«Et ibunt hi in supplicium aeternum» — "And these shall go into everlasting punishment" (Matt. 25:46).
Point I
The sinner does two evils when he sins: he forsakes God, the supreme good, and turns to creatures: «Duo enim mala fecit populus meus, me dereliquerunt fontem aquae vivae, et foderunt sibi cisternas; cisternas dissipatas, quae continere non valent aquas» — "For my people have done two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and have dug for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that cannot hold water" (Jer. 2:13). Because, then, the sinner turns to creatures with loathing for God, in hell he will justly be tormented by the very same creatures — by fire and by the devils — and this is the pain of sense. But because his greater guilt, in which sin consists, is the turning of his back on God, the principal pain in hell will therefore be the pain of loss — that is, the pain of having lost God.
Let us consider first the pain of sense. It is an article of faith that hell exists. In the midst of the earth there is this prison, reserved for the punishment of God's rebels. What is this hell? It is the place of torments. «In hunc locum tormentorum» — "Into this place of torments" — so did the damned rich man call hell (Luke 16:28). A place of torments, where all the senses and powers of the damned must each have its own proper torment; and the more anyone has offended God with a sense, the more he will be tormented in that sense: «Per quae peccat quis, per haec et torquetur» — "By the things in which a man sins, by these also is he tormented" (Wis. 11:17). «Quantum in deliciis fuit, tantum date illi tormentum» — "As much as she lived in delights, so much torment give to her" (Rev. 18:7). The sight will be tormented by darkness. «Terram tenebrarum, et opertam mortis caligine» — "A land of darkness, covered with the gloom of death" (Job 10:21). What pity it stirs to hear that a poor man is shut up in a dark pit for as long as he lives — for forty or fifty years of life! Hell is a pit closed on every side, into which no ray of sun or of any other light will ever enter. «Usque in aeternum non videbit lumen» — "He shall not see the light forever" (Ps. 48:20). The fire that gives light on earth will be all darkness in hell. «Vox Domini intercidentis flammam ignis» — "The voice of the Lord dividing the flame of fire" (Ps. 28:7). St. Basil explains it thus: The Lord will separate the light from the fire, so that this fire will perform only the office of burning, and not of giving light; and Albert the Great explains it still more briefly: «Dividet a calore splendorem» — "He will divide the brightness from the heat." The very smoke that will issue from this fire will form that storm of darkness of which St. James speaks, which will blind the eyes of the damned: «Quibus procella tenebrarum servata est in aeternum» — "For whom the storm of darkness is reserved forever" (Jas. 2:13). St. Thomas Aquinas says (3. p. q. 97. n. 4) that only so much light is granted to the damned as suffices to torment them the more: «Quantum sufficit ad videndum illa, quae torquere possunt» — "As much as suffices for seeing the things that can torment them." In that glimmer of light they will see the hideousness of the other reprobate and of the devils, who will take on horrid forms to terrify them the more.
The sense of smell will be tormented. What a torment it would be to find oneself shut up in a room with a putrid corpse! «De cadaveribus eorum ascendit foetor» — "The stench rises from their carcasses" (Isa. 34:3). The damned soul must remain amid so many millions of other damned — alive to their punishment, yet corpses for the stench they give off. St. Bonaventure says that if a single body of one of the damned were cast out of hell, its stench would be enough to kill all men. And then some fools say: If I go to hell, I will not be alone. Wretches! The more there are in hell, the more they suffer. «Ibi (says St. Thomas Aquinas) miserorum societas miseriam non minuet, sed augebit» — "There the company of the wretched will not lessen their misery, but increase it" (St. Thomas Aquinas, Suppl. q. 89. a. 1). They suffer the more, I say, on account of the stench, the cries, and the cramped space; for they will be in hell one upon another, like sheep heaped together in wintertime: «Sicut oves in inferno positi sunt» — "Like sheep they are placed in hell" (Ps. 48:15). Nay more, they will be like grapes pressed beneath the winepress of the wrath of God. «Et ipse calcat torcular vini furoris irae Dei» — "And he treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God" (Rev. 19:15). From this will then follow the pain of immobility. «Fiant immobiles quasi lapis» — "Let them become as immovable as a stone" (Exod. 15:16). So that, just as the damned soul will fall into hell on the last day, so must he remain — never changing place again and never able to move either a foot or a hand — for as long as God shall be God.
