| than many Catholics do. I can't think of anything I'd change, excepting a minor clarification: before Jesus' coming, the dead did not go to Heaven, but they were not all in torment; those that chose to walk with God, in the biblical phrase, were in peace awaiting redemption by the Messiah. One of the things Jesus did while he was in the tomb is free these people. Catholic tradition (with a small t) holds that Adam and Eve were among them.
I think it would also be hard to argue that we are in Hell now; yes, the Fall separated us from God, but the whole point of Jesus' passion was to heal that breach, so we are not apart from God now unless we knowingly, willingly, and consciously choose to be, and even then he will not give up on us. |
