Hell is the Abode of Everlasting Torment
The children of the kingdom shall be cast out into exterior darkness:
there shall he weeping and gnashing of teeth.--MATT. viii. 12.
And he cried, and said: Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send
Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, to cool my tongue:
for I am tormented in this flame.--Luke xvi. 24.
The unhappy rich man of the Gospel prayed Abraham to send one from the dead to his brothers " that they might not come to this place of torments " (Luke xvi. 28). In His discourse on the general judgment Christ speaks of hell as "everlasting punishment" (Matt. xxv. 46). Hell is both a place and a state. As a place it is situated beneath the earth. Hence the expression in the Creed "Descended into hell"; and we call hell an abyss. In the exorcisms we find the expression: "God has cast you from the heights of heaven into the bowels of the earth." Hell is sharply defined from heaven; between them yawns a chasm (Luke xvi. 26). The lost are separated from the saints (Matt. xxiv. 51). With good reason St. John Chrysostom exhorts us not to inquire so much where hell is as how to avoid it. Hell is a state, and moreover the continuation of that same state in which the sinner is found at death. "Thus," says St. John Damascene, " the pains of hell are due not so much to God as to man himself." Since hell is also a state, it is quite clear that the evil spirits may be near to us (1 Pet. v. 8), and even dwell in sinners (Matt. xii. 45). Even the pagans believed in a hell; hence the story of Tantalus, condemned to suffer perpetual hunger and thirst, and unable to satisfy either, because the water which he tried to drink or the fruit which he attempted to eat withdrew from his lips; the Danaids, condemned to draw water in sieves, and Sisyphus, forced ever to push a great rock to the top of a hill only to see it roll down again, furnish other examples of this belief.
The torments of hell are terrible; for the damned never see God, they are in the company of evil spirits and in fire, they endure great anguish of mind, and after the resurrection will have to suffer in their bodies. St. Paul says: "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God " (Heb. x. 31). St. John of the Cross teaches us that as a hundredfold is promised for every sacrifice that is made, so for every unlawful pleasure indulged in, a hundredfold penalty must be paid. St. John Chrysostom applies the words of St. Paul on heaven to describe hell: " Neither eye hath seen nor ear heard, nor hath it entered the heart of man to conceive what God has prepared for them that love Him not" (1 Cor. ii. 9). Christ calls hell an "unquenchable fire " (Mark ix. 44), because the sensation of burning is the greatest pain which man can conceive on earth. In other places He speaks of the "outer darkness" (Matt. xxii. 13) because the damned never see God, the source of eternal light. It is the place where there is "weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matt. viii. 12), where the "worm never dies" (Mark ix. 43), and conscience never ceases to reproach the damned. Christ also speaks of the lost as "bound hand and foot," to show that they have no freedom and are in a place of banishment. From the words used by Christ to the damned: "Depart from Me, into everlasting fire" (Matt. xxv. 41), we learn that they have a double pain; they are banished from the vision of God (pain of loss), and condemned to suffer torment (pain of sense). The pain of loss is the greatest of the sufferings of hell. The greater the value of what is lost, the greater is the pain of the loss. "The damned have lost what is of infinite worth, hence their pain is infinite," says St. Alphonsus. How keenly does he suffer who is cut off from the sight of the beauty of creation by blindness; yet how much greater is his suffering who is deprived of the sight of the infinite beauty of God (St. John Damascene). The possession of God, the highest good, is the end of every rational being. This is evident from the way in which man in this life strives after the greatest happiness. This longing increases after death, for then the things of earth no longer distract the mind, nor can they give any more satisfaction. What an awful fate if this longing can never throughout eternity be satisfied! In the words of St. Augustine: "It is right that he who rejects God should be rejected of God." The sorrow of Esau in the loss of his father's blessing is but a type of the sorrow of the damned for the loss of the vision of God. The saints have trembled at the mere thought of this loss. The damned have no communication with the blessed. They may see them as the rich man saw Lazarus: "They see them not to their joy, but to their sorrow," says St. Vincent Ferrer, "they see them as a hungry man may look on a plenteous table which he may not touch."
