The Reality of Hell: Understanding Eternal Separation from God
Summary
- The Four Last Things
- Hell in the Modern Context
- The Reality of Hell
- Choosing Hell by Rejecting God
- Physical Torments of Hell
- Spiritual Anguish in Hell
- Hell as a Merciful Construction
- Avoiding the Path to Hell
The Four Last Things
Just a warning. When we mentioned the four last things, it's always in a specific order. Death, judgment, heaven, hell. But that's actually an incorrect order, just because of the fact that we should always end these things with a contemplation of heaven. That is the way that the supernatural has always been relayed to us. That's how our spiritual life generally functions that we start off with. We we need the little impetus of fear to drive us closer to the spiritual life. But the more engaged and involved we are in the spiritual life, the more heaven resonates with us than the idea or the fear of hell, the desire of being with God more than the fear of being away from him. Obviously, they all work together, so but also because it is psychologically more impactful to end on the concept of heaven as it is, than it is to end with just the fear of hell. But also, theologically, it makes a whole lot more sense to consider what it is will be missing before we can contemplate what we have
Hell in the Modern Context
So let's talk about hell first. We'll discuss heaven at the next conference. Hell. Is unfortunately the recipient of probably more neglect in the modern church than pretty much any other topic, if it's address at all. It's addressed in a offhanded, almost accusatory fashion. We talk about hell less and less in the modern world than in the modern church. Specifically, because it seems to be far less important, is played down considerably. The Pope, when he was confronted with the idea of hell, his only response was, well, I pray that nobody's there. Well, yes, we should all pray that nobody's there. The church has never defined or definitely clarified that somebody is there the way they do with the way they do with with canonization, declaring that somebody is in heaven beyond a reasonable doubt. But our Lord Jesus Christ himself said that would have been better. Bless you. It would have been better had Judas never been born. Now, the only way that that could be true is if he went to hell. So without saying as a definitive thing that we know at least one person's in hell, we do know that hell exists and that somebody is most likely in there one human. We also know that the demons are there. We know that the fallen angels were relegated to there, and that's definitive. The modern idea of a redemptive hell does not exist. The mere idea of possibly getting out of hell or being able to buy our way out somehow or that it is a temporary solution is also false. The idea that was pushed by the modernist theologian Bronzers on Balthasar that if hell exists it is empty, which was encouraged by unfortunately several modern popes, not the least of which was John Paul. The second is false. We cannot say something like that. That's actually that that's that's dangerously close to heresy. We need to make sure that we don't fall into any of these things. This is a reality that must be confronted. We must make sure we understand that hell truly exists. It is a reality. It is a scary one, and it needs to be the source of considerable fear so that we do not earn it.
The Reality of Hell
Because that is the other aspect of hell. We choose it. We choose it. When I was growing up, there was a priest who told us that the modern world seems to treat hell like. Well, if you're a genocidal lunatic who massacres millions and millions of people and dies on their deathbed, screaming curses to God and to and declaring and declaring yourself to be absolutely a Satanist, you might squeak into hell. That's how we tend to treat hell nowadays. But that's not the case. What is necessary to go to hell? What is necessary to go to hell is one very simple thing to not possess the grace of God. That's it. Whether through original sin, whether through mortal sin. All we need is to not have sanctifying grace in our soul. And that is all. One mortal sin, never having been baptized and received absolution from our original sin being absolutely cut off from the grace of God. That's it. Nothing else is needed to. Because the only way that we can get to hell is if, when we arrive at our final judgment, God cannot find himself in our soul except in the most basic possible way. Grace is the very life of God in the created form that is instilled in our soul. It is God Himself dwelling in our soul. And if He does not find that life and that presence in our soul, we can have nothing to do with him for eternity. And that is what hell is. Now God exists in hell because he's the one holding it in existence. But He is not there as he is in the Tabernacle or as he is in our soul, in grace, or as he is present in heaven. But He is truly there holding it in existence, but is the most remote part of existence that can possibly be without God. It is the smallest possible presence of God, the most distant, and therefore it is the only refuge for a soul that is permanently, irrevocably cut off from the life of God. Because at the end of the day, that is what sin is dying in a state of sin in the state of mortal sin. Is that being irrevocably cut off from the life of God himself? We cannot have anything to do. With help. It is not a temporary solution. It is not medicinal or purgative like purgatory, where it cleanses us to get us to a point where we can enter into the presence of heaven. It is an absolute reality. The Devils, when they made their choice, when Lucifer and his and his fallen angels, they were given one chance and only one chance. They knew what they were doing and they knew what the inevitable punishment was for their actions. And they still chose it. All of us, we have a choice. We can choose God or we can reject him voluntarily. From the time that we reached the age of reason, the time that we are given the light of faith, we are given that choice. And that is our choice. Heaven or hell, God or ourselves. Which do we choose? Hell is a scary reality.
