Hell’s Sweet Deception: St. Hildegard’s Shocking Revelation

How does hell deceive us? St. Hildegard describes a terrifying abyss—a place that seduces souls with false sweetness, only to lead them to eternal separation from God. This deception is alive in today’s world, where grave sins are celebrated and disguised as good.

Transcript

Welcome back we are on Monday of the first full week of Lent and we are continuing to examine the mystical visions of the Saints regarding hell uh today we are looking at what God revealed to a remarkable woman mystical Visionary St Hildegard of bingan lived between 1098 and 1179 she was a highly accomplished woman a musician composer healer Visionary and doctor of the church God revealed to her some remarkable things about hell and sometimes when we look at the date that we have here 1080 1098 to 1179 we think oh that's way back then and the critics will say well that's when people were more simple of mind and they over spiritualized everything and so they kind of downplay these mystical Visions one thing to note is that she's declared doctor of the church not centuries ago but in 2012 by Benedict the 16th so he saw something in her writings and in her life that is worthy to be examined God speaks to St hild theard about hell the pit of immense breadth and depth that appeared to you is hell it lies broad with Vice and deep with damnation as you can see it does indeed have an opening like the mouth of a well with flames and smoke and a noxious stench pouring out from from it in its rapacious hunger for Souls it displays to them sweetness and gentleness yet with Wicked deceit it leads them to the miseries of damnation so hell is displayed to The Souls of the damn with sweetness and gentleness here's a question for you what in the world is presented to us with sweetness and gentleness that leads to deceit and domination and I think we're honest every sin that we commit falls into this category but there's a couple things that kind of come to my mind in the way that the world treats sin and twists it to make it look sweet and gentle one thing because we have eight children comes to mind and that is the sweetness and gentleness of drag queen Story Time what could be more sweet and gentle and innocent as a man playing dress up and reading innocent children's books to Little Children wow it's a complete violation of Chastity and it's an offense against the innocence of children yet it's a it's presented to us as sweet and gentle what could be wrong with this well a man is dressing contrary to his nature he's dressing as a woman slapping on M makeup and sex sexualizing himself and thus sexualizing the children before him a violation of their innocence but sweet and gentle and sweet and gentle hell is presented to us and it leads to damnation I think of what else in our society is presented to us as sweet and gentle I think about what happens in June with phrases Love Is Love and we have all these wonderful parades colorful parades uh with rainbow colors and flags and posters what could be wrong with that well if we dig a little bit deeper and you know what we have in June is sexual perversions celebrated as natural normal and healthy yet it's presented to us as sweet and gentle what could be wrong with this we shouldn't judge and we have this creeping also within the church for example in some areas within Canada within the Catholic School System we have the Catholic schools in some manner or form participating in the month of June with rainbow Flags or in our local area with the school division rainbow posters what's what's happening here again it's the sexualization of children normalizing sexual perversions presenting them as natural normal and healthy which leads away from God It's a cruel thing to present something as healthy which leads away from our ultimate good which is God a very cruel thing how what else is presented to us as sweet and gentle within the world well within Canada we have something called maid doesn't that sound nice maid a maid shows up in your home to serve you and clean your house and well isn't that nice well in maid it's just a sanitized way of talking about euthanasia it's the killing of a person at the end of life we call it compassionate dying there's nothing compassionate about it it's stealing a person's life people really are deceived and it's presented as compassion sweet gentle what could be wrong with it this is the work of evil the work of evil we have another term it's called kind of presented as sweet and gentle and we call it the termination of a pregnancy I think that's a legal term or that's what we typically call it and I'm not even really allowed to mention what it actually the the term is so we'll flash it on on the screen behind me but you know what it is and it's called it starts with an A and it's the killing of innocent life it's a great evil a great evil but we say it's the termination of a pregnancy is like sweet and gentle clean what could be wrong with a medical procedure like that you you're just removing a kidney no problem a great evil a great Evil Within the church we have other things that are presented as sweet and gentle this term irregular Union what's an irregular Union well it's a couple who are living in a situation that is in a violation of Chastity now what could be wrong with using this term irregular union now the Church of course uses it but here's one caution I think that we have to be aware of when some someone or a couple is in an irregular Union they have nothing to repent of because it's not presented to to the church and to the community and to the indiv indviduals as a violation of Chastity and so we use this soft language irregular Union as though like well is this irregular and there's nothing to re you know repent of again there's violations of Chastity here does that mean that we can't be gentle in our language and welcoming of course not but I think what we are doing within the church is just taking this too far cuz rarely do we talk about domination the horrors of hell and the seriousness of sin I'll go with one more how about pastoral accompanyment now am I opposed to journeying with people no but pastoral accompaniment in some circles within the church has come to mean let's affirm a person's decision in every way so not to offend them so they remain in the church well this is crazy sin destroys us to always present the gospel El as sweet and gentle is not being faithful to what Jesus Christ has taught because he taught about hell yes he presents his love we have his Mercy but we have God's justice if we if the church is presenting the gospel simply as something that's sweet and gentle we have to ask the question what kind of work are we doing we have to remember the other side of the coin I think that's the point