Besides this, the damned have much to suffer from evil spirits; and it is meet that those who sided with and subjected themselves to the evil spirits on earth should be of their company after death. We are warned in the book of Job and in the case of the possessed persons in the Gospel, how cruel the devil is when he has a little power. What an awful experience it must be for the damned in hell, where the devil has full power! The damned in hell cause one another great suffering; for they hate one another. In that region of hatred of God there is no love of God. Hence the numbers in hell only increase its torments. Moreover, fire will torture the lost souls. "They shall be sunk in fire like fish in the sea," says St. Alphonsus. And we learn from the teaching of Christ (Luke xvi. 24) and the holy Fathers that this fire is a real fire. Even on earth God punished by fire the sins of Sodom and Gomorrha (Gen. xix. 24:; 4 Kings i. 14). "If," says Bellarmine, "the soul can be united to the body so as to suffer in company with it, so can the soul be reached by this avenging fire." Is it so much beyond almighty power that God could not call into being all those sensations in the soul, which the latter had while in the body? It is probable also that the fire of hell is not like fire as we know it on earth. Our fire destroys; that of hell does not consume but rather preserves, as salt preserves meat (Mark ix. 48); our fire gives light, while in hell there is darkness (Matt. xxii. 13). Our fire warms, while the fire of hell is accompanied by an insupportable cold, and moreover it is much more painful; "Our fire," says St. Vincent Ferrer, "is cold in comparison with that of hell." The soul suffers also from continual remorse of conscience. The lost are given up to despair; they recognize what fools they were to reject God's grace so often, and to prefer a passing pleasure to eternal happiness. How unhappy they are in losing forever that God Who loved them so much ! And their shame is ever present, for their sins are revealed to all, and those whom they despised and laughed to scorn on earth are now in honor. "They will be tortured with envy," says St. Anthony, "for they will envy the blessed in their glory." Our experience on earth teaches us that mental suffering is often greater than bodily pain; suicides confirm this. After the resurrection the lost will have to suffer also in the body: "They shall come forth to the resurrection of judgment" (John v. 29). All their senses will receive punishment; the sight by darkness, the hearing by the wailing and cursing of the other lost souls (Matt. viii. 12), the taste by hunger (Luke vi. 25) and thirst (Luke xvi. 24), the smell by the unbearable stench, and the sense of touch by the torture of heat and cold. Other pains may be added; for instance, we read of wicked men whose bodies were devoured by worms (Acts xii. 23).
The Tortures of the Damned are Eternal
Satan--with his followers--is cast into a pool of fire and brimstone, where he will be tormented day and night forever (Apoc. xx. 10). In hell there is no redemption, for the day of grace is gone (John iii. 36). Life in hell is the "everlasting death" or "second death" (Apoc. xxi. 8), for a life without joy and full of torture is rather death than life. "O Death!" says Innocent III., "how sweet wouldst thou be to those to whom thou wert so bitter!" Christ tells us that the pains of hell are eternal; He calls the fire of hell an everlasting fire (Matt. xxv. 41), the torment of hell eternal (Matt. xxv. 46). So too, teaches the Church in the Council of Trent. The error attributed to Origen (254 A.D.) that the punishment of hell came to an end was condemned by the Church? (Council of Constantinople, ii., 553). "Eternal woe is due to him who destroys in himself eternal good," says St. Augustine. Our judges on earth inflict lifelong punishment on criminals, and even a sentence of death. The torments of the damned are not all alike, but vary according to the sin.
"The punishments in hell are not all alike" (Council of Florence). According to St. Thomas they are as various as the sins committed on earth; they depend on the nature, number, and gravity of the sin. Those who have lived in pleasure shall be punished by a corresponding amount of suffering and torment (Apoc. xviii. 7). The inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrha will have a lighter judgment than that city which rejected the apostles (Matt. x.15).
The Souls of Those who Die in Mortal Sin go to Hell
By grave sin a man cuts himself off from God; and in that state is like a branch broken off from Christ the vine, which withers and is cast into the fire (John xv. 6). The souls of those who die in mortal sin go at once into hell (Council of Lyons, ii.). In particular the following go to hell: the enemies of Christ (Ps. cix. 1), all those who refuse to believe in the Gospel (John iii. 18), the impure, thieves, covetous, railers (1 Cor. vi. 10), all who have neglected the talents given to them by God (Matt. xxv. 30); many who were among the first on earth (Matt. xix. 30). Those, too, who die with only original sin on their souls (unbaptized children) go to hell; (i.e., are excluded from the vision of God), but are not visited with the sufferings of those who have committed actual sin (Council of Lyons, ii.). A single mortal sin, done however secretly, is enough to send a man to eternal perdition.
Sinners begin their Hell even on Earth.
The wicked are like the raging sea which can never rest (Is. lvii. 20). Every sinner sits in "darkness and in the shadow of death" (Luke i. 79). To him the lessons of religion are folly (1 Cor. ii. 14). It is in the hour of death that the worldling will awake to his misery; at present he feels it not, because he is distracted by a thousand things. Think often about hell; the thought will keep us from sin. "Often go down to hell during thy lifetime, that thou mayst not have to go after death" (St. Bernard). "He who despises hell or forgets it," says St. John Chrysostom, "will not escape it."
Reflections on Hell
There is only one sure way of talking on hell--Our Lord's way. (Read from St. Luke 16:19--31, the parable of Dives and Lazarus). What contrasts in the story! A rich and refined man clothed first in purple, and then in hell--fire; feasting on the best, then, craving a drop of water; a repulsive street--beggar, lying on the pavements, scented by the ravaging dogs of the Orient, craving the leavings of the rich man's table, and then resting in the embrace of Abraham as a child in his father's lap. Intellexistis haec omnia?
