Submitted by Fr. Sunny Mathew
Question
If faith is a gift from God why are those who aren’t given the gift subjected to hell?
Answer
Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) n. 153 says, “Faith is a gift of God, a supernatural virtue infused by him”.
What is faith? Faith is man’s response to God’s revelation. God’s revelation can be in two ways: Natural and Supernatural.
Supernatural revelation finds its perfect manifestation in the person of Jesus Christ.
Natural revelation can be through either (1) the physical world or (2) the human person (CCC 31).
1. The physical world witnesses to God, its creator. St. Paul says, “For what can be known about God is plain to them (gentiles) because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made”.
2. The human person is also a source of revelation because he is created in the image and likeness of God. “With his openness to truth and beauty, his sense of moral goodness, his freedom and the voice of his conscience, with his longings for the infinite and for happiness, man questions himself about God’s existence. In all this he discerns signs of his spiritual soul” (CCC n. 33).
This invitation to know and respond to God, by means of either supernatural or natural revelation, is given to all human beings. Because this invitation is given as a free gift, it is called ‘grace’ and because it is given without any effort on the part of the human beings, it is called ‘prevenient grace’.
At the same time, grace is not a one-way movement. Even as grace brings God down to us (Revelation), it takes us up to God also (Faith). By the very fact of being created as a human being, there is an inner desire in every human being to know God and respond to God’s call to know him. CCC n. 27 says: “The desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God; and God never ceases to draw man to himself”. CCC quotes from Vatican II: “The dignity of man rests above all on the fact that he is called to communion with God. This invitation to converse with God is addressed to man as soon as he comes into being” (GS n. 19).
CCC n. 2003 says, “Grace is first and foremost the gift of the spirit who justifies and sanctifies us. But grace also includes the gifts that the spirit grants to us to associate us with his work,…”
Thus, grace is a two-way movement. It brings God down to us (Revelation), and takes us up to God (Faith).
The deliberate choice to not respond to God’s revelation or invitation for communion with Him is called sin. This is a personal choice and a definite exclusion of oneself from God. Therefore, it is wrong to say that anyone is ‘subjected’ to hell. Rather, hell is the result of the personal deliberate decision of a human being to not commune with God. “The affirmations of Sacred Scripture and the teachings of the Church on the subject of hell are a call to the responsibility incumbent upon man to make use of his freedom in view of his eternal destiny” (CCC 1036). “God predestines no one to go to hell, for this, a willful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary” (CCC n1037),