Choosing Hell by Rejecting God
And again, we can see lots of imaginings, descriptions of what hell looks like. One of the more entertaining and actually theologically correct ones is the Divine Comedy by Dante allegory. I highly recommend it, though. It takes quite a lot of back of background and education in medieval history and politics. But it is still absolutely worth a read. The inferno is the first part is probably the most entertaining of the lot. Hell is quite entertaining in the book, but it is theologically accurate about the kinds of sufferings that go on, the sufferings which would be adequate and appropriate for our dominant faults and sins. The things that pulled us away from the light of grace. So when we contemplate hell, let's think about a couple of different things. What kind of suffering goes on there? How is it that we end up in hell? And what are the ramifications? Well, let's start with how do we end up there? There's a famous dream by Saint John Bosco. Saint John Bosco had copied down his many dreams that he had, which were semi prophetic, all in semi just visionary in general. And a lot of them had to do with the boys of his school and orphanages that he ran there and in Turin. And he one of the more famous ones was while he was watching, his guardian angel was revealing to him several of his boys running from heaven, looking behind them and screaming in terror. And they were barreling their way into hell, full tilt, running into hell. And he asked his angel what scared them so badly that they are running toward hell or who is driving them toward hell? He said, No, they are choosing hell. They're looking behind themselves and they're looking upon God himself. When a soul is out of grace and they see the judgment face of God, they prefer hell to that site. That's how terrible a soul in sin is. That hell itself is a milder punishment than confrontation with oneself and confrontation with the Almighty. So we prefer the furthest place from God than just to look upon Him in all of his terror. And it's also a wonderful analogy of the fact that we choose hell. It's not something that is forced upon us. It's not like God. The Big Meanie is looking over our shoulder, looking for an opportunity to cast us into hell. We choose it voluntarily by our actions and by our preferences every time we choose sin. Above him, we are choosing hell. We have the chance to go to confession and repent while we here on Earth, while we are able to merit, we can still get away from that sin and we can still avoid eternal punishment. But the sad reality is, any time we choose mortal sin, any time we sin mortally, we have chosen hell. We have chosen to flee from God. And to turn to help. That is why the definition of sin by Saint Thomas Aquinas is so perfect. The overseer de Deo turning away from God. Conversely, art creates us turning to creatures. The second that we choose anything above God, we've chosen. How? We turned away from him. Where the two are opposed to each other. We are choosing hell or we are choosing God. That's what it boils down to in the simplest possible terms. When the two are opposed to each other because creatures, all things that we have on Earth and in our lives are supposed to be subject to the service of God. They are supposed to be there for our benefit so that we can find God more easily, so that we can perfect ourselves more completely, so that we can choose God more freely. That is the whole purpose of all creatures. And if we are not using them as such, we are turning away from God to use them according to our will. And once that happens, we are choosing how. Once we reject the will of God, we are fleeing into hell. And the only thing that saves us from actually falling into hell is the fact that we are still alive. To receive grace and to merit, to merit, excuse me, to merit a conversion by our own efforts and the actual graces that are won for us by our Lord Jesus Christ. And by those around us. It is not because we deserve it, but it is because we can actually work towards it. We can work towards grace. But it does not change the reality of the fact that we cannot merit without grace because only God can make it truly worthy. Hell is a terrifying reality.
