It is God we should run to and not hell we should run from.

Running From Hell: Thoughts on Love and Sin

by Pete Jermann

Running from hell is a lousy way to approach God. 

This seemed to be the consensus of many post-Vatican II Catholics who saw the pre-Vatican II era as a generation beholden to the fear of sin and subject to rules drawing sharp lines over which a good Catholic did not cross.

As a high school student and young adult I rode the euphoric wave following Vatican II, a wave that lifted us out of the murky depths of sin and guilt and set us firmly on a solid land of love and good feelings. 

No longer would we run from hell. Instead we would run toward love. But to look at today’s poverty of spirit wrought in our broken families, our failing churches, and the almost unanimous rejection of Catholic teachings on human sexuality, we must ask, 

“Where did our love go wrong?” Rather than embracing God, our flight toward love has led us even farther away from the very God we claimed to seek.

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