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THE dogma of hell shows us the immense depths of the
human soul, absolute distinction between evil and good,
against all the lies invented to suppress this
distinction. It shows us also, by contrast, the joys of
conversion and eternal beatitude.
The Latin word, damnum, which we translate by "loss,"
signifies damage. The pain of loss means the essential
and principal suffering due to unrepented sin. This
pain of loss is the privation of the possession of God,
whereas that of sense is the effect of the afflictive
action of God. The first corresponds to guilt as
turning away from God, whereas the second corresponds
to guilt as turning toward something created. [252]
We note, in passing, that infants who die without
baptism do not feel the absence of the beatific vision
as a loss, because they do not know that they were
supernaturally destined to the immediate possession of
God. We speak here only of that pain of loss which is
conscious, which is inflicted on adults condemned for
personal sin, for mortal sin unrepented. Let us see in
what it consists, and what is its rigor.
The Nature of Loss
It consists essentially, as we have said, in the
privation of the beatific vision and of all good that
flows therefrom. Man supernaturally destined to see God
face to face, to possess Him eternally, loses that
right when he turns from God by mortal sin unrepented.
He remains eternally separated from God, not only as
his last supernatural end, but also as his natural end,
because each mortal sin is indirectly against the
natural law, which obliges us to obey every command
which God lays on us.
The pain of loss brings with it the privation of all
good which arises from the beatific vision: that is,
the privation of charity, of the love of God, of the
immeasurable joys of heaven, of the company of our Lord
Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Virgin Mary, of the angels
and the saints, of souls that live in God, of all
virtues, and of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit
which remain in heaven.
The Council of Florence [253] teaches clearly that,
whereas the blessed enjoy the immediate vision of the
divine essence, the damned are deprived of this vision.
Scripture [254] too affirms the same truth explicitly:
"Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire,
which was prepared for the devil and his angels." [255]
"Amen, I say to you, I know you not." These words [256]
express eternal separation from God and the privation
of all the good that accompanies God's presence. We may
listen likewise to the reproaches addressed to the
scribes and Pharisees. Jesus [257] calls them a
generation of vipers, and threatens them with hell
where the obstinate sinner is separated eternally from
God.
Theological reasoning, as we have seen, explains these
assertions of Scripture by the very nature of mortal
sin followed by final impenitence. A man who dies in
this state is turned away from God. After death, such a
sin cannot be remitted. The soul of the sinner who
freely and definitively has turned away from God stays
eternally in that state. Refusal fixed by obstinacy,
refusal of sovereign good which contains eminently all
other goods, is punished by the loss of all good.
The Severity of This Pain
The pain of loss, the consequence of final impenitence,
consists in an immense void which will never be filled,
in an eternal contradiction which is the fruit of the
hatred of God, in despair, in perpetual remorse without
repentance, in hate of one's neighbor, in envy, in a
grudge against God which is expressed by blasphemy.
First, an immense void which will never be filled.
Eternal privation of God is hard for us to conceive
here on earth. Why? Because the soul here on earth has
not a sufficient consciousness of its own immeasurable
depth, a depth which only God can fill. Sense goods, on
the contrary, captivate us successively, one after the
other. Gluttony and pride hinder us from understanding,
practically and really, that God is our last end, that
He is sovereign good. Our inclination to truth,
goodness, and beauty supreme is often offset by
inferior attractions. We do not as yet have a burning
hunger for the only bread that can sate the soul.
But when the soul is separated from the body. it loses
all these inferior goods which hindered it from
understanding its own spirituality and destiny. It sees
itself now as the angel does, as a spiritual substance,
incorruptible and immortal. It sees that its
intelligence was made for truth, above all for the
supreme truth, that its will was made to love and will
the good, especially the sovereign good which is God,
source of all beatitude, foundation of all duty.
The obstinate soul now attains full consciousness of
its own immeasurable depth, realizes that God alone,
seen face to face, can fill it, sees also that this
void will never be filled. Father Monsabre vividly
expresses this awful truth: "The damned soul, arrived
at the term of its road, should repose in the
harmonious plenitude of its being, but it is turned
away from God, is fixed upon creatures. It refused the
supreme good, even in the last moment of its state of
trial. Hence supreme good says to it: 'Begone' at the
very moment when, having no other good, its nature
springs up to seize this supreme good. Hence it departs
from its light, from infinite love, from the Father,
from the divine Spouse of souls. The sinner, having
denied all this on earth, is now in the night, in the
void. He is in exile, repudiated, condemned. And
justice can but approve." [258]
Interior Contradiction
The obstinate soul is still, by its very nature,
inclined to love God more than itself, just as the hand
loves the body more than itself, and hence exposes
itself naturally to preserve that body. [259] This
natural inclination has indeed been weakened by sin,
but it continues to exist in the condemned soul. Father
Monsabre says: "The condemned soul loves God, has
hunger for God. It loves Him in order to satisfy
itself."
