The Two Sets of Gates

The Lord Jesus announced that he would build his Church upon a rock, and that the gates of hell would not prevail against the Church.  But what are these ‘gates of hell’, and what might it mean if they did prevail?  And are these the only gates?  Here is what Paschasius Radbertus (d. 865), a monk in what is now northern France, answers:

“We know that the ‘gates of hell’ are the vices and sins, for each sin through which a person descends to hell is a gate of hell, and so every soul which contracts a sin against herself is neither a rock upon which Christ built his Church, nor is the Church, nor is part of the Church which Christ built upon a rock, for the gates of hell did prevail against her.  Therefore, while the soul lives, care must be taken lest the gates of hell prevail against us, for if the gates of hell prevail, we are neither the Church nor part of the Church.  As the Apostle said: ‘Those who do such things will not attain the kingdom of God’ (Galatians 5, 21).  The Lord also said: ‘Strive to enter through the narrow gate’ (Luke 13, 24).  Now, just as the gates of hell are sins and vices, so there are the gates of justice – the virtues – through which the just enter into their rest.  Thus, David sang to the Lord: ‘You have lifted me from the gates of death, that I may declare all your praises in the gates of the daughter of Zion’ (Psalm 9, 15).  Through these gates, without doubt, the soul arrives happily at that one gate concerning which she asks: ‘Open to me the gates of justice and, entering through them, I will praise the Lord’ (Psalm 117, 19).  A little further on, she speaks of that one Gate which is Christ: ‘This is the Gate of the Lord; the just shall enter through it’ (Psalm 117, 20).  Although there are many – indeed, innumerable – ‘gates of hell’, none of them shall prevail against the one who is the rock, nor against the Church which is built upon the rock.”