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THREE reasons lead us to speak at length concerning
hell. First, there is today an unwillingness to preach
on this subject, and therefore people often forget
revealed truth that is very salutary. They do not give
attention to the truth that the fear of hell is the
beginning of wisdom and the beginning of conversion.
They forget that, in this sense, hell has saved many
souls.
Secondly, there are in the world many superficial
objections to this teaching, objections that seem to
some believers more true than the traditional answers.
Why? Because they have never entered deeply into these
answers. It is easy to fasten on some superficial
objection, and it is difficult to see clearly a reply
involving the depths of soul-life or the immeasurable
height of God's justice. To understand these answers we
need more maturity and penetration.
An illustration. A priest one day asked one of his
friends, a lawyer, to aid in a dialogue conference, by
offering objections against the teaching of the Church
on hell. The lawyer presented the common objections in
a brilliant fashion under a popular point of view which
captured the imagination. Since the priest was not
sufficiently prepared, the objections seemed to be
stronger than the answers, and the answers themselves
seemed to be merely verbal. They did not capture the
imagination, nor did they lead sufficiently to the
notions of mortal sin without repentance, of obstinacy,
of the state of termination, so different from the
state of the way. Neither did they lead sufficiently to
the notion of God's infinite justice. Hence we must
insist on all these points, since the dogma about hell
helps us to appreciate by contrast the value of
salvation. Similarly we do not know the value of
justice unless we examine what is meant by a great
injustice, actual or threatened. Our Lord illumined St.
Theresa on the beauty of heaven, but only after He had
shown her the place which she would have had in hell
had she continued on the road whereon she had already
made some steps.
Hell signifies properly the state of the damned souls,
of demons first, then of men who die in the state of
mortal sin and are consequently condemned to suffer
eternally. Secondly, it signifies also the place where
condemned souls are detained.
The existence of hell was denied in the third century
by Arnobius who, following the Gnostics, held that
those who are reprobated are also annihilated. This
error was renewed by the Socinians of the sixteenth
century. In ancient times, further, the Origenists,
especially in the fourth century, denied the eternity
of punishment in hell, because they held that all the
reprobate, angels and men, would finally be converted.
This error was taken up again by liberal spirits,
particularly among the Protestants. The rationalists
say the eternity of suffering is in contradiction to
the wisdom of God, to His mercy, and to His justice.
They imagine that suffering must be proportioned to the
time necessary for committing the fault, and not to the
gravity of the perpetual state wherein the soul finds
itself after it has left the world with grievous and
unrepented sin.
The Athanasian Creed and many councils affirm as a
dogma of faith the existence of heaven, the eternity of
punishment, both of loss and of pain, and likewise the
inequality of suffering proportioned to the gravity of
the faults committed and left unrepented.
Let us first see what Holy Scripture itself teaches on
this point. Its teaching prepares us to understand
better the doctrine of purgatory, where there is
certitude of salvation, and further the doctrine of
eternal beatitude. Darkness and evil show in their own
manner the value of eternal light, of the sanctity that
cannot be lost.
The Latin word infernum (helI) comes from infernus and
signifies dark places beneath the earth. In the Old
Testament the corresponding term, sheol, signifies the
place of the dead in general, good or bad. [183] We are
not surprised at this, since before the ascension of
Jesus Christ no soul could enter heaven. In this same
sense we speak of the descent of Jesus into hell. But
in the New Testament the hell of the damned is often
called Gehenna, [184] which signifies the Valley of
Hinnom, a ravine to the south of Jerusalem where people
were accustomed to dump refuse, and even corpses. Fires
burned there almost continually, to consume trash.
Hence the word, after Isaias, came to express the real
hell: hell which lasts forever, a worm which will not
die, a fire which cannot be quenched.
Hell in the Old Testament
In a learned article on hell, M. Richard, [185] has
made a deep study of those texts of the Old Testament
which prove the existence of hell in the strict sense.
