Archbishop Makarios of Australia officiated the Divine Liturgy at St. Nicholas Church in Marrickville, Sydney, on Sunday, November 1, on the feast of Saints Anargyroi Kosmas and Damianos.
In his sermon, as reported by vema.com.au, taking occasion from the evangelical pericope of the day, the Archbishop spoke to the congregation on a theological issue, on which he said that there was confusion among the faithful, sometimes even among the clergy. The Archbishop offered a definition of hell and paradise. “Everyday people will tell us that hell is cauldrons of tar and fire, where people’s souls are boiled and tortured,” he remarked, “while in paradise they will tell us that it is a plain of comfort, beauty, fragrance, it is a place where the souls of people celebrate and rejoice.” “But in most of the interpretations we give of what hell is and what paradise is,” he said, “we take Christ out of any approach and that really disorients us.”
As he then explained, in simple and understandable terms, the first step to understanding what hell is and what paradise is is to take into account the teaching of our Church Fathers, who define man as a dual creature, that is, composed of body and soul. “These two elements are inextricably linked,” he stressed and to make clear how this system of unity works in the human condition, he shared with the faithful two examples from the teaching of St. John of Damascus: When man is afraid, which is a function of the soul, then he begins to sweat, although sweat is a reaction of the body. When someone cuts his arm and starts bleeding, then he is scared. Bleeding is a bodily function, but fear and inner panic are a reaction of the soul.
The aforementioned example clearly proves the unity of body and soul in the present life, but a unity that, as the Archbishop pointed out, is broken by death. “That is why we are not happy about death,” he added.
In addition, the Archbishop offered the definition of hell, emphasizing: “Hell is what you miss in the next life,” he added, “because that is what you learned in this life, you did your best, you gave your heart, you dedicated yourself.” On the contrary, as he pointed out, “if in this life our heart turns to Christ, if in this life our priority and first concern is the love of Christ, then in the next life what we loved here, we worked and served here, will be what we will meet.”