Everyone knows the rich man: his name is on his door, his fine residence is conspicuous, not hidden away in an alley. He lives a life of indulgence, wrapt up in self. Lazarus lying on his door step, makes no impression on him. He has no thought and no care for any life but the present: his fine clothes, his splendid feasts, his riches and the magnificence which surrounds him: these things are his delight; they fill his life. His achievements and opinions turn up often in the news of the day. Yet this man is of no account in the Kingdom of God. "The proud man of this life," says St. Augustine, "is the beggar of the nether world." With Christ the last shall be first, and the first, last. "So is he," quotes St. Luke in the story of the rich fool, "who layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God.'' Nescio vos--"I know you not."
"... And Lazarus." A passerby may toss a coin to a beggar of the street, but he does not seek his name. Only Our Lord knows all about this poor fellow: his name, his sores, his rags, his hunger and his rebuff. "Hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the Kingdom?" (James 2:5)
Both of these men died. Lazarus, of course, first. He drew no consultation of expert physicians, received no scientific nursing. He died where he lay. Still, both rich and poor are equal in death. I pass over the grand funeral of the one corpse--the lost vanity of the great. "Of what account is it," asks St.Augustine, "to be praised where you are not, if you be burned where you are?" At any rate both men ceased to breathe, both were boxed up, carried out, and lowered into the ragged opening in the graveyard.
So, at last, the rich man also died, "and he," that is, the conscious, thinking, feeling self, was not handled by the undertaker, was buried, not six feet under ground in the garden cemetery, but in hell.'' In hell,'' our Lord says.
"We must face realities. Things are what they are, and their consequences will be what they will be. Why should we refuse to confront them? We do not annihilate realities by holding our hand to our eyes, or averting our gaze. We are on probation and we must face the ultimate issues of it: God and free will, Christ and redemption, saved or lost. We ought to look to the future before it comes, and have faith now in what we must realize hereafter. Now it is Our Lord who is speaking to us. The look on the divine countenance of Christ and the tones of the voice which was imperious with the storms of the sea, put compulsion on the human heart, and rang out with authority in the very tomb of death--these things of sense were special, external graces, accorded to groups of one passing generation of a chosen race in a holy laud. Their eyes and ears were for that reason declared "blessed." But the truth of Christ is for me as much as for them. Veritas Domini manet in aeternum. St. John tells us that many words of Our Lord were not preserved. They were spoken, as in a lower tone for the benefit of the actual auditors, but this parable was spoken for all. It is Christ, Who is now teaching me. Our Lord is now lifting up His voice to catch my attention.
We believe in hell, not from a human sense of moral justice to even up the palpable wrongs of this life. Our convictions rest not on our reasoning. We believe because Christ has revealed it. The truth of it comes back to Him. His word rests upon His Person. He is no mere man who is speaking to us. Taking His word we have something altogether different from the conclusion of a philosopher or the mysterious vision of a prophet. He is the authorized revealer of the realities of the external world. "They have Moses and the prophets," but we have Christ; "You call Me Master, and you say well, for so I am" (John 13:13). He is the "faithful and true witness." He was born to witness the truth. In hoc natus sum (John, 18:37). "He was teaching as one having authority" (Matt. 7:29). He spoke of His own experience. "We speak what we know and we testify what we have seen.'' These ultimate realities are within His knowledge; His eyes are on them. He speaks of the highest mysteries of predestination and salvation, as of things plain to His sight. Our Lord was not anxious to disabuse men of their fears of sin and its consequences. He intensified them. He speaks five words of the consequences of sin to the one word of the reward of virtue. It is thus that He saves men. He has revealed something of hell to keep me from ruining myself. This, then is a word of eternal life.
We wonder that men professing to be Christians, can discard belief in hell, when the doctrine is so manifest in the New Testament. Christ Himself mentions it fifteen times. Every few pages we read of the "outer darkness," the "unbreakable chains," the despairful "gnashing of teeth," the "undying worm " at the heart's core, the "pool of fire"; of the sterile branch lopped off and cast into the fire, of the cockle burnt in bundles, of the "foolish virgins" shut out of the wedding, of the guest found at the banquet with the soiled clothes of the street; the account of the "unmerciful servant" given over to the torturers, of the dread enemy "who destroys both soul and body in hell," and most impressive of all of the Judge of the living and the dead who is to come with power to sentence the wicked to the "everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels."
Plain as this is, unbelief is widespread. The parable refers to the strength of it. "If they hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither will they believe if one rise again from the dead." The fact of the matter is that there are multitudes who do not wish to believe in an eternal hell, and who banish it from their minds as a pure man banishes a bad thought. They like not to take the thought into their minds as a principle of action which would hinder them from the full enjoyment of the world that now is.
There are two worlds, after all. The proud rich man is now the crying beggar in awful torments, calling for relief from Lazarus, happy and powerful. "Lifting up his eyes"--for the first time they are open to the real world and raised aloft. It is too late for faith: This is experience. You have received good things. You were on probation. You had your choice between this world and the next. You chose this world, temporal and passing, for your all. You have had your lot; now there is nothing beyond. This world leaves you at death. You have nothing to expect in the eternal world. You had free will, and there was God before you as your destiny--God to be accepted or rejected: Christ and redemption--to be saved or lost. Quid prodest homini, si mundum universum lucretur, animae vero suae detrimentum patiatur (Matt 16:26).
