An Essential Teaching From Grandad

My grandfather the late died a legend- my personal prodigy who continues to receive the red carpet treatment well after his death. He had been my shoulder to lean on and he taught me everything I need to know about life; the good, the bad and the ugly. I will forever hold dear his detailed description about , the ‘place of outer darkness’ , the ‘place of torments’, the ‘place of sorrows’, the ‘place of everlasting destruction’, the ‘place where fire is not quenched’, the ‘bottomless pit’ and ultimately ‘the lake of fire’.

I grasped his teaching so strongly about hell that I vowed never to sin again, to remain in the pink of health and to use my grey matter wisely until I attained gold medals, blue ribbons and left a mark on green horn areas.  It had been on a Sunday afternoon. I would have normally been singing the blues but not when my grandfather was around. Grandpa had his bible, we were seated underneath a tree enjoying the breezy shade. Having been a greengrocer in his active days, my grandfather took a natural liking to nature. With his walking stick by the side and spectacles nearby, he opened the book of Matthew: 22-13. I was all ears, ready to take in every word he said.

It read, "Then said the king to the servants, bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth". He couldn’t carry on, as I looked at him inquisitively.  ‘Is there really a place of eternal suffering and damnation, of permanent blackouts?’, I asked. ‘Of course, my little cherub’ he said, hell awaits all souls which depart in a state of mortal sin. It is a habitat of those who persist in wrong doing willingly and knowingly. He then reached out for my hand and continued this time in the form of a metaphor. The best thing about my granddad is that he had been blessed with a silver tongue. Had he been able to write, I know he would have left a collection of purple prose for the benefit of generations to come.

Imagine he began, ‘It's close to midnight and something evil's lurking in the dark. Under the moonlight you see a sight that almost stops your heart. You try to scream but terror takes the sound before you make it. You start to freeze as horror looks you right between the eyes, you're paralyzed. You hear the door slam and realize there's nowhere left to run. You feel the cold hand and wonder if you'll ever see the sun. You close your eyes and hope that this is just imagination but all the while you hear the creature creepin' up behind. You're out of time and no one's gonna save you from the beast about strike. Night creatures call and the dead start to walk in their masquerade. There's no escapin' the jaws of the alien.

This time they're open wide. This is the end of your life they're out to get you. There's demons closing in on every side, they will possess you. Then he stopped briefly, scratched off the remaining bits of his grey hair white as snow and then concluded, ‘Whosoever shall be found without the soul for getting down must stand and face the hounds of hell and rot inside a corpse's shell. The foulest stench is in the air. The funk of forty thousand years and grizzy ghouls from every tomb are closing in to seal your doom and though you fight to stay alive your body starts to shiver for no mere mortal can resist’.

I had never seen my grandfather describe a place so vividly, with such depth of emotion. It is almost as if he had entered hell himself, only to return to warn the rest of mankind that such a place of torment indeed exists. My grandpa had given me the most real vision of hell. I was left mortified, fearful of my soul. I probably looked like a blue baby struggling for breath. ‘What will keep me from such an evil place?, I asked. ‘Well he said’, you must practice the spiritual works of mercy (convert the sinner, pardon offences, pray for the dead and living, comfort the mourning, encourage the doubtful, teach the ignorant and bear wrongs patiently.

You must implement the seven heavenly virtues in your daily dealings; faith, hope, charity, fortitude, justice, temperance, prudence. You must obey the ten Commandments, mainly keeping the green eyed monster at bay. You must tithe, give off ten percent of all your earnings to the church. ‘That way you will never be in the black’, he said. Above all you must love the Lord your God with all you heart with all your mind and with all your soul. This is the greatest instruction, towards eternal salvation. My spirits felt renewed. Not only had he told me of hell but he had given me an ultimatum- heaven. But in as much as I strived to grow morally upright, I was not going to end up a blue nose.

I thanked my grandfather for having exposed me to such a crucial teaching. I was set on having his words in black and white, so that they could never leave my mind. Then out of the blue the weather changed as if to give weight to the words he had just spoken. The clouds became grey and it looked like it was going to rain. After helping him put the chickens back into the fowl run, we headed back into the house. ‘You look cold grandpa. Let me grab your coat, and then I can make you some creamy mushroom soup and some brown bread afterwards’, I said as it had been too cold for orangeade or the pink lady his favorite drink. He looked at me proudly. ‘Looks like you have just made your first conscious step to heaven’.