all right I'm done that's can I share something that came to my mind okay yeah well just when we read the quote about St from St Hildegard it reminded me a little bit of the White Witch in CS Lewis's the line the witch in The Wardrobe and how when she first comes onto the scene she's seen as this like beautiful you know kind of Santa Claus is figure on the sleigh and beautiful Elegance yeah Elegance and and she comes and she approaches them with this beautiful sweet treat of Turkish delight which never satisfies in the end but Edmund does not realize that and falls for her Ploy but so I just feel like that's what Satan does to us he's totally comes in Disguise and he tries to entice us with things that are sweet and delightful what is your Turkish delight what is mine that's worth praying about there Burns a flame with black smoke rising up and a foul odor these Dreadful tortures were prepared for the devil and those who follow him in turning away from God the Supreme good not Desiring to know him or understand him for this reason they have been cast out from all good not because they were ignorant of the good but because in their great arrogance they despised it notice that the souls are damed not because of ignorance but because of arrogance they they did not have the desire to seek God they did not have the desire to understand this this reminds me of how the Angels appear to the the Shepherds to announce to them good news and they say something like peace to Men of Good Will that's is such an important line Good Will what is it a simple honest desire to seek the good to seek to understand to seek God and who gets peace people of good will uh but here we have St Hillard saying it's the Arrogant those who refuse to seek those who refuse to desire the good it's not by accident that the souls are in hell it is by a choice not by ignorance but by arrogance which conforms to what the second Vatican Council teaches those who through no fa of their own do not know the gospel of Christ or his church but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart and moved by Grace try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience those too May achieve Eternal salvation notice here how the church opens up the possibility of those who by no fault of their own have not heard of The Gospel who are Guided by the light of their conscience may be saved so here we have the possibility uh a number of years ago I heard man Dr Ralph Martin referred to this passage and he he did a great reflection he says the possibility of Salvation is there but he he cautions about this within the Church of we've moved from the possibility of someone being saved to the probability of somebody being saved to the certainty that all are saved and that's the error that's the error to swing the pendulum all the way to the other side and presume that all are saved all are going to heaven where the church doesn't teach that the church opens up the possibility of those who are no fault of their own have not heard of the gospel and light GL Guided by the light of their conscience by Grace they may be saved may be saved and so I think that's that's important to know I'm also reminded of Matthew 7 I think it's 7 ask and you shall receive seek and you shall find knock and the door will be opened what a promise again to people of goodwi you want the truth ask seek knock and this is why you're watching you're a Seeker you're a knocker uh but in one way I think we could also consider is reserved for those who do not knock who do not seek who do not ask because it's reserved for those who do not have Goodwill St hildegard's vision of the devil lying on its back before that crowd of people dressed in white as if across a road was a monster that looked like a worm amazingly huge and long it provoked a feeling of horror horror and fury beyond words now that worm was black covered with bristles and full of open sores and abscesses its body displayed five parts from the head down through the abdomen to its feet like Stripes one was green one was white one was red one was yellow and one was black they were full of deadly poison even so the monster's head had been so powerfully crushed that the the left side of its Jawbone was dislocated its eyes were bloody on the outside and fiery on the inside its ears were round and covered with bristles it had the nose and mouth of a viper the hands of a man and the feet of a viper its tail was stubby and horrifying so before we turned on the cameras we talked about this very Vivid description of the devil and the vision and something stood out to you regarding this what really stood out to me was um how she mentions that his head is crushed and it and it said that it was what was it the word powerfully crushed powerfully crushed so what can powerfully crush the head of a monster you tell me Oh Our Lady she's got the power yes and you might be wondering where if we go right back to Genesis when Adam and Eve fall out of relationship with God God right away starts a search and rescue Mission and he turns to The Serpent and says I will put enmities between thee and the woman thy seed and her seed and she shall Crush thy head so this is the the first announcement of good news as mankind falls out of relationship with God making reference to the seed of to the seed of the woman the woman being Mary and she shall Crush thy head Mary shall crush the head of the serpent and so we see a crushing happening here and doesn't our world need a little bit more crushing this is why I think consecration to our lady is so relevant to our time these times are very confusing times we live in diabolical times but we also live in times of great grace for where sin abounds Grace abounds more and we have to remember that and all the more reason to run to the one who is called Full of Grace for she is the one that does the crushing of the serpent in our life so let us offer oursel to her so that she present Our Lives to Jesus as though our requests are her own anyways I think a beautiful beautiful uh element of Truth here so share with us below what stood out to you and why and we're going to close by asking our lady's

intercession oh holy Mary my m mistress into thy blessed trust and special keeping into the bosom of thy tender Mercy this day every day of my life and at the hour of my death I commend my soul and body to thee I entrust all my hopes and consolations all my trials and miseries my life and the end of my life that through thy Most Holy intercession and thy merits all my actions may be ordered and disposed according to to thy will and that of thy Divine son amen [Music]