The thought of a bitter pain, prolonged forever, makes the head reel and the heart sink. How time drags in pain, "What time is it?" asks a feverish man in pneumonia. "Twelve o'clock, midnight." He moans and cries: "Will it ever be morning?" The way to realize distance is to walk it. Eternity does not seem so long till we apply a rule of measure we know. I remember from childhood the illustration of the missioner; it is not easily forgotten. Imagine the world one vast rock, and imagine that every one hundred years a bird comes and lightly brushes its wing against the earth. The earth would sustain some loss in bulk, we suppose, though we might not be able to see or estimate it, so infinitesimal would it be. Well, some time the earth would be worn away by this abrasion, and eternity would be but begun. If an angel should go to that region with authentic tidings that at the end of things hell itself would be abolished, what a change would come about. Pain and anguish would continue, of course, but despair would cease; there would be a foothold for patience, and hell would be turned into purgatory.
We know what time is--the succession of the moment, of the "now." We measure it by tick of watch or clock, by bell on tower, by the roll of the world in its vast revolution about the sun. Eternity is not indefinite succession, though that is the only way to imagine it. At death we leave the order of creatures and are taken into God. No tick of clock then, no strike of bell, no change of season or waste of years or decay of force, no death in God, taken up into His eternity. Man's life is finite; God's is infinite; man's measure is time, God's eternity. The angel puts one foot on the land and the other on the sea, and swears that time is no more.
Then there is everlasting fire. The Christians under Nero were soaked in pitch and chained to stakes: living, breathing lamp posts illuminating the circus when the sun sank in the Mediterranean. There was a puff of white and yellow smoke, then the explosive, enveloping flame in flesh and blood and marrow, but it was all over for each in a single night.
Suppose the body preserved in fire like new lamp mantels: living, breathing flames through the downfall of Rome--more than three centuries later through the crusades, the rise of universities and of modern states, of old culture revived after fifteen centuries and the revolt of Luther and on through the French Revolution. Ages pass: a bit of eternity in the abiding now. New worlds rise and fall, and yet these tortured beings still breathe and live in flame.
We are living in a sensual age. The senses are steeped each in its own pleasure. Men fly from pain, as a saint would fly from sin. Medicine attacks it as if it were the only evil of the world. What with drugs, anodynes, anesthetics, even death itself has no longer any sting. But the holy doctrine of hell--fire will correct and purify, and following the common teaching of the Catholic Church, I believe in the real fire of hell. Our Lord said "fire" over and over again. He knew the meaning of the words and the full implications of the judicial sentence: "Depart into fire." I believe He meant what He said. He knew the laws of language, and spoke to this refined age which is in revolt against physical pain. Our Lord's mission was not to be a great poet like Dante. The people of Verona, when they saw the Florentine poet in their streets, used to say, "See, there is the man who was in hell." But Christ is the way, the truth and the life and I do not begin by setting bounds to omnipotence. I do not ask "How?" I do not pretend to know how fire affects spirit, but I do know that even here body is acting on soul and soul on body all the time.
Dives, the hard--hearted sensualist was "in torments"; "I am tortured in this flame." He is in fire as in his element; clothed in fire, breathing an atmosphere of fire, fire for food and drink. We may have known the anguish of parching thirst, but we have never been in the midst of flames. How men dread the touch of fire--throw themselves from hotel windows and are dashed to pieces rather than be swallowed up in fire. Dives begs only a drop of water from the tip of the finger, Crucior in hac flamma!
We are conscious persons with power of free choice. The difference of right and wrong is in the foundation of our conscience, and the structure of the moral world. A man's destiny depends upon his own choice. He, not death, makes or unmakes himself, and if he surrenders God Who is the fulfilment of his being, he destroys himself forever. In this world God has not given him up, but He ministers to him through creatures who aid and comfort him; but when God gives him up for good, all creation turns against him. He is under malediction. Then what happens; death? No. He persists; he is himself--no shadowy world of dreams, but of spiritual realization; illusions and phantoms are gone. He has the burden of his choice. His acts cling to him--his state. There is a fearful wrench of nature, of mind and heart and destiny: his mind to know what he has lost forever; his heart to feel a fiery, everlasting thirst and the sickening torment of hate; his memory to sink into stony despair: to realize that his lot is the outcome of his own folly--to curse himself as an eternal and unsalvageable freak.
