In past years of participating in the annual March for Life, I have been reminded more than ever of the battle between good and evil. As one marches, one often sees a handful of pro-abortion advocates shouting vulgarities and satanic chants. God forbid that they (or I) should end up in hell, but the possibility is real for those who turn their backs on God’s grace.

Jesus’ teachings were hard. He challenged people to renounce everything to follow him. He told people that to lust in one’s heart is a sin. He told people to eat his flesh and drink his blood (see John 6). His teachings on the Beatitudes in Matthew 5 showed what the heights of perfection look like. Of all Jesus’ teachings, hell is one of the most difficult. He told people that anger and an attachment to riches could send us to hell.

Jesus did not come to be liked. He did not come to bring prosperity. He did not come to cure everyone and to end poverty. He did not come to bring unity, but its opposite: “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division; for henceforth in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three” (Matthew 12:51).

So why did Jesus come? He came for only one reason: to save our souls.

Despite the doom and gloom of Jesus’ teachings on hell, there is a silver lining. And it came by way of Jesus’ words: “Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, ‘Who then can be saved?’ But Jesus looked at them and said to them, ‘With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible’” (Matt 19:24–26). More than anything, Jesus, the Good Shepherd, wants us to love him not simply to avoid hell, but to be with him now and forever.

One of the reasons Jesus revealed his Divine Mercy in the 20th century to St. Faustina was that we would trust and love him rather than fear him: “Do not fear, My little child, you are not alone. Fight bravely, because My arm is supporting you; fight for the salvation of souls, exhorting them to trust in My mercy, as that is your task in this life and in the life to come” (Diary, 320). After Jesus spoke these words, St. Faustina came to a “deeper understanding of Divine Mercy. Only that soul who wants it will be damned, for God condemns no one.”

The notion of hell should foster in us not worry, but deeper trust and conversion, as Pope St. John Paul II reminded us:

Damnation remains a real possibility, but it is not granted to us, without special divine revelation, to know which human beings are effectively involved in it. The thought of hell — and even less the improper use of biblical images — must not create anxiety or despair, but is a necessary and healthy reminder of freedom within the proclamation that the risen Jesus has conquered Satan, giving us the Spirit of God who makes us cry ‘Abba, Father!’ (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6).

St. Alphonsus also said that “God threatens hell, not to send us there, but to deliver us from that place of torments.” God will not deliver those in hell, but he longs to deliver us before we get to hell. Jesus, his Church, his saints and his Mother remind us that hell will always remain an option for us, especially if we persist in sin with no desire for repentance.

Choosing hell is a permanent decision, the most fatal decision we can make. If we deal with our guilt, our sin, our unrepentance and our lack of faith now by turning to God, we can avoid hell with God’s grace. And this includes those who have had abortions: God’s mercy is waiting for you.

Despite the Church’s rich and blunt teachings on hell, many will continue to ignore her, just like they ignore or twist Jesus’ message. Many erroneously believe that hell will be emptied someday or even that hell does not exist. It is for these reasons that Dan Burke and I have published a book called The Truth about Hell: Through the Wisdom of Jesus, Mary, and the Magisterium.

The Catholic Church must preach the truth of the Gospels “in season and out of season” (2 Timothy 4:2). In every generation, She has an obligation, a commission from Christ himself and empowered by the Holy Spirit, to remind souls of their eternal destiny. Death, indeed, seals our choice forever. In the end, we will be in either heaven or hell for all eternity. And if heaven is the city on a hill with perpetual light, as so beautifully described in the Book of Revelation, then hell is a dungeon in the bowels of the earth with perpetual darkness.

The tortures, the stench, the fires, the sounds, the demons in hell, and above all being deprived forever of seeing the face of God, ought to lead us to pray for an end to abortion and the conversion of sinners. It also ought to lead us to greater repentance in our own lives.

Hell is real. Hell is forever. Jesus does not lie. And in the beautiful words of St. Alphonsus Liguori: “When the Devil temps you, remember hell. The thought of hell will preserve you from that land of misery. I say, remember hell, and have recourse to Jesus Christ and to most holy Mary, and they will deliver you from sin, which is the gate of hell.”