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Let’s go to hell.
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No, not that place of fire and brimstone we probably think of… But Dante’s hell.
How many of us have ever read or heard about Dante’s Inferno, the first book in his famous trilogy, The Divine Comedy?
The Divine Comedy is the story of Dante’s journey to God. He begins in hell, but eventually makes his way through purgatory into heaven.
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In hell, Dante passes through nine different circles, each representing a different sin. It’s only when he gets to the very bottom that he finds that ancient beast, Satan.
Surprisingly, Satan isn’t breathing fire as many of us might have imagined.
He’s frozen, trapped waist-deep in ice. Above his waist, Satan’s furry bat-like wings flap restlessly about as he torments himself eternally.
But that’s where he chooses to be – stuck in the darkness, frozen in ice, completely separated from the outside world.
For Dante, that’s hell; being isolated.
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Alone.
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Think about how inward looking we become when we carry anger, resentment, or a grudge in our heart. We can become mono-focused on the hurt we feel, cutting people off, becoming cold inside.
That’s hell.
For some, hell is the isolation that’s set in after months of self-quarantining because of the Coronavirus.
Hell is the fear that a fragile family owned business might be destroyed after weeks and months of barely hanging on. Everything they’ve worked for erased.
Gone.
Hell is the fear of injustice, the fear of being unwanted, or helpless in the face of power.
Hell is the result of being driven apart, separated from the world.
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Alone.
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The opposite of hell is being surrounded by love.
That’s heaven.
As Dante writes, heaven is a place of welcome, a place of love, a place of light. The higher he climbs the brighter it becomes, until he finally beholds the brightly shining face of God.
Unlike Satan, God isn’t alone. He isn’t flapping furry bat-like wings.
Rather, he lives in communion. We might say, community.
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Today we celebrate Holy Trinity Sunday – our belief that God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. One God in three Divine Persons.
Meaning, God lives in relationship.
Think of the Trinity like a perfect family. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit love one another so intimately that they are inseparable; they are One.
We were made in this image and likeness of relationship. We know it in our bones.
We’re happiest when we live in communion with our families, our friends, and society at large.
We need to be reminded of this now more than ever as America seems to be tearing at the seams.
Part of the solution lies in returning wholeheartedly to God, because God is the force that holds everything and everyone together.
God is love.
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God is present when couples exchange their vows on their wedding day.
God is present when parents behold their newborn child.
God is present in the proud tears of parents as they watch their children graduate.
God is present in the smiles, the laughter, in all the moments that warm our hearts.
But God is also present in our brokenness, our tragedies, our sorrows, and cries for help, because God is the hope that makes us believe that tomorrow will be better than today.
As Dante writes at the end of The Divine Comedy, God is, “the love that moves the sun and the other stars.”
God is everything that is good.
Perhaps this is why Jesus tells us to call God our “Father.” Like any parent, God wants nothing more than for us, his children, to get along with one another – and to love Him with all our hearts.
We’re always happier when we do.
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If hell is being alone like Satan, that furry, bat-like beast, then heaven is being united.
On this Trinity Sunday, we must begin the hard work of reconciliation wherever needed within our homes, our families, and on a societal level.
This is the secret to human happiness – living in harmony, just as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit live in harmony.
The alternative only leads us down, deeper into Dante’s Inferno, a place no one wants to be. It’s not what we were made for; we were created to love and to be loved.
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As we’ve all sung many times before, “Let there be peace on earth. And let it begin with me.”
Not simply with our words. But above all with our lives.
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