Tag: Hell

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Eternal Life

Are People in Hell Forever?

Michael R. Heinlein

March 26, 2023 7:26 am March 26, 2023

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Each human person is endowed with an immortal soul from the moment of our conception. Our souls exist into eternity, and we are each particularly judged at the end of…

Each human person is endowed with an immortal soul from the moment of our conception. Our souls exist into eternity, and we are each particularly judged at the end of our life and assigned to hell or heaven, either immediately or after a period of purification.

Eternity in hell is the result of dying “in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God’s merciful love … remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice” (CCC, No. 1033). If assigned to hell, one is eternally separated from God as the result of his or her own free will. God doesn’t want “any to perish, but all to come to repentance” (2 Pt 3:9).

Michael R. Heinlein is editor of Simply Catholic. Follow him on Twitter@HeinleinMichael.

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Satan

Does God Love Satan?

Father Reginald Martin

February 26, 2023 9:16 am February 26, 2023

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Hell is an inversion of everything we hold most dear. St. Thomas Aquinas taught: “Even as in the blessed in heaven there will be the most perfect charity, so in…

Hell is an inversion of everything we hold most dear. St. Thomas Aquinas taught: “Even as in the blessed in heaven there will be the most perfect charity, so in the damned there will be the most perfect hate. Wherefore as the saints will rejoice in all goods, so will the damned grieve for all goods.”

Lucifer certainly laments the punishment he endures, for every will naturally desires happiness, and the notion of punishment is repugnant to the will. He also envies the good fortune of those who do not suffer as he does. What makes his punishment — and that of any soul in hell — more painful is the awareness that the pain is unnecessary, for it might have been avoided. But once God has rendered judgment, the will can no longer express remorse for sin. Thus, the damned may bewail their punishment, but they cannot express sorrow for the sin that merited it.

What does this say about God’s love — or lack thereof — for the damned? Although the pains of hell are horrible to consider, our theology teaches that God’s love reaches even to hell, if only because the punishments suffered by the damned could be greater.

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Eternal Life

The Fires Of Hell

Father Ray Ryland

January 18, 2023 9:31 pm January 18, 2023

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Our Lord often referred to “hell” (see Mt 5:29,30; 10:28; 23:15; Mk 9:45,47; Lk 12:5). He warned against “the hell of fire” (Mt 5:22; 18:9); against “the unquenchable fire” (Mk…

Our Lord often referred to “hell” (see Mt 5:29,30; 10:28; 23:15; Mk 9:45,47; Lk 12:5). He warned against “the hell of fire” (Mt 5:22; 18:9); against “the unquenchable fire” (Mk 9:43); against “the eternal fire” (Mt 18:8; 25:41). Our Lord also spoke of “the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Mt 13:42). (All references are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible.)

We have no experience or knowledge of fire which is literally unquenchable. Again, we cannot imagine human bodies being literally and eternally burned but never being destroyed. Recall the words from the Creation story: “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (Gn 1:31, RSV). Through the processes of nature (like death and decay), God’s creatures are changed, but He never destroys them. The most agonizing pain is that of being burned. To be cast into “the eternal fire” surely refers to the keenest of suffering, but not to being forever incinerated.

On the level of speculation about existence in hell, no one has written more eloquently or more extensively than one of our greatest poets, Dante Alighieri. In 34 cantos he details a journey led by Virgil through all levels of hell in his Inferno. At the sinkhole of hell, Dante finds not fire, but ice. Satan himself is completely sealed in ice.

Whatever one imagines “hell” to be, Our Lord’s words seem to leave no room for a hope that hell will be empty. The Church has condemned the heresy of universalism, which holds that no soul will be lost eternally.

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