Once there was no hell, because no sin. It is a creation, but in back of it is God and His unalterable nature and holy attributes. This is the reason for an endless hell, though we cannot understand the mystery. We do not understand the malice of sin because we have imperfect ideas of God and His attributes. The saints, who have a professional standard of holiness and insight into God, see into the mystery far deeper than we do. This I do, know, that if a man from self-satisfaction puts himself deliberately in the place of God, he must, from the nature of things, wreck himself; for God, not self, is his destiny. As there is a heaven, so there is a hell. As there is eternal life, so there is eternal death. God is holy by nature, just by nature, pure by nature, true by nature, and unchangeable by nature; then if a man, by his own choice, yet under probation for union with God, makes himself unholy, unjust, impure or false, and will not change by repentance, he establishes an opposition to God which can never be bridged. "And besides all this, between us and you, there is fixed a great chaos: so that they who would pass from hence to you, cannot, nor from thence come hither." Here's the pain of loss. '' A yawning chasm, too deep to be filled up, too wide to be bridged over." Mortal sin being given, hell is in the nature of things. As the result of some fearful convulsion, God and heaven and that soul are forever severed. The lost cannot pass over for comfort or peace; nor can the saints go to their relief. '' Out of hell there is no redemption."
After a thousand years spent in hell, what must a damned soul think of the night of beastly pleasure which he had on earth? What eating remorse he must have, what self-condemnation! He cannot shut his eyes in sleep, he cannot take a drug; he must think forever. There is no rest, no forgetfulness, no occupation to lift the realization of his loss of God. There is no consolation in the ulcered and dried hearts of the damned. They cannot love. "This is the place," said St. Teresa with a shudder, "where there is no love," no look of compassion, no word of encouragement for them from any companion, no hope. They retain their powers of mind, imagination, feeling, but no light in their outlook, concentrated in their present misery, with the gigantic shadow of eternity stretching before them. If there is a piercing voice that exhausts mortal fear and anguish, its cry must be "Eternity."
And could I be damned forever with Christ's seal of priesthood upon my soul, with Christ's truth in my mind, Christ's power in my hands, Christ's protection around me, a living ostensorium to my people! And all in vain, if I hear at last from Christ: "I never knew you." How many, many people in my parish with heavy drawbacks and few privileges will be saved by my common ministrations ; and I myself lost! What a fury of self-hatred to have for enemy "Him in whom I live and move, and have my being."
The loss of God! I cannot realize it. I know what the loss of a father, a mother, a friend means. I know what the loss of a brother means. These things I can feel. I am aware that the saints and holy persons know hell as the loss of God. So little do men think of it that a man will lie down with certain mortal sin on his soul, at the brink of hell, with only a heartbeat to keep him from it, and yet that man will not lose one minute's sleep on account of it.
All this is of intense interest to me if I have committed one mortal sin. If I have committed one mortal sin, I have deserved hell as much as the rich man in the parable. Now if I had gone after my first sin to hell; if I had lost my soul, and now, God in His infinite pity had opened the gate '' that never outward swings," and making just one only exception to His inexorable law of justice had drawn me out again; what gratitude would be too great! If He were to demand an atonement by confession, I should exclaim, "What, to one priest? I'll do what St.Augustine did--write my confession and publish it to the world. Restitution? I'll restore four--fold, like Zachaeus. Break with an occasion of sin? Penance? If He were to demand a year's penance, I would offer ten years, twenty years; a lifetime would be nothing.
Now, which is the greater mercy, to have gone through once, and to have been rescued, or to have been prevented by His mercy from that doom? I cannot doubt but that for His special mercy with all the waste that marks God's operations in grace as in nature, (for our redemption is copiosa) I should have been damned forever. I was no further from hell than from death. I have deserved to be there now, and if I am not there, I owe it to God, He has suspended His own law and the nature of the case, the consequences of my own choice, and brought me back from hell to life and the hope of Heaven. He has put out the flames of hell for me. I have been in the hell of mortal sin, and His hand and the Blessed Mother's have drawn me to the Calvary of Confession where the Precious Blood has poured its red torrent over my raging concupiscence and put out the mad fires of my passions.
This one thought should be enough for me. It is a small thing now to give up the "good things'' of this life, because if I cling to them, as the rich man did, I shall suffer "evil things" forever. Of two evils, one ought always to choose the less. So I must make every sacrifice to be saved; consent to lose something rather than everything. And this is the one conclusion to which Our Lord leads us in His own sermon on hell.
No one is a hero who sacrifices a hand or a foot or an eye to save himself. It is the sensible thing to do. It is rational, reasonable, self-love. "And if thy hand scandalize thee, cut it off; it is better for thee to enter life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into unquenchable fire, where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not extinguished. And if thy foot scandalize thee, cut it off. It is better for thee to enter lame into life everlasting, than having two feet, to be east into the hell of unquenchable fire, where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not extinguished. And if thy eye scandalize thee, pluck it out. It is better for thee with one eye to enter into the Kingdom of God, than having two eyes to be cast into the hell of fire, where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not extinguished."(Mark, 9:42--48) I must let all else go, that I myself be saved. "It is better" for me, Our Lord says.
Love is better than fear, but fear is better than sin. And I want to be safe in all my moods from hell. I do not want to go there. I will leap back instantly from sin, as from a furnace when the flames belch out. Moments come when temptation is strong: the object is so fascinating and urgent, the supernatural so dim, the will so weak. We then need the fear of hell in our very flesh or else the fire of passion will break out in veins and muscle and marrow.