The hearing will be tormented by the continual howls and weeping of those poor despairing souls. The devils will make a continual din. «Sonitus terroris semper in aure eius» — "The sound of terror is always in his ear" (Job 15:21). What a torment it is when one wants to sleep and hears a sick man groaning continually, a dog barking, or a child crying! Wretched damned, who must hear without ceasing, for all eternity, those noises and the cries of the tormented! The throat will be tormented by hunger; the damned soul will have a dog's hunger: «Famem patientur ut canes» — "They shall suffer hunger like dogs" (Ps. 58:15). But he will never have a crumb of bread. Then he will have such a thirst that all the water of the sea would not suffice him; yet he will not have even a drop of it: the rich man asked for a drop, but he has not received it yet, and he will never, never receive it.
Affections and Prayers
Ah, my Lord, here at Your feet is one who has made so little account of Your grace and of Your chastisements. Poor me — if You, my Jesus, had not had pity on me, for how many years would I already have been in that stinking furnace, where so many of my companions are already burning! Ah, my Redeemer, how is it that, thinking of this, I do not burn with love for You? How could I ever think of offending You again in the future! Ah, may it never be, my Jesus Christ — let me rather die a thousand times. Since You have begun, bring the work to completion. You have drawn me out of the stench of so many of my sins, and with such love You have called me to love You; grant now that I may spend all the time You give me wholly for You. How greatly would the damned desire a day, an hour of the time You grant me; and what will I do? Will I go on spending it in things that displease You? No, my Jesus, do not permit it, through the merits of that Blood which until now has delivered me from hell. I love You, O supreme good, and because I love You I repent of having offended You; I wish never to offend You again, but to love You always.
O Mary, my Queen and Mother, pray to Jesus for me, and obtain for me the gift of holy perseverance and of His holy love.
Point II
The pain that most torments the senses of the damned is the fire of hell, which torments the sense of touch. «Vindicta carnis impii ignis, et vermis» — "The punishment of the flesh of the wicked is fire and worms" (Sir. 7:19). It is for this reason that the Lord makes special mention of it in the judgment: «Discedite a me, maledicti, in ignem aeternum» — "Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire" (Matt. 25:41). Even on this earth the pain of fire is the greatest of all; but there is such a difference between our fire and that of hell that St. Augustine says ours seems painted: «In eius comparatione noster hic ignis depictus est» — "In comparison with it, our fire here is painted." And St. Vincent Ferrer says that by comparison ours is cold. The reason is that our fire was created for our benefit, but the fire of hell was created by God on purpose to torment. «Longe alius est ignis, qui usui humano, alius qui Dei iustitiae deservit» — "Very different, says Tertullian, is the fire that serves human use from the fire that serves the justice of God." The wrath of God kindles this avenging fire: «Ignis succensus est in furore meo» — "A fire is kindled in My wrath" (Jer. 15:14). Hence the fire of hell is called by Isaiah a spirit of burning: «Si abluerit Dominus sordes... in spiritu ardoris» — "If the Lord shall wash away the filth... in the spirit of burning" (Isa. 4:4). The damned will be sent not to the fire, but into the fire: «Discedite a me, maledicti, in ignem aeternum» — "Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire." So the wretch will be surrounded by fire, like a log inside a furnace. The damned will find himself with an abyss of fire below, an abyss above, and an abyss all around. If he touches, if he sees, if he breathes — he touches, sees, and breathes nothing but fire. He will dwell in fire as the fish dwells in water. But this fire will not merely surround the damned; it will also enter into his bowels to torment him. His body will become all fire, so that his bowels will burn within his belly, his heart within his breast, his brains within his head, his blood within his veins, even the marrow within his bones: every damned soul will become in himself a furnace of fire. «Pone eos ut clibanum ignis» — "Thou shalt make them as a furnace of fire" (Ps. 20:10). Some cannot bear to walk along a road beaten by the sun, to stay in a closed room with a brazier, cannot endure a spark that flies from a candle; and yet they do not fear that fire which devours, as Isaiah says:
«Quis poterit habitare de vobis cum igne devorante?» — "Who among you shall be able to dwell with devouring fire?" (Isa. 33:14). As a wild beast devours a kid, so the fire of hell devours the damned; it devours him, but without ever letting him die. Keep on, you fool, says St. Peter Damian (speaking to the unchaste man), keep on gratifying your flesh, for a day will come when all your impurities will become pitch in your bowels, making greater and more tormenting the flame that will burn you in hell: «Venit dies, imo nox, quando libido tua vertetur in picem, qua se nutriat perpetuus ignis in tuis visceribus» — "The day will come, nay the night, when your lust will be turned into pitch, on which the everlasting fire in your bowels will feed" (St. Peter Damian, Epist. 6). St. Jerome adds (Epist. ad Pam.) that this fire will bring with it all the torments and pains suffered on this earth: pains of side and of head, of the bowels, of the nerves: «In uno igne omnia supplicia sentiunt in inferno peccatores» — "In that one fire, sinners in hell suffer all punishments." In this fire there will also be the pain of cold: «Ad nimium calorem transeat ab aquis nivium» — "Let him pass from the waters of snow to excessive heat" (Job 24:19). But it must always be understood that all the pains of this earth are a mere shadow, as St. John Chrysostom says, compared with the pains of hell: «Pone ignem, pone ferrum, quid, nisi umbra ad illa tormenta?» — "Set before me fire, set before me iron: what are they but a shadow beside those torments?"
