In these ever-changing times, many look backward for comfort and direction. They say that the world’s ills, and especially the churches, would be better served if our preaching advised that the truth is real sin exists and that there are real and eternal consequences for sin. The gate to heaven is narrow, and the road to hell is wide. So why aren’t we preaching more about the dangers of hellfire? Fr. Rolheiser writes that threats work. Fear of divine punishment and fear of hellfire, admittedly, can be effective as a motivator. But he goes on to say that this is wrong. “It’s hard to be intimate friends with a God who frightens you. And you don’t enter a love relationship because you feel afraid or threatened. You enter a love relationship because you feel drawn there by love. The God Jesus incarnates and reveals is not a God who puts sincere, good-hearted people into hell against their will based on some human or moral lapse which, in our moral or religious categories, we deem a mortal sin. For example, I still hear this threat being preached sometimes in our churches: If you miss going to church on Sunday, it’s a mortal sin, and should you do that and die without confessing it, you will go to hell. What kind of God would underwrite this kind of belief? What kind of God would not give sincere people a second chance, a third one, and seventy-seven times seven more opportunities if they remain sincere? What kind of God would say to a person in hell: ‘Sorry, but you knew the rules! You’re repentant now, but it’s too late. You had your chance!’ The God we believe in as Christians is infinite understanding, compassion, and forgiveness. God’s love surpasses our own, and if we, in our better moments, can see the goodness of a human heart despite its lapses and weaknesses, how much more so will God do this?” Thomas More’s last words before King Henry VIII executed him are instructive: “I die the King’s good servant, but God’s first.” Thomas More did fear someone. He had that holy fear that the Bible speaks of often, the fear of the Lord. He feared losing the intimacy and friendship with God. Compared to that, everything else was straw.