The thought of hell is not sterile and crushing, but most salutary. Holy men have ever found it so. Let us cling to strong religion that saves. I must feel gratitude deep in my heart to God for saving me from myself. There ought to be a look of gratitude in my eyes. " Misericordiae Domini quia non sumus consumpti." (Lam. 3:22) I must make an iron resolve to keep from mortal sin. I have only that to fear in this life: a break with God: hunc timete. Apart from that, nothing can do me real harm, neither death nor demon. I will never trifle with mortal sin. That is a bomb with a blazing fuse--full of hell--fire. "Jam noli peccare, ne deterius aliquid tibi contingat." (John, 5:14) I must be humble and patient with the ills of life. And I must develop a noble resolve to save others as I have been saved from damnation, I cannot do anything nobler. If we save only one soul, what a gain! How grateful that soul should be; how grateful Our Lord should be! The souls I save will be the pledge of my own salvation. I should do anything I can, offer anything however precious, sacrifices, prayers, for poor sinners who are about to die. There ought to be a look in my face, an accent in my voice, an appeal in my feelings, that should put compulsion on sinners when I stand in the pulpit, or whisper in the confessional, or take charge of the dying. I ought to take my stand as a sentinel on the approach to hell, and push poor sinners from the path of damnation. Plorabunt sacerdotes.
there shall he weeping and gnashing of teeth.--MATT. viii. 12.
And he cried, and said: Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send
Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, to cool my tongue:
for I am tormented in this flame.--Luke xvi. 24.
The unhappy rich man of the Gospel prayed Abraham to send one from the dead to his brothers " that they might not come to this place of torments " (Luke xvi. 28). In His discourse on the general judgment Christ speaks of hell as "everlasting punishment" (Matt. xxv. 46). Hell is both a place and a state. As a place it is situated beneath the earth. Hence the expression in the Creed "Descended into hell"; and we call hell an abyss. In the exorcisms we find the expression: "God has cast you from the heights of heaven into the bowels of the earth." Hell is sharply defined from heaven; between them yawns a chasm (Luke xvi. 26). The lost are separated from the saints (Matt. xxiv. 51). With good reason St. John Chrysostom exhorts us not to inquire so much where hell is as how to avoid it. Hell is a state, and moreover the continuation of that same state in which the sinner is found at death. "Thus," says St. John Damascene, " the pains of hell are due not so much to God as to man himself." Since hell is also a state, it is quite clear that the evil spirits may be near to us (1 Pet. v. 8), and even dwell in sinners (Matt. xii. 45). Even the pagans believed in a hell; hence the story of Tantalus, condemned to suffer perpetual hunger and thirst, and unable to satisfy either, because the water which he tried to drink or the fruit which he attempted to eat withdrew from his lips; the Danaids, condemned to draw water in sieves, and Sisyphus, forced ever to push a great rock to the top of a hill only to see it roll down again, furnish other examples of this belief.
The torments of hell are terrible; for the damned never see God, they are in the company of evil spirits and in fire, they endure great anguish of mind, and after the resurrection will have to suffer in their bodies. St. Paul says: "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God " (Heb. x. 31). St. John of the Cross teaches us that as a hundredfold is promised for every sacrifice that is made, so for every unlawful pleasure indulged in, a hundredfold penalty must be paid. St. John Chrysostom applies the words of St. Paul on heaven to describe hell: " Neither eye hath seen nor ear heard, nor hath it entered the heart of man to conceive what God has prepared for them that love Him not" (1 Cor. ii. 9). Christ calls hell an "unquenchable fire " (Mark ix. 44), because the sensation of burning is the greatest pain which man can conceive on earth. In other places He speaks of the "outer darkness" (Matt. xxii. 13) because the damned never see God, the source of eternal light. It is the place where there is "weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matt. viii. 12), where the "worm never dies" (Mark ix. 43), and conscience never ceases to reproach the damned. Christ also speaks of the lost as "bound hand and foot," to show that they have no freedom and are in a place of banishment. From the words used by Christ to the damned: "Depart from Me, into everlasting fire" (Matt. xxv. 41), we learn that they have a double pain; they are banished from the vision of God (pain of loss), and condemned to suffer torment (pain of sense). The pain of loss is the greatest of the sufferings of hell. The greater the value of what is lost, the greater is the pain of the loss. "The damned have lost what is of infinite worth, hence their pain is infinite," says St. Alphonsus. How keenly does he suffer who is cut off from the sight of the beauty of creation by blindness; yet how much greater is his suffering who is deprived of the sight of the infinite beauty of God (St. John Damascene). The possession of God, the highest good, is the end of every rational being. This is evident from the way in which man in this life strives after the greatest happiness. This longing increases after death, for then the things of earth no longer distract the mind, nor can they give any more satisfaction. What an awful fate if this longing can never throughout eternity be satisfied! In the words of St. Augustine: "It is right that he who rejects God should be rejected of God." The sorrow of Esau in the loss of his father's blessing is but a type of the sorrow of the damned for the loss of the vision of God. The saints have trembled at the mere thought of this loss. The damned have no communication with the blessed. They may see them as the rich man saw Lazarus: "They see them not to their joy, but to their sorrow," says St. Vincent Ferrer, "they see them as a hungry man may look on a plenteous table which he may not touch."