The powers of the soul will also have their own torment. The damned will be tormented in the memory, by remembering the time he had in this life to save himself, and which he spent in damning himself; and of the graces he received from God and would not use. In the intellect, by thinking of the great good he has lost — paradise and God — and that for this loss there is no longer any remedy. In the will, in seeing that everything he asks will always be denied him. «Desiderium peccatorum peribit» — "The desire of sinners shall perish" (Ps. 111:10). The wretch will never have anything he desires, and will always have all that he abhors, which will be his eternal pains. He would like to escape the torments and find peace, but he will always be tormented and will never have peace.
Affections and Prayers
Ah, my Jesus, Your blood and Your death are my hope. You died to deliver me from eternal death. Ah, Lord, and who has partaken of the merits of Your passion more than I, a wretch who have so many times deserved hell? Ah, do not let me live any longer ungrateful for so many graces that You have shown me. You have delivered me from the fire of hell, because You do not want me to burn in that fire of torment, but to burn with the sweet fire of Your love. Help me, then, so that I may fulfill Your desire. If I were now in hell, I could no longer love You; but since I can love You, I want to love You. I love You, infinite Goodness; I love You, my Redeemer, who have loved me so much. How could I have lived so long forgetful of You! I thank You that You did not forget me. If You had forgotten me, I would now be in hell, or I would have no sorrow for my sins. This sorrow that I feel in my heart at having offended You, this desire that I feel to love You greatly, are gifts of Your grace, which still assists me. I thank You for them, my Jesus. For the future, I hope to give You the life that remains to me. I renounce everything. I want only to think of serving You and giving You pleasure. Remind me always of the hell I have deserved, and of the graces You have shown me; and do not permit me ever again to turn my back on You and condemn myself to this pit of torments.
O Mother of God, pray for me, a sinner. Your intercession has delivered me from hell; by it, O my Mother, deliver me also from sin, which alone can condemn me to hell anew.
Point III
But all these pains are nothing in comparison with the pain of loss. It is not the darkness, the stench, the cries, and the fire that make hell; the pain that makes hell is the pain of having lost God. St. Bruno says: «Addantur tormenta tormentis, ac Deo non priventur» — "Let torments be added to torments, provided they are not deprived of God" (Serm. de Iud. fin.). And St. John Chrysostom: «Si mille dixeris gehennas, nihil par dices illius doloris» — "If you were to speak of a thousand hells, you would say nothing equal to that pain" (Hom. 49 ad Pop.). And St. Augustine adds that if the damned enjoyed the sight of God, «nullam poenam sentirent, et infernus ipse verteretur in paradisum» — "they would feel no punishment, and hell itself would be turned into paradise" (St. Aug. tom. 9, de Tripl. hab.). To understand something of this pain, consider that if someone loses, for example, a gem that was worth 100 scudi, he feels great pain, but if it was worth 200 he feels double the pain; if 400, still more. In short, the greater the value of the thing lost, the greater the pain. What good has the damned lost? An infinite good, which is God; hence St. Thomas Aquinas says he suffers a pain in a certain sense infinite: «Poena damnati est infinita, quia est amissio boni infiniti» — "The pain of the damned is infinite, because it is the loss of an infinite good" (St. Thomas, I-II, q. 87, a. 4).
