Boston College professor and well-known Catholic author Peter Kreeft addresses participants at the Sept. 12-13 Call to Holiness Conference in Sterling Heights. (Elizabeth Wong Barnstead, The Michigan Catholic)“The whole point of Christ and the whole point of the Church is to make us saints,” said Kreeft, professor of philosophy at Boston College and The King’s College in New York, as well as a popular Catholic author and apologist.
Kreeft added that at the risk of sounding ungrateful, he did not believe the theme of the Sept. 12-13 conference, “Sainthood: Is It Possible Today?” was a good question to ask.
Sainthood, he explained, is “necessary — absolutely necessary. ‘You must be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy.’”
“There’s an absolute moral must from God to us, and that must is not merely ‘be nice’ or ‘be reasonably good’ or even ‘be careful not to disobey the commandments,’” he said. “You must be a saint.”
Kreeft said that if something is necessary, it’s possible, “so of course sanctity is possible today, and every day, no matter how bad the world is.”
Kreeft said the Catholic Church is becoming better and stronger today because the world is getting worse: “God raises up medicines when the disease rages in the patient.”
“It’s especially bad times that not only need saints, but produce saints,” said Kreeft.
He reflected on the title of his talk, “Roller Coaster Down to Hell or Patient Climb to Heaven; Your Choice,” pointing out that few people hear sermons on heaven anymore, but fewer hear sermons on hell.
Kreeft said it is crucial to talk about the reality of hell today. He said many people defend the belief in something because it is comforting, or choose not to believe in something because it is uncomfortable, “which is why people don’t want to believe in hell.”
He said Christians frequently avoid discussing hell today “because we want to be nice. We want people to like us.”
Kreeft presented several examples arguing for the existence of hell, including Jesus’ own words about hell, and that to accept the Bible’s statement that “God is love,” one must also accept the frequent references about hell: “It’s a package deal,” he said.
“What’s the Gospel (but) Good News?” he asked. “Is it good news if there’s no bad news?”
“This is why it’s better to live in Michigan rather than California,” he quipped. “They can’t appreciate summer because they have no winter!”
Kreeft said hell does not contradict God’s love; rather, “what would contradict his love is if he took away (humanity’s) free will,” and made people like perfect robots.
“But that’s not God, because that’s not love,” he said. “Love always takes risks. So it’s precisely love that makes hell possible, because love appeals to freedom, and it’s freedom that makes hell possible.”
Kreeft said that hopefully “most of us aren’t going there, and yet we haven’t by any means learned that fundamental lesson that the saints have learned. Namely, to positively accept — not just stoically resign yourself to — everything that God gives you … as part of your daily bread. Including your sufferings, and including your death.”