Besides this, the damned have much to suffer from evil spirits; and it is meet that those who sided with and subjected themselves to the evil spirits on earth should be of their company after death. We are warned in the book of Job and in the case of the possessed persons in the Gospel, how cruel the devil is when he has a little power. What an awful experience it must be for the damned in hell, where the devil has full power! The damned in hell cause one another great suffering; for they hate one another. In that region of hatred of God there is no love of God. Hence the numbers in hell only increase its torments. Moreover, fire will torture the lost souls. "They shall be sunk in fire like fish in the sea," says St. Alphonsus. And we learn from the teaching of Christ (Luke xvi. 24) and the holy Fathers that this fire is a real fire. Even on earth God punished by fire the sins of Sodom and Gomorrha (Gen. xix. 24:; 4 Kings i. 14). "If," says Bellarmine, "the soul can be united to the body so as to suffer in company with it, so can the soul be reached by this avenging fire." Is it so much beyond almighty power that God could not call into being all those sensations in the soul, which the latter had while in the body? It is probable also that the fire of hell is not like fire as we know it on earth. Our fire destroys; that of hell does not consume but rather preserves, as salt preserves meat (Mark ix. 48); our fire gives light, while in hell there is darkness (Matt. xxii. 13). Our fire warms, while the fire of hell is accompanied by an insupportable cold, and moreover it is much more painful; "Our fire," says St. Vincent Ferrer, "is cold in comparison with that of hell." The soul suffers also from continual remorse of conscience. The lost are given up to despair; they recognize what fools they were to reject God's grace so often, and to prefer a passing pleasure to eternal happiness. How unhappy they are in losing forever that God Who loved them so much ! And their shame is ever present, for their sins are revealed to all, and those whom they despised and laughed to scorn on earth are now in honor. "They will be tortured with envy," says St. Anthony, "for they will envy the blessed in their glory." Our experience on earth teaches us that mental suffering is often greater than bodily pain; suicides confirm this. After the resurrection the lost will have to suffer also in the body: "They shall come forth to the resurrection of judgment" (John v. 29). All their senses will receive punishment; the sight by darkness, the hearing by the wailing and cursing of the other lost souls (Matt. viii. 12), the taste by hunger (Luke vi. 25) and thirst (Luke xvi. 24), the smell by the unbearable stench, and the sense of touch by the torture of heat and cold. Other pains may be added; for instance, we read of wicked men whose bodies were devoured by worms (Acts xii. 23).
The Tortures of the Damned are Eternal
Satan--with his followers--is cast into a pool of fire and brimstone, where he will be tormented day and night forever (Apoc. xx. 10). In hell there is no redemption, for the day of grace is gone (John iii. 36). Life in hell is the "everlasting death" or "second death" (Apoc. xxi. 8), for a life without joy and full of torture is rather death than life. "O Death!" says Innocent III., "how sweet wouldst thou be to those to whom thou wert so bitter!" Christ tells us that the pains of hell are eternal; He calls the fire of hell an everlasting fire (Matt. xxv. 41), the torment of hell eternal (Matt. xxv. 46). So too, teaches the Church in the Council of Trent. The error attributed to Origen (254 A.D.) that the punishment of hell came to an end was condemned by the Church? (Council of Constantinople, ii., 553). "Eternal woe is due to him who destroys in himself eternal good," says St. Augustine. Our judges on earth inflict lifelong punishment on criminals, and even a sentence of death. The torments of the damned are not all alike, but vary according to the sin.
"The punishments in hell are not all alike" (Council of Florence). According to St. Thomas they are as various as the sins committed on earth; they depend on the nature, number, and gravity of the sin. Those who have lived in pleasure shall be punished by a corresponding amount of suffering and torment (Apoc. xviii. 7). The inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrha will have a lighter judgment than that city which rejected the apostles (Matt. x.15).
The Souls of Those who Die in Mortal Sin go to Hell
By grave sin a man cuts himself off from God; and in that state is like a branch broken off from Christ the vine, which withers and is cast into the fire (John xv. 6). The souls of those who die in mortal sin go at once into hell (Council of Lyons, ii.). In particular the following go to hell: the enemies of Christ (Ps. cix. 1), all those who refuse to believe in the Gospel (John iii. 18), the impure, thieves, covetous, railers (1 Cor. vi. 10), all who have neglected the talents given to them by God (Matt. xxv. 30); many who were among the first on earth (Matt. xix. 30). Those, too, who die with only original sin on their souls (unbaptized children) go to hell; (i.e., are excluded from the vision of God), but are not visited with the sufferings of those who have committed actual sin (Council of Lyons, ii.). A single mortal sin, done however secretly, is enough to send a man to eternal perdition.