Before the time of the prophets, he notes, the
condition of the wicked after death remained very
obscure although ultramundane sanctions are often
affirmed. For example, by Ecclesiastes: [186] "Fear God
and keep His commandments, for this is all man." "For
all these God will bring thee into judgment." [187]
To the great prophets God began to show clear
perspectives of the future life. We have already cited
some of these texts when speaking of the Last Judgment.
Isaias [188] lays open a great prophetic vision of the
world beyond. It is the restoration of Israel for all
eternity, with new heavens and a new earth. "All flesh
shall come to adore before My face, saith the Lord, and
they shall go out and see the carcasses of the men that
have transgressed against Me. Their worm shall not die
and their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be
a loathsome sight to all flesh." All commentators see
in this text an affirmation of the last judgment, and
under a symbolic form that of eternal hell. This last
text is cited in St. Mark [189] by Jesus Himself, and
in St. Luke [190] by St. John the Baptist.
Daniel says more clearly: "Many of those that sleep in
the dust of the earth shall awake, some unto life
everlasting, and others unto reproach, to see it
always." [191] Thus the Old Testament, for the first
time, declares the resurrection of sinners to meet a
judgment of condemnation.
The Book of Wisdom, after describing the sufferings
reserved to the wicked after death, continues: "The
just shall live for evermore." [192] It adds: "For to
him that is little mercy is granted, but the mighty
shall be mightily tormented." [193] It says of the
wicked one: "He returneth to the same out of which he
was taken, when his life which was lent him shall be
called for again." [194]
Ecclesiasticus speaks in the same sense: "Humble thy
spirit very much, for the vengeance on the flesh of the
ungodly is fire and worms." [195] In the Second Book of
Machabees [196] we read that the seven brothers,
martyrs, were sustained in their sufferings by the
thought of eternal life. They say to their judge: "The
King of the world will raise us up . . . in the
resurrection of eternal life; . . . but thou by the
judgment of God shalt receive just punishment for thy
pride."
All these texts of the Old Testament speak of hell in
the proper sense. Many of them affirm the inequality of
punishments proportioned to the gravity of the faults
committed and unrepented.
Hell in the New Testament
The Precursor said to those who were guilty: "Ye brood
of vipers, who hath showed you to flee from the wrath
to come? Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of
penance." [197] Again: "There shall come one mightier
than I, . . . whose fan is in His hand, and He will
purge His floor and will gather the wheat into His
barn, but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable
fire." [198]
Jesus announces simultaneously the eternal salvation
for the good and Gehenna for the wicked. He begins by
exhorting to penance. The scribes say of Him: "By the
prince of devils He casteth out devils." His reply is:
"All sins shall be forgiven unto the sons of men, and
the blasphemies wherewith they shall blaspheme. But he
that shall blaspheme against the Holy Ghost shall never
have forgiveness, but shall be guilty of an everlasting
sin." [199] Jesus [200] commands fraternal charity, and
the avoidance of luxury and lust lest the body be cast
into eternal fire. At Capharnaum, after admiring the
faith of the centurion, Jesus 19 announces the
conversion of the Gentiles, whereas certain Jews remain
unbelieving and obstinate: "They shall be cast out into
the exterior darkness; there shall be weeping and
gnashing of teeth." [201]
Jesus warns the apostles against the fear of martyrdom,
saying: "Fear ye not them that kill the body and are
not able to kill the soul; but rather fear Him that can
destroy both soul and body in hell." [202] All this
doctrine is summed up by St. Mark: "If thy hand
scandalize thee, cut it off; it is better for thee to
enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go
into hell, into unquenchable fire, where their worm
dieth not, and the fire is not extinguished." [203] The
doctrine is taught also in the parables, that of the
cockle, that of the royal marriage, that of the wise
and foolish virgins, that of the talents.