On the other hand, the soul has a horror of God, an
aversion which comes from unrepented sin which still
holds it captive. Continuing to judge according to its
unregulated inclination, it has not only lost charity,
but it has acquired a hatred of God. Thus it is
lacerated by an interior contradiction. It is carried
toward the source of its natural life, but it detests
the just judge, and expresses its rage by blasphemy.
Often the Gospel repeats: "There shall be weeping and
gnashing of teeth." [260]
The damned, knowing by a continual experience the
effects of divine justice, as a consequence have hatred
of God. St. Theresa defines the demon "he who does not
love." We can say the same of those obstinate
Pharisees, to whom Jesus says: "You shall die in your
sin." This hatred of God manifests the total depravity
of the will. [261] The damned are continually in the
act of sin, though these acts are no longer
demeritorious, because the end of merit and demerit has
come.
Utter despair is the terrible consequence of the
eternal loss of all good. And the damned fully
understand they have lost all these goods, and that by
their own fault. In the Book of Wisdom we read: "Then
shall the just stand with great constancy against those
that have afflicted them.... (The wicked) seeing it
shall be troubled with terrible fear and shall be
amazed . . . saying within themselves . . .: 'These are
they whom we had some time in derision and for a
parable of reproach.... Behold how they are numbered
among the children of God and their lot is among the
saints. Therefore we have erred from the way of truth,
and the light of justice hath not shined unto us.... We
wearied ourselves in the way of destruction.... What
hath pride profited us?" [262]
The extent of despair in the damned souls arises from
their full knowledge of a good which can never be
realized. If they could but hope to see the end of
their evils! But this end will never come. If a
mountain lost daily one tiny stone, a day would come
when the mountain would no longer exist, since its size
is limited. But the succession of centuries has no
limit.
Perpetual remorse comes from the voice of conscience,
which repeats that they refused to listen while there
was yet time. They cannot indeed erase from their mind
the first principles of the moral order, a distinction
between good and evil. [263] But conscience recalls sin
after sin: "I was hungry, and you gave Me not to eat; I
was thirsty, and you gave Me not to drink." [264]
But the soul is incapable of changing its remorse into
penance, its tortures into expiation. St. Thomas
explains: [265] It regrets its sin, not as guilt, but
only as the cause of its suffering. It remains captive
to its sin and judges practically according to an
inclination which is forever distorted.
Hence the condemned soul is incapable of contrition,
even attrition, because even attrition supposes hope,
and enters upon the road of obedience and humility. The
blood of Christ no longer descends into the condemned
soul to make his heart contrite and humble. As the
liturgy of the office of the dead says: "In hell there
is no redemption." Repentance rises above remorse, as
the repentant thief rises above Judas. Remorse
tortures, penance delivers. "The obstinate soul," says
Father Lacordaire, [266] "no longer turns toward God.
It scorns forgiveness even in the abyss into which it
has fallen. It throws itself against God, with all that
it sees, all that it knows, all that it feels. Can God
come to it in spite of its will? Can hate and blasphemy
embrace divine love? Would this be justice? Shall
heaven open for Nero as it did for St. Louis?
Impenitence before death, crowned by impenitence after
death -- this should be the passport to eternal bliss!
[267]
Hatred of God involves hatred of neighbor. As the
blessed love one another, the damned hate one another.
In hell there is no love, only envy and isolation.
Condemned souls wish their own condemnation to be
universal. [268]
Eternally rebellious against everything, they long for
annihilation, not in itself, but as cessation of
suffering. In this sense Jesus says of Judas: "It were
better for him if that man had not been born." [269]
Buried in boundless misery, the condemned soul has no
desire of relief. Inexpressible anger finds vent in
blasphemy. "He shall gnash with his teeth and pine
away, the desire of the wicked shall perish." [270]
Tradition applies to him these words of the psalm: "The
pride of them that hate Thee ascendeth continually."
[271] Such a soul has refused supreme good and has
found extreme sorrow. It has found despair without
hope. Each and every condemned soul repeats, each on
his own level: "It is a fearful thing to fall into the
hands of the living God." [272] "The lost soul does not
live. It is not dead. It dies without cessation, [273]
because it is forever far away from God, the author of
life.
The condemned, says St. Thomas, [274] suffer
unchangeably the highest possible evil. They cannot in
hell even demerit, much less merit. They are no longer
voyagers. They sin indeed, but they do not demerit,
just as the blessed perform acts of virtue, but no
longer merit. Their state, if we consider only the pain
of loss, is an abyss of misery, just as inexpressible
as the glory of which it is the privation, as great as
the possession of God which they have lost forever.
This condition, by its abysmal contrast, illumines the
measureless value of the beatific vision and of all
benefits that follow therefrom. But on earth we do not
understand perfectly what the damned have lost. This
perfect understanding is reserved to those who have
unmediated vision of the divine essence, and the
measureless joy which follows that vision. Yet faith
too furnishes a parallel. Those who have a firm faith,
and are continually faithful to it -- they, and they
alone, realize what measureless good is lost when faith
is lost.
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