Sep 18 Mon
Is there Hell?
God is our infinitely good and merciful Father. But man, called to respond to him freely, can choose –unfortunately– to reject his love, thus separating himself for ever from God. By mortal sin, we exclude God from our life.
Thus, hell is not a punishment imposed by God but a choice we make. It is the state of those who definitively reject God’s love and mercy. Damnation consists precisely in definitive separation from God, freely chosen, and confirmed with death, which seals his choice forever. God’s judgment ratifies this choice.
We cannot be united to God and love him, if we sin grievously against him, our neighbor, or our own selves.
The Gospel proclaims that Christ, by his Resurrection, conquered death and liberated us. This salvation, nevertheless, remains an offer; it is up to us to freely accept or reject it. Thus, all will be judged “by what they had done” (Rev 20:13).
Rather than a place, hell is the STATE of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God.
Hell, therefore, involves a twofold punishment: the pain of loss and the pain of sense.
The pain of loss is the eternal privation of the vision or union with God, who is, precisely, our supreme bliss and happiness.
And there is the pain of sense. The condemned will suffer torments. This punishment corresponds to the other aspect of mortal sin: the disorderly attachment to creatures. Sacred Scripture points out that, aside from the separation from God (pain of loss), the damned suffer punishments usually called “fire.”
But if this is truly the case, if God truly wants everyone to be saved and is working hard to make that happen, how do we explain the existence of Hell, which is a dogma of our faith?
—It's simple, though tragic.
God wants all of us to be saved, but he won't force us to be saved. To force us would be to destroy us, because it would mean taking away our freedom, without which we would no longer be human.
“A son of God fears neither life nor death, because his spiritual life is founded on a sense of divine filiation. God is my Father, he thinks, and he is the Author of all good; he is all Goodness.
—But, you and I, do we really act as sons of God?”
“Turn to Our Lady. Mother Mary –tell her again– I can hardly get off the ground. The earth draws me like an awful magnet. Mary, you can make my soul take off on that glorious and definitive flight which has, as its destination, the very Heart of God.
—Trust in her, for she is listening to you.”
Image: Fra Angelico, Last Judgement, Hell, detail.
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