The same doctrine we find in the maledictions [204]
addressed to the hypocritical Pharisees: "Woe to you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, . . . blind guides,
. . . you are like to whitened sepulchers, which . . .
are full of . . . all filthiness; . . . you serpents,
generation of vipers, how will you flee from the
judgment of hell?" [205] Jesus speaks still more
clearly in the discourse on the end of the world and
the last judgment: "Then shall the King say to them
that shall be on His right hand: Come ye blessed of My
Father, . . . for I was hungry, and you gave Me to
eat.... Then He shall say to them also that shall be on
His left hand: Depart from Me, you cursed, into
everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and
his angels. For I was hungry and you gave Me not to
eat: I was thirsty . . . I was a stranger . . . naked
... sick and in prison, and you did not visit Me....
And these shall go into everlasting punishment, but the
just into life everlasting." [206] Such is the last
sentence, without appeal, and without end. The word
"eternal" in regard to fire is used in its proper
sense, because it is opposed to eternal life. The
parallelism in the two instances shows that "eternal"
is used in the proper sense of the word. [207]
The Gospel of St. John speaks repeatedly of the
opposition between eternal life and eternal loss. "He
that believeth not the Son shall not see life." [208]
To the obstinate Pharisees Jesus says: "You shall die
in your sin. Whither I go, you cannot come." [209]
"Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. Now
the servant abideth not in the house forever, but the
son abideth forever." [210] "If anyone abideth not in
Me, he shall be cast forth as a branch and shall
wither; and they shall gather him up and cast him into
the fire, and he burneth." [211]
The epistles of St. Paul, [212] too, announce to the
just souls eternal life and to the obstinate in evil
eternal death. "Those who do the works of the flesh
shall not enter the kingdom of God." These are those
who perish. [213] There are two irreconcilable cities,
that of Christ and that of Belial. [214] These are
those who are condemned forever. [215] We read in the
Epistle to the Hebrews: "It is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God." [216] St. Peter
[217] announces to the false prophets that they are
going to eternal loss. The Epistle of St. Jude [218]
speaks of eternal chains. The Epistle of St. James
[219] threatens judgment without mercy on him who does
not do mercy. Wicked men, without heart for the poor,
amass treasures of anger for the last day. [220]
Lastly, the Apocalypse [221] contrasts the victory of
Christ in the heavenly Jerusalem with the damnation of
all those who will be thrown into the abyss of fire and
sulphur. [222] This eternal damnation is called second
death. It is the privation of divine life, of the
vision of God, in a place of eternal punishment, where
those will be tormented by fire who wear the sign of
the beast, and hence are excluded from the book of
life. [223]
This is the doctrine already announced by the great
prophets and in particular by Isaias. [224] From the
time of these prophets to the Apocalypse the revelation
about eternal hellfire never ceased to become more
precise, just as the doctrine of eternal life became
more precise. Among these punishments we find those of
loss, of fire, of inequality in pain, of eternal
duration. Mortal sin unrepented has left the soul in a
habitual state of rebellion against an infinite good.
We must be brief on the testimony of tradition. Before
the third century, before the controversy with the
Origenists, the Fathers teach the existence and the
eternity of the pains of hell. [225] The martyrs often
say they do not fear temporal fire, but only the
eternal fire.
From the third century to the fifth most of the Fathers
combat the error of the Origenists on the non-eternity
of the pains of hell. Among them we may cite
particularly St. Methodius, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St.
Epiphanius, St. Basil, St. Chrysostom, St. Ephrem, St.
Cyprian, St. Jerome, and especially St. Augustine.
[226] In the mind of all these Fathers the affirmation
of the final conversion of demons and of reprobated man
is contrary to revelation. In their minds a converted
demon is an impossibility. The same holds good of a
condemned soul. In the fifth century the controversy
ended with the condemnation of this error of Origen at
the synod of Constantinople, [227] confirmed by Pope
Vigilius. The Fathers often cite the words of Isaias,
recalled by Jesus: "Their worm dieth not, and the fire
is not extinguished." The Origenist controversy served
to make precise the meaning of these words of the
Gospel. [228] St. Augustine [229] in particular shows
that the word "eternal" is not to be taken here in a
wide sense, because of its opposition to "eternal life"
where the word "eternal" is used in the proper sense of
the word.
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