If we go to hell, can we ever get to heaven?

If we go to hell, can we ever get to heaven? (Apr. '01)

Let me begin by stating that prayer for the departed, the origin of which is found in the Holy Bible, is a most noble and praiseworthy act.  It is a mercy which benefits not only the departed for whom prayer is offered, but also those who do the praying.  In Nehemiah 9: 1-3 we read that the people of Israel prayed for the forgiveness of their own sins and for those of their departed fathers.  In II Maccabees 12: 40-45 we find Judas Maccabeus and the people of God making an offering on behalf of the dead and praying that the departed "might be delivered from sin."  And in II Timothy 1: 16-18 the Holy Apostle Paul himself prays that Onesiphorus, his deceased friend and supporter, might be granted mercy by the Lord on the Day of Judgment.  St. John Chrysostom encourages us to pray for the departed, saying, "If our beloved depart 'in sin,' let us attempt to help them as much as it is possible for us, with prayers and petitions to God, with charity and offerings to the poor.  These things are done so that the departed may receive some consolation."  And St. Cyril of Jerusalem assures us that "a very great benefit" is derived by the departed for whom prayers are offered.  But of what does this "consolation" and "very great benefit" consist?  A holy Romanian elder, Father Cleopa Ilie (1912-1998), wrote, "Between Hades and Paradise there does exist a great chasm indeed, as our Lord has told us. Yet, this chasm does not have the power to impede the mercy of our great God, who hears our prayers for the reposed.  We say that only for those who sinned very severely and did not confess their sin is the passage from Hades to Paradise impossible.  For those who sinned more lightly this pathway is not definitely closed, given that in the future judgment each one's place, either in heaven or in hell, will be decided definitively ... The prayers of the Church are able to help some souls to be saved after their death — but before the resurrection of the body — for the torments sinners suffer after death are provisionally and not definitively existent, unlike those that will exist after the Last Judgment.  Thus, the opportunity is given to the faithful of the Church, in love to strengthen the reposed by their prayers.  Alone the dead cannot be helped, however, with the love of others all things are possible."