God . . . whose will it is that all men should find salvation and come to know the truth.
1 Timothy 2.4

Our last meditation brought us to the brink of a view about eternity called universalism, a belief that all humankind will eventually be saved. It is a topic that arouses strong emotions for and against; the judge in us all demands that a person pay the price of his or her actions, while the more compassionate side, remembering the obvious inequalities in one individual's life as compared with another, looks for a deeper working out of justice that sees the sinner's actions against the background of an inscrutable presiding fortune. Jesus warns us categorically not to judge and condemn other people lest we ourselves are similarly treated (Matt. 7.1-2), while St Paul reminds us that we have all alike sinned, and are deprived of the divine splendour, and all are justified by God's free grace alone, through his act of liberation in the person of Christ Jesus (Rom. 3.23-4).

One should add, however, that forbidden as we are to condemn other people, we are told to judge actions by their effects, their fruits (Matt. 7.15-20). We may be sure that God wants all his creatures to attain salvation, to be perfectly healed of their encumbrances, and to know the truth of his love. This love is the essence of his creation of the universe: God loves everything he has made, not only human but also animal, plant and mineral. Dante movingly speaks, in the Paradise section of The Divine Comedy, of the love that moves the sun and the other stars. Love will never fail (1 Cor. 13.8), even if the beloved casts that love into the mud. It is God's nature always to have mercy, and this mercy is more than just a gracious clemency for a wrong that has been done. It is such an ardent devotion that the sinful member will always be held in the deepest concern even when its perversity appears to be beyond healing.

Furthermore, as St Paul reminds us, God's love has been shown even more categorically in the healing work of his Son Jesus Christ. To believe in him as an act of faith is to be in his company, in the very presence of one who gave of himself profligately while he was on earth with us, so that we too might know something of the kingdom of heaven, as did the multitudes who experienced his healing touch while he was working with them. To accept the Lord Jesus is to find salvation, but this acceptance is something more than a verbal formula of assent. It is an opening of the whole personality in burning trust to the providence of God as witnessed in Jesus, so that his Spirit, the Holy Spirit, may pervade us, bringing new life to body and mind alike. It requires utter humility, honesty of perception, and an amended attitude to life that will reveal itself in service to all that lives.

The weakness of an unqualified universalism is that it bypasses the free will of the individual. It is therefore imperative that a person should remain in a hell of his or her own making until there is a genuine repentance that finds its expression in a humble confession and a heartfelt request for absolution. How long the recalcitrant person may reject God's overtures is beyond our reckoning, but I believe that eventually the hard shell cracks to reveal a palpitating soul longing for reconciliation and peace. The famous words from St Augustine's Confessions, "Thou hast made us for thyself, and the heart of man is restless until it finds its rest in thee", seem to be the heart of the hope of universal salvation. Even the basest person has some awareness of God in the soul, clouded as it may be by destructive impulses that speak only of death. It is not unreasonable to hope that in the end the light will not be mastered by the darkness, but will instead illuminate it in its radiance (John 1. 5).

Meanwhile God waits patiently to receive the penitent sinner back into the fold.

I thank you, Lord, for the privilege of my own special identity and the joy your presence in my soul gives me. May I so serve your will that I am able to bring many lost sheep into your fold so that, with one accord, they may bless your holy name and start to bring heaven nearer to the earth.