for some of the damned, of a type and to a degree fitting to their particular mortal sins.

Fourth punishment: the souls in Hell also suffer from the horrifying sight of the devil himself, far more dreadful than any human could ever imagine, and by having the unpleasant companionship of other condemned souls and fallen angels.  The demons do not torment the souls in Hell actively, as if they were assigned by God to punish, but rather the souls suffer from their presence as fellow prisoners in Hell.  All of these punishments are simultaneous and eternal. 

As human beings, we tend to think we know best, that no one can tell us what to think or do and while that may be true, it may or may not benefit us in the long term, especially if our self-centeredness has us turning our backs on God.  The sense of power we have over our own life often results in an unwillingness to listen to God and to let Him gently lead our lives.  We become focused on what we want and not what He wants for us.  It's like many people today are saying, "No one can tell me what to think, say or do, especially not God."

Ralph C. Martin², Catholic Author and Apologist, was interviewed on January 30, 2019, by Cy Kellett of 'Catholic Answers', and said this:

Kellett: "What was your concern in writing the book, 'Will Many Be Saved'?"

Martin: "I would say that over the last 50 or 60 years or so, there’s been a remarkable change of mentality and worldview amongst Catholics, that hasn’t really been paid too much attention to.  I would say that the way many of our fellow Catholics look at the world today, they would describe it like this: Broad and wide is the way that leads to Heaven. Almost everybody’s going there.  Narrow is the door that leads to hell.  Hardly anybody’s going there. Now, you might say, like, “What’s wrong with this picture?”"

Kellett: "I think I can hear the resonances of Someone else who used similar terminology."

Martin: "Yes, yes. It’s exactly the opposite of what Jesus Himself said. In Matthew, chapter seven, He says, “Broad and wide is the way that’s leading to destruction.  Many are traveling that way.  Narrow is the door that leads to life, difficult is the road, and few there are who are finding it.”  Now, Jesus didn’t say this because He was happy about the situation.  He didn’t say it because this is how it has to be.  But when you look out on the world as it is, many, many people are not honoring God.  They’re not believing in Jesus. They’re not living righteous lives."

"There is this 'other' reality, there is this 'next life', where everything changes, where the things of this life no longer matter, where the things of this world couldn't matter less." — Matthew Kelly: The Uncomfortable Truth About Heaven, Hell…and Neighbors (2022) 

If you search the Internet for 'nothing else matters', you won't find my website.  Most of what you will find is related to a song of the same name by the heavy metal rock group Metallica.  Not surprisingly, the lyrics of the song are exactly the opposite of what I am trying to say here.  The songwriter writes, "Life is ours, we live it our way."  Whether he believes in God or not is beside the point.  What is relevant is that this way of thinking is the mindset of a lot of people who are living in these troubled times. 

In closing, I want to reiterate that nothing you accomplished during your life will matter if you don't make it to Heaven to be with God for all eternity.  Whether you believe it or not, you have an immortal soul.  Think about that for a moment.  As I said earlier, if you end up in hell, separated from God for all eternity, what difference will it make (to you) that you ever did anything good or kind or loving during your life?  The life you led will only have meaning (to you) if your soul is in Heaven in God's loving embrace.  No one wants to spend eternity regretting the choices they made during their very short lifetime here on Earth.  There is no parole from hell.  There is no program for your release.  It's not even life in prison, it's eternity in the prison of hell.

Ask yourself these three questions:  Are you living life 'your way' or are you living it the way God intends you to live it?  Where do you stand?  Where do you want to be?

Think about it.

Please...

¹The New American Bible (from the US Conference of Catholic Bishops [USCCB])

²Ralph C. Martin is a professor at Sacred Heart Major Seminary and was a founding member of the Catholic charismatic renewal.  Martin was raised Catholic, but having fallen away from religion as a youth, he was reconverted to Catholicism by a Cursillo retreat he attended as a college student.  Martin and Stephen B. Clark, who would also become a leader in the charismatic renewal, worked for the National Secretariat of the Cursillo from 1965 to 1970.  During a Cursillo retreat in 1966, Martin and Clark recommended The Cross and the Switchblade to certain retreatants from Duquesne University.  The book inspired one of these retreatants, Ralph W. Keifer, along with history professor William G. Storey, to lead a retreat on the Holy Spirit for Duquesne students.  This retreat, the Duquesne Weekend, in turn spawned the Catholic charismatic renewal, through which Martin was soon baptized in the Holy Spirit.  Martin and Clark then began hosting prayer meetings in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which would eventually spawn the Word of God community.  Martin was invited to Belgium by Cardinal Leo Joseph Suenens to help jumpstart the Catholic charismatic renewal in Europe.  In 2011, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Martin to a five-year term as a consultor to the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization.  Martin is currently the president of Renewal Ministries, and lives in Ann Arbor with his wife, Anne.

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