Physical Torments of Hell
So now let's talk about the punishments that we can find in hell. The first and foremost is that there are sensory pains. So just as an example, if anyone has ever been in a circumstance or an environment of just absolute pandemonium and chaos. A crisis of some sort. A panic where everybody is running around, milling around. Death and destruction all around us. Like, I don't know. An earthquake, a tsunami. The cacophony of noise that comes from just a crowd screaming and trilling and running all over. That hurts. Our senses are attacked by all of the noise and confusion all around us. We can imagine how one of those infernal parties. Like a rave or whatever they're called. Nowadays, discotheques are I don't know, I lose track and I don't want to keep up whatever they're called. All that chaos and noise and flashing lights and everything else actually does violence on our system, on our nervous system, which is why people can fall into seizures because of that kind of thing. Or watching Japanese animated shows, things like that. You can overstimulate your senses to a point that your body shuts down, cannot process everything going on. You can do that with noise. You can do that with light. You can do that with anything else. Certain noises and certain frequencies can actually produce a resultant fear or anxiety in our system. Big enough organs. You can play a low enough note that it actually creates a sense of anxiety that your ear doesn't pick up on it, but your nervous system does. Imagine all of those things kind of coming together all at once. In the most extreme possible fashion. Your worst possible sense of anxiety. Above and beyond any sort of anxiety attack where you do, you lose sight of your senses, your worst sense of fear and anger, frustration. All of those things, stimulate it to the very max. And then beyond. The kinds of things where some people are very susceptible to smell, where it creates a certain revulsion or generates a massive migraine or whatever else your body rejects a certain smell that the very worst possible smell that would create a revulsion within you, but multiplied a million times. The noise and things that hurt our ears and our minds again, migraine inducing, whatever you want to call it. But again, notched up a million times more than what our bodies could stand. Everything. Everything. The most cacophonous. Destructive. Disordered chaos. Noise and pain inducing insanity. All around us all at once. Ratchets up to an inhuman level that doesn't even touch the tip of what hell is the physical pains of hell?
Spiritual Anguish in Hell
Imagine what the pain would be like if you put your hand on a hot stove top. Now, I don't know about anybody else, but I know how bad that hurts. I'm sure many others here do too, to some degree or another. And usually our instinct is to jerk our hand away so we don't feel that pain anymore. And it hurts for a little bit longer. A day, maybe two. If it's a bad burn. It's a really bad burn. It can last a while longer. But imagine not being able to remove your hand. Now, again, the very instant we feel the pain, our initial reaction is to jerk it away. So we actually don't feel that pain for longer than a few seconds or if that not even a second. We don't have the actual pain of the presence of that heat on our flesh for more than a second. So imagine that for 5 seconds or you can't move your hand. Then imagine that for a minute. Or ten. Or 10 hours. And again, instead of imagining just the 250 degrees Fahrenheit to which the oven or the the iron on a stove top is heated, to imagine it a million degrees above that. And not being able to remove your hand. Now imagine that same intensity of pain and agony. Non ending agony, inescapable agony. But on all of your senses. Site. Hearing. Taste, smell and touch. And all of your internal senses as well. Your emotions. Your passions, your intellect. Your will. All of them screaming with the same agony as a skin on your palm would feel in contact with something so slight. As a million degrees Fahrenheit. That applies to every particle of our being. That is the physical torment of hell, and that's the nice side of hell. The other pain is far worse, and that is the pain that our Lord refers to as the worm that does not die. It is the gnawing of our conscience. It is the gnawing of the reality of the fact that we could have saved our soul so easily and that we are not with God for one simple reason. Because we chose not to be nothing else. The recognition of the fact that we are supposed to be with God and we are not. The pain of the absence of God is infinitely worse than all the physical pains put together. We don't appreciate the understanding of the simple fact that I here I am, here I exist on this earth to know love and serve God and to be eternally with Him in heaven, to be eternally happy with but with Him in heaven. We don't appreciate just how magnificent that is. So we need to start sitting down and thinking about it. Because the flip side is when we don't appreciate it and this life and live that principle in this life, we'll have an eternity to contemplate it in the most agonizing way possible by being separated from divided from God himself. Because at the end of the day, those are our choices. We can either choose to be with God eternally, or we can accept being eternally separated from him voluntarily. No one to blame but ourselves. And by doing so. The worm does not die. Ignores that our soul and our conscience every instant of every day. And that is infinitely worse than all the physical pain and suffering as we go through hell itself. The pains of hell itself, the physical pains of hell itself. Our is nothing compared to the simple spiritual anguish of the fact that I belong with God and I'm not there. And it's my fault. That's it. That's the most devastating part of being condemned to hell. And something we don't contemplate nearly enough. But this is also why it's so dangerous to contemplate or consider the idea that hell is just a state of soul. It's not. It's a reality, a scary, brutal, destructive reality. I touched on this recently. Hal is actually it is actually a construction of the mercy of God, not just as justice. Because, believe it or not, it would be far more agonizing and painful for a soul in confirmed mortal sin to be any closer to God than hell itself. Then hell. If you were to put them on the outskirts of heaven or even