This pain is now feared only by the saints. «Haec amantibus, non contemnentibus poena est» — "This is a pain for those who love, not for those who scorn," says St. Augustine. St. Ignatius of Loyola used to say: Lord, I can bear every pain, but not this one — to be deprived of You. But this pain is not at all understood by sinners, who are content to live months and years without God, for the wretches live in darkness. At death, however, they must come to know the great good they are losing. The soul, on leaving this life, as St. Antoninus says, at once understands that she is created for God: «Separata autem anima a corpore intelligit Deum summum bonum et ad illud esse creatam» — "But the soul, separated from the body, understands that God is the supreme good and that she was created for Him." Hence she at once darts forward to go and embrace her supreme good; but being in sin, she will be driven away by God. If a dog sees a hare, and someone holds it on a chain, what force does the dog exert to break the chain and go seize its prey? The soul, on separating from the body, is naturally drawn to God, but sin divides her from God and sends her far away to hell. «Iniquitates vestrae diviserunt inter vos, et Deum vestrum» — "Your iniquities have divided between you and your God" (Isa. 59:2). All of hell, then, consists in that first word of the sentence: «Discedite a me, maledicti» — "Depart from Me, you cursed." Begone, Jesus Christ will say; I do not want you to see My face any more. «Si mille quis ponat gehennas, nihil tale dicturus est, quale est exosum esse Christo» — "If a man were to imagine a thousand hells, he would still say nothing like what it is to be hated by Christ" (Chrysost. hom. 24 in Matt.). When David condemned Absalom never to appear before him again, this pain was such for Absalom that he answered: Tell my father either to let me see his face or to give me death (2 Sam. 14:24). Philip II said to a nobleman whom he saw behaving irreverently in church: Do not appear before me again. So great was that nobleman's pain that, on reaching home, he died of grief. What will it be when God at death declares to the reprobate: Begone, for I do not want to see you anymore. «Abscondam faciem ab eo, et invenient eum omnia mala» — "I will hide My face from him, and all evils shall find him" (Deut. 31:17). You — Jesus will say to the damned on the last day — are no longer Mine; I am no longer yours. «Voca nomen eius, non populus meus, quia vos non populus meus, et ego non ero vester» — "Call his name Not-my-people, for you are not My people, and I will not be yours" (Hos. 1:9).
What pain it is for a son whose father dies, or for a wife when her husband dies, to say: My father, my husband, I shall never see you again. Ah, if we could now hear a damned soul weeping, and ask him: Soul, why do you weep so? He would answer only this: I weep because I have lost God, and I shall never see Him again. If only the wretched man in hell could love his God and resign himself to His will. But no; if he could do this, hell would not be hell: the unhappy man cannot resign himself to the will of God, because he has been made an enemy of the divine will. Nor can he love his God any more, but hates Him and will hate Him forever; and this will be his hell: to know that God is a supreme good, and then to see himself forced to hate Him at the very moment when he knows Him worthy of infinite love. «Ego sum ille nequam privatus amore Dei» — "I am that wicked one deprived of the love of God" — so answered that devil when St. Catherine of Genoa asked him who he was. The damned soul will hate and curse God, and in cursing God he will also curse the benefits God has bestowed on him: creation, redemption, the sacraments, especially those of baptism and penance, and above all the Blessed Sacrament of the altar. He will hate all the angels and saints, but especially his guardian angel and the saints his advocates, and more than all, Mary Most Holy; but above all he will curse the three divine Persons, and among these especially the Son of God, who one day died for his eternal salvation, cursing His wounds, His blood, His sufferings, and His death.
Affections and Prayers
Ah my God, You then are my supreme good, infinite good, and I have willingly lost You so many times. I already knew that by my sin I caused You great displeasure and lost Your grace — and yet I did it? Ah, if I did not see You, O Son of God, pierced on the cross, dying for me, I would no longer have the courage to seek You and to hope for pardon from You. Eternal Father, do not look at me; look at this beloved Son, who asks You for mercy on my behalf; hear Him, and forgive me. At this hour I should have been in hell for so many years, without hope of being able to love You any more or to recover Your lost grace. My God, I repent above every other evil of this injury I have done You: of renouncing Your friendship and despising Your love for the miserable pleasures of this earth. Oh, would that I had died a thousand times first! How could I have been so blind and so mad! I thank You, my Lord, for giving me time to be able to remedy the evil I have done. Since by Your mercy I am outside of hell and can love You, my God, I want to love You. I no longer wish to delay converting myself entirely to You. I love You, infinite goodness; I love You, my life, my treasure, my love, my all. Always remind me, O Lord, of the love You have borne me, and of the hell where I should be, so that this thought may ever inflame me to make acts of love toward You and to say to You always: I love You, I love You, I love You.
O Mary, my Queen, my hope and my Mother, if I were in hell, I could not even love You any more. I love You, my Mother, and in You I trust never to cease loving You and my God. Help me; pray to Jesus for me.