Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.

• Matthew 5:22

But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after your body has been killed, has authority to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.

• Luke 12:5

Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.  Anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.

• Revelation 20:14-15

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

• Philippians 4:8

“ ‘The fifth exercise is a meditation on Hell … The first point will be to see with the eyes of the imagination these great fires, and the souls [of the lost] as it were in bodies of fire. The second will be to hear with the ears of the imagination the wailings, the howlings, the cries, the blasphemies against Christ our Lord and against all the saints. The third will be to smell the smoke, the sulphur, the filth and the putrid matter. The fourth will be to taste with the taste of the imagination bitter things, such as tears, sadness and the worm of conscience. The fifth will be to feel with the touch of the imagination how the fires touch and burn the soul.’ (Spiritual Exercises, Week 1).”

• Tony Lane, A Concise History of Christian Thought

Ignatius Loyola or Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556) was born Íñigo López de Oñaz y Loyola.  Along with six others, he founded the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits).  He was made their first Superior General.  He was a Catholic priest and theologian.

The quote struck me from a visceral sense.  It uses the imagination, but with a vivid imagination and with memories of the various senses experiencing what he suggests, those suggestions could, with the help of the imagination, be increased to an overpowering level.

This reminds me of the post that came out on Good Friday morning, the Babs and Harold Conversation.  In my fictional setting, Babs is a doll that has come to life, but she is really Harold’s guardian angel.  When Good Friday is celebrated, she is brought back in her mind to a previous angelic assignment where she is to wait for the Father or for Jesus to call upon “her” (angels have no gender, but Babs is definitely female) but the angels, including Babs, cannot go to the aid of Jesus until called.  Since the call never comes, they must watch their Commander in Chief die on the cross.  All is explained later, but in that moment, it must have torn each of their hearts.  But when I wrote that, fictional as it was and maybe not perfectly theologically accurate, I wept for a day or so.  And even remembering the post since then, my eyes immediately get wet.

But also, every time I take communion, I picture Jesus on the cross, His blood shed for me.  My father did not like me doing that because Jesus is risen from the dead, but I felt a connection with that pain that He suffered for my sake.  I could never take that lightly.

And here, Ignatius of Loyola is instructing people to use their imaginations to picture Hell in all its horror.  With an adequate imagination, they would wish to do anything to avoid such horror.

But that is the negative.  I have been using the title of an old song lately.  We need to think of “Lollipops and Roses.”  The lyrics to the song written by Tony Velona speak of showering her with Lollipops and Roses.  As the lyrics go, whether 14 or 40, they’re kids in their hearts.  And we can remove the gender label.

Let us think of Heaven.  We do not need to think about streets of gold on one side or the lack of sin, death, troubles, pain.  We can just think of wonderful neighbors and no need to ever lock the door.  We can think of walking along the river and picking fruit from the trees that are there, the most delicious, always ripe and ready for us to eat.  And yes, we can think of lollipops and roses.

As for my wife, nothing was more special than a lollipop.  Even in her seventies, she loved them.  I would get her the big ones, maybe even a foot in diameter.  For a week, every time I went to her room to check on her, she would be making progress on the huge lollipop, with a big grin on her face.

I never much liked lollipops, but I loved my sweets.  But as for flowers, due to my wife being Dutch, I loved narcissus, hyacinths, crocus, tulips, and lilies.

So, what is your dream food?  What is your dream scent?  What is your dream visual image (the mountains, a rainbow, a waterfall, the beach)?  What sound soothes you (a babbling brook, a distant thunderstorm with rain falling, the waves gently rolling in and receding, songbirds singing)?  And what is the best touch sensation that you have ever had (feeling the first kick of an unborn baby, a puppy licking your face, slipping underneath a cool bedsheet after a hot day, a nice warm shower)?

A sensory overload of bad things might get us to not want Hell, but let us think of good things and even though we will fall short of what Heaven really is like, we might just want Heaven all that much more.

Here is Jack Jones singing Lollipops and Roses.

Here is Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, Lollipops and Roses.  This was my first Tijuana Brass album.  With the album cover, I was surprised my mother allowed me to get it, but I eventually got all their albums.

And if anything on Earth is retained in Heaven, my wife’s mansion will have a lot of flowers, but more importantly, lollipops in every room.

If you like these Tuesday morning essays about philosophy and other “heavy topics,” but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Tuesday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.