By DON FIER
Thus far during our journey through article 12 of the Creed and the Four Last Things, we have examined the teaching of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) on death, the Particular Judgment, and the immediate destiny for those who are saved: Purgatory or Heaven.
As we saw just last week, it is possible to leave this world in a state where one’s will is perfectly conformed to that of God and so enter immediately into the joy of Heaven, and that is something for which all should ardently and mightily strive. However, it seems likely that the majority of those who die in God’s grace will require a period of purification to atone for unrepentant venial sin and to be cleansed of latent imperfections deeply rooted in the soul as the result of sin.
Purgatory, which will cease to exist at the General Judgment, can be seen as a manifestation of both the justice and the mercy of God in His plan for the human race. As expressed by Dr. Alan Schreck in The Essential Catholic Catechism:
“Even if we die without full healing and repentance from less serious sin and its effects in our life, God in his mercy desires to purge and purify us so that we may enter into his all-holy presence without shame or fear. The pains of Purgatory reflect the justice of God in punishing sin” (p. 388).
However, Purgatory should not be thought of as a “second chance.” If one departs from this world in a state of unrepentant mortal sin, he will be forever separated from God and spend his eternity in Hell, the unpleasant but absolutely critical topic which the Catechism next addresses.
“We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love him. But we cannot love God if we sin gravely against him, against our neighbor, or against ourselves” (CCC, n. 1033).
In other words, if we sin gravely and fail to seek God’s forgiveness and repent of our sin, we reject His love. Although our all-loving and all-merciful God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4), He so values our free will that He forces salvation upon no one, for love is not truly love if it is coerced and not freely given.
Thus, each person freely chooses what his or her eternal destiny will be: “To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God’s merciful love,” teaches the Catechism in explicit terms, “means remaining separated from him forever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called ‘hell’” (CCC, n. 2033).
The topic of Hell is one that is not fashionable in today’s society and is rarely spoken of even from the pulpit. If the existence of Hell is acknowledged, many contend (even modern theologians and spiritual writers) that it is uninhabited (except for Satan and the fallen angels), or at most sparsely populated. It is portrayed as a place reserved only for the most heinous of tyrants and mass-murderers (e.g., Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot, etc.).
After all, the argument goes, “How could an all-good God possibly condemn a sinner to an eternity of torment?”
What do Sacred Scripture and the Church teach about the existence of Hell and its properties? Although the Old Testament does not have a lot to say about life after death, grim warnings concerning retribution for sin are present. For example, the prophet Daniel says, “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Daniel 12:2).
In the New Testament, it is the good and gentle Jesus Himself who “often speaks of ‘Gehenna,’ of ‘the unquenchable fire’ reserved for those who to the end of their lives refuse to believe and be converted, where both soul and body can be lost (cf. Matt. 5:22, 29; 10:28; 13:42, 50; Mark 9:43-48)” (CCC, n. 1034).
It seems that the Lord cannot be clearer about the reality of Hell and the vigilance souls must practice in order to avoid eternal damnation. Perhaps one of the most compelling accounts occurs when Jesus speaks of the Final Judgment: “Then he will say to those on his left hand ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels’. . . and they will go away into eternal punishment” (Matt. 25:41, 46).
The existence of Hell and the possibility of eternal damnation has been the continuous and unchanging teaching of the Church throughout the centuries. The Athanasian Creed (also called the Quicumque vult, after its first words in Latin), which dates back to the fourth or fifth century, includes the following profession: “Those who have done good will go on to eternal life, but those who have done evil will go into eternal fire” (Denzinger, Enchiridion Symbolorum, n. 75).
At the First Council of Lyons in 1245, it was likewise solemnly proclaimed that “if anyone dies in mortal sin without repentance, beyond any doubt, he will be tortured forever by the flames of everlasting hell” (ibid., n. 839).
In a more recent pronouncement, in his 1968 apostolic letter entitled The Credo of the People of God, Blessed Paul VI wrote that both the living and the dead will be judged, “each according to his merits — those who have responded to the love and piety of God going to eternal life, those who have refused them to the end going to the fire that is not extinguished” (§ 12).
What is the difference between Purgatory and Hell? The Church teaches that both include the pain of loss and the pain of sense. However, there is a distinctive difference of unfathomable significance: The punishment of Hell is everlasting and filled with unending despair while the punishment of Purgatory is temporary and even thought by some theologians and spiritual writers to be experienced with joy because the departed soul knows it will eventually enjoy the vision of God.
“The chief punishment of Hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs” (CCC, n. 1035). Hell is devoid of all love, devoid of all hope. Dante was ever so accurate in his Inferno to post a sign over Hell’s entrance saying: “Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.”
How many will be admitted into Heaven and how many will be condemned to Hell? The Church does not speak doctrinally on this, nor does she state that any specific individual has been condemned to Hell. However, Scripture seems to imply — and it is the opinion of numerous Church Fathers — that many souls will be lost. Jesus, when asked if those to be saved were few, did not give a direct “yes” or “no” response, but said: “Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able” (Luke 13:24).
Elsewhere, the Lord said, “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matt. 7:13-14).
A Terrifying Vision
To gain an appreciation of what is in store for those unfortunate souls whose eternal destiny is Hell, let us turn to St. Teresa of Avila. During mystical prayer, she was granted a vision of the place prepared for her if she chose the wrong path. The Carmelite saint had endured intense bodily suffering during her life, but when she compared it to what is experienced in Hell, she said her earthly sufferings “were as nothing.”
Yet, she goes on, “these sufferings [pain of sense] were nothing in comparison with the anguish of my soul [pain of loss], a sense of oppression, of stifling, and of pain so keen, accompanied by so hopeless and cruel an infliction, that I know not how to speak of it….I cannot describe that inward fire or that despair, surpassing all torments and all pain….I was so terrified by that vision, and that terror is on me even now while I am writing, though it took place nearly six years ago” (The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus, chapter 37).
To close this column on Hell, let us reflect on a terrifying vision given to the three shepherd children in Fatima, Portugal, on July 13, 2017.
Our Lady opened her hands and “light seemed to penetrate the earth and we saw, as it were, a sea of fire. Plunged in this fire were demons and souls in human form, like transparent burning embers, all blackened or burnished bronze, floating about in the conflagration, now raised into the air by the flames that issued from within themselves together with great clouds of smoke, now falling back on every side like sparks in huge fires, without weight or equilibrium, amid shrieks and groans of pain and despair, which horrified us and made us tremble with fear” (A Pathway Under the Gaze of Mary, p. 68).
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(Don Fier serves on the board of directors for The Catholic Servant, a Minneapolis-based monthly publication. He and his wife are the parents of seven children. Fier is a 2009 graduate of Ave Maria University’s Institute for Pastoral Theology. He is doing research for writing a definitive biography of Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ.)
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