The E-catechism: June 2000
	For a culture of Peace	Purgatory and hell
	Archives

		Each month the team working on this catechism presents you with two texts, and we hope that with your help and cooperation they will improve. Any suggestions you may have would be most welcome, as would ideas on subject matter. We look forward to hearing from you. For a culture of Peace Year 2000 has been announced international year for a culture of peace by United Nations under the UNESCO initiative. It means to go from a culture of war, of violence, of discriminations to a culture of non-violence, tolerance and solidarity. The culture of peace is an ensemble of values, attitudes, behaviors that lead to the respect of life and the human person with all his rights. It is rejecting any violence. It is caring for freedom, justice, solidarity, tolerance and understanding between different people, groups as well as between individuals. In a competitive society, where the success is against the others, teaching peace is more and more important. This exists already through the action of many individuals, associations, institutions… all over the world. Those who are engaged in humanitarian actions (like the French Doctors), testify by their actions for the values of tolerance and solidarity. They oppose to a culture of discrimination. Those who fight for democracy and human rights against a culture of oppression risk their lives. It is happening in countries where fundamental liberties are not respected. Those who work for the solidarity of development fight against exclusion and poverty. If injustice prevails, revolts and conflicts will take place as it is happening in Brazil for the peasants without a land. The culture of peace, is a daily practice of human Rights. One should never separate peace, development, and democracy. There is no development without democracy. Individuals are directly concerned and personally responsible. Christians, more specifically, discover in the Gospel an appeal to internal peace that pushes them into action. In each country, city or quarter, a culture of peace can be acted in many ways: citizenship celebrations, twinning between cities and refugees camps, cultural exchanges, humanitarian actions in foreign countries, solidarity association meetings… This various actions show that peace is possible. It depends on us: " Happy who act for peace, the Kingdom of heaven is for them"

		Purgatory and hell Purgatory and hell do not attract much attention any more, even among those who practice Christian faith. Truly they were linked to the idea of punishment, transitory or eternal, imposed by a Judge who takes revenge. And yet? If they were having nothing to do with a God without mercy but they were relating to a vital and essential property of a human person, his liberty? In fact, the offer for an Alliance in love, coming from God, has a sense only if there is no constraint; if one can freely adheres to it. It is then possible that a creature could, in full knowledge, put himself in a position of total and definite denial of a relationship with the others and God who is the Other by essence. Experience tells us how one can be carried along the spiral of misunderstanding, dissension; one can risk to be trapped in more and more. In fact for many, hell is already in our world, it is not any more up there. Unfortunately it is among us, in the unbearable human situations. We have to accept the possibility, at least in theory, of hell. However, removed from the darkness of our terrestrial condition, is it possible that one can isolate oneself in a total and definite denial of the infinite Love who is offering himself to us? And also how are disproportionate an eternity of misery and a few years on earth? Bypassing retaliation, how to be happy when some, relatives or not, do not enjoy the final bliss? Jesus could not rest before finding the hundredth ewe. For the purgatory, isn't it normal to terminate one's life knowing that a project is not achieved, a progression is far to be accomplished? Once again, it would be less a question of penalty and more a question of life becoming progressively better taking advantage of a new proximity with the Eternal, liberated from the contingencies and darkness' of the terrestrial condition. In the very name of our faith we cannot any more agree with the image of a God deprived of mercy, not very mindful of the difficulties and the winding ways of human condition, with a God standing up with his sovereign Justice. But it is also the perspective of eternal punishments, too often used to keep us on the right way, that has progressively lost its impact on the way the Christians do. The experience of mutual aid, the solidarity, the confidence received and given, the happiness to share, the calls to love, are more stimulating than exclusions and sentences. Through Jesus of Nazareth, it is the image of God that has been transformed. He was helping every body to stand up what ever his misery or paralysis, in that way he was letting sees the density of eternity in the heart of the daily life. In giving confidence to the mystery of God, what's happening after death is not any more focused on the torments of the purgatory or the eternal punishments, but on the burning love which purifies and makes alive.

		Archives E-catechism May 00, Ascension: from time of mourning to the call for a mission, Babel and Pentecost E-catechism April 00, The Theology of Liberation, Roman Catholic Church and democracy E-catechism March 00, After Death, The Church E-catechism February 00, The Inter-religion dialogue, The sacrament of ordination E-catechism January 00, Transgression, Not to be mistaken about the sacred E-catechism December 99, Advent time, To walk through an imperfect world E-catechism November 99, The spiritual life, God is relationship E-catechism October 99, The Jubilee, Pilgrimages E-catechism September 99, Rehabilitate politics, Hope E-catechism July 99, Charity, Miracles E-catechism June 99, Suicide, The ministers in the Church E-catechism May 99, Meeting the agnostic and atheistic world, The mystery of evil E-catechism April 99, The initiation rites, But what is Faith? E-catechism March 99, The sacrament of marriage, Eternal life E-catechism February 99, Sacraments, Time of Lent E-catechism January 99, Eutahanasia, Citizenship E-catechism Dec. 98, Christmass, Racism E-catechism November 98 E-catechism October 98 E-catechism September 98 E-catechism August 98 E-catechism July 98 E-catechism June 98 E-catechism May 98 E-catechism April 98 E-catechism March 98 E-catechism February 98 E-catechism January 98