just in limbo or any number of other places, it would be so much more painful for that soul than hell itself. Hell is an actual place of mercy. So as terrible as all of those sufferings are, imagine how much worse it would be if God were truly vindictive. But because of his goodness, he actually created hell for us. Because of his kindness and mercy. It's a terrifying reality, not a state of soul, not a state of mind. And by its very nature, it is absolute. It cannot be a simple pathway to purgatory. It cannot be a place of hope. It cannot be a place of redemption. It cannot be a place that can be won back from God or from sin or from the devil. When we are there, it is absolute. It is eternal. It is never ending. And it is all consuming. There is no end to how? Again, hard for us to understand because. We are human and we know everything ends well. Hell does not. So long as our soul lives. And it eternally will. However, go on. We see the depictions of how the divine comedy and the like. We see the punishments of the sinners and they seem pretty bad. But the fact of the matter is, they're only a human depiction and a beautiful poem. Nothing else. The crude, theological and spiritual reality of what hell is should change our lives entirely. If we appreciate and understand the permanence of just its permanence, just the fact that it's eternal, if we just appreciated that much, we would never seen again. If we'd just appreciated what the physical pains would be, we would never seen again. We would be saints instantaneously. Saint Teresa said when she saw her place in housing, Teresa of Avila, when she saw her place that God had given to her that was already reserved for her in hell, that the only reason she did not die of fright was because her guardian angel sustained her. Dante when he was describing his path through hell. The only reason he did not die was because God hid from Him the reality of the place and only gave him the perception that he had nothing else. Because we are not supposed to understand or appreciate it entirely. Our life is shrouded by the reality, the physical reality around us. So all we can do is imagine it according to those terms. When we appreciate the very nature of sin, of the rejection of the love and mercy and grace of God. That is the source of hell. And once we understand that and we understand what is being offered to us and our rejection of it, hell makes a whole lot more sense. That we have rejected happiness for misery. We have rejected and as perfect a happiness as we could have, a more perfect misery could not possibly exist. And if we reject God, we choose how these things are as clear as black and white. But again, we tend to shroud them over and cloud them with our our human site, as it were.
Hell as a Merciful Construction
But now we need to rip those scales away a little bit more and reveal ourselves. Reveal to ourselves the crude reality of how. A place where we could very easily end up. If we have an attachment to mortal sin, we need to drop it now. If we give ourselves a little too much leeway in venial sins, we need to stop that now. If we have a tendency to justify ourselves or excuse our actions, that stops now. Because the end of all of those roads is how. And the devil will play the long game. He's willing to let us. Sleep our way into hell. He's willing to let us feel okay here on Earth if it means leading us into hell. He's okay with letting us be good enough. If it means that he can get us to commit one major sin that leads us away from God and into hell. We should never, ever underestimate the power of a single Venus in the corrosive and damaging property that it has, which could lead us very far away from heaven and completely into the arms of hell. We should never underestimate what it means to turn away from God for any motive, for any good, for any pleasure, for any justification for any anything. If we could appreciate and understand the reality of hell, we would not try to make ourselves feel okay about not being quite saints, but we would drive ourselves into being the best possible saints trying to purify our intentions constantly so that we are not just trying to do things to avoid hell, but to truly truly be living and loving servants of God, because that is the purpose and that is oftentimes the first step away from God is making it about ourselves looking for material perfection or the like.
Avoiding the Path to Hell
So as frightening as hell may be. It is an essential part of our meditative life, as frightening as it may be and as uncomfortable as that reality may be. It is necessary for us to believe in its existence because it is true and because it is a place that we need to see ourselves in. Because it doesn't take much to get in. It is the wide, easy road. Not the narrow, difficult one. And everything, including our very own nature, will do everything it can to choose the easy way, everything it can. Not knowing that frequently, almost always the easy way leads us directly to the path of hell. Knowing that, let's turn to Saint Joseph, patron saint of a good save, a good death. He is the one who will show us how we can avoid hell. He is the terror of demons who will protect us from the long game of Satan, who only wants us to be with him in hell for all eternity so he can torture us and let us ask his guidance and protection so that we can be so that we can learn from this fear. How we can perfectly adore God and live as we should be as saints, and therefore have no fear of hell.
Summary
This discussion sheds light on the nature and reality of hell, emphasizing its existence and the choices that lead to eternal separation from God. Hell is depicted as a choice that humans voluntarily make when turning away from God through sin, indicating the severity of living without divine grace. The text explores the terrifying physical and spiritual agonies of hell, highlighting its permanence and absolute separation from eternal joy with God.
Importantly, the discussion stresses the necessity for people to recognize and act on the reality of hell in their spiritual lives. Through this reflection, a call to action emerges: to live as conscious and devoted servants of God, aiming to avoid mortal sin and thus avert the path that leads to eternal damnation. The guidance of Saint Joseph as a protector and intercessor is recommended, serving as a source of hope and strength against the temptations that may lead one away from God.