Sinners begin their Hell even on Earth.
The wicked are like the raging sea which can never rest (Is. lvii. 20). Every sinner sits in "darkness and in the shadow of death" (Luke i. 79). To him the lessons of religion are folly (1 Cor. ii. 14). It is in the hour of death that the worldling will awake to his misery; at present he feels it not, because he is distracted by a thousand things. Think often about hell; the thought will keep us from sin. "Often go down to hell during thy lifetime, that thou mayst not have to go after death" (St. Bernard). "He who despises hell or forgets it," says St. John Chrysostom, "will not escape it."
Reflections on Hell
There is only one sure way of talking on hell--Our Lord's way. (Read from St. Luke 16:19--31, the parable of Dives and Lazarus). What contrasts in the story! A rich and refined man clothed first in purple, and then in hell--fire; feasting on the best, then, craving a drop of water; a repulsive street--beggar, lying on the pavements, scented by the ravaging dogs of the Orient, craving the leavings of the rich man's table, and then resting in the embrace of Abraham as a child in his father's lap. Intellexistis haec omnia?
Everyone knows the rich man: his name is on his door, his fine residence is conspicuous, not hidden away in an alley. He lives a life of indulgence, wrapt up in self. Lazarus lying on his door step, makes no impression on him. He has no thought and no care for any life but the present: his fine clothes, his splendid feasts, his riches and the magnificence which surrounds him: these things are his delight; they fill his life. His achievements and opinions turn up often in the news of the day. Yet this man is of no account in the Kingdom of God. "The proud man of this life," says St. Augustine, "is the beggar of the nether world." With Christ the last shall be first, and the first, last. "So is he," quotes St. Luke in the story of the rich fool, "who layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God.'' Nescio vos--"I know you not."
"... And Lazarus." A passerby may toss a coin to a beggar of the street, but he does not seek his name. Only Our Lord knows all about this poor fellow: his name, his sores, his rags, his hunger and his rebuff. "Hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the Kingdom?" (James 2:5)
Both of these men died. Lazarus, of course, first. He drew no consultation of expert physicians, received no scientific nursing. He died where he lay. Still, both rich and poor are equal in death. I pass over the grand funeral of the one corpse--the lost vanity of the great. "Of what account is it," asks St.Augustine, "to be praised where you are not, if you be burned where you are?" At any rate both men ceased to breathe, both were boxed up, carried out, and lowered into the ragged opening in the graveyard.
So, at last, the rich man also died, "and he," that is, the conscious, thinking, feeling self, was not handled by the undertaker, was buried, not six feet under ground in the garden cemetery, but in hell.'' In hell,'' our Lord says.
"We must face realities. Things are what they are, and their consequences will be what they will be. Why should we refuse to confront them? We do not annihilate realities by holding our hand to our eyes, or averting our gaze. We are on probation and we must face the ultimate issues of it: God and free will, Christ and redemption, saved or lost. We ought to look to the future before it comes, and have faith now in what we must realize hereafter. Now it is Our Lord who is speaking to us. The look on the divine countenance of Christ and the tones of the voice which was imperious with the storms of the sea, put compulsion on the human heart, and rang out with authority in the very tomb of death--these things of sense were special, external graces, accorded to groups of one passing generation of a chosen race in a holy laud. Their eyes and ears were for that reason declared "blessed." But the truth of Christ is for me as much as for them. Veritas Domini manet in aeternum. St. John tells us that many words of Our Lord were not preserved. They were spoken, as in a lower tone for the benefit of the actual auditors, but this parable was spoken for all. It is Christ, Who is now teaching me. Our Lord is now lifting up His voice to catch my attention.
We believe in hell, not from a human sense of moral justice to even up the palpable wrongs of this life. Our convictions rest not on our reasoning. We believe because Christ has revealed it. The truth of it comes back to Him. His word rests upon His Person. He is no mere man who is speaking to us. Taking His word we have something altogether different from the conclusion of a philosopher or the mysterious vision of a prophet. He is the authorized revealer of the realities of the external world. "They have Moses and the prophets," but we have Christ; "You call Me Master, and you say well, for so I am" (John 13:13). He is the "faithful and true witness." He was born to witness the truth. In hoc natus sum (John, 18:37). "He was teaching as one having authority" (Matt. 7:29). He spoke of His own experience. "We speak what we know and we testify what we have seen.'' These ultimate realities are within His knowledge; His eyes are on them. He speaks of the highest mysteries of predestination and salvation, as of things plain to His sight. Our Lord was not anxious to disabuse men of their fears of sin and its consequences. He intensified them. He speaks five words of the consequences of sin to the one word of the reward of virtue. It is thus that He saves men. He has revealed something of hell to keep me from ruining myself. This, then is a word of eternal life.
We wonder that men professing to be Christians, can discard belief in hell, when the doctrine is so manifest in the New Testament. Christ Himself mentions it fifteen times. Every few pages we read of the "outer darkness," the "unbreakable chains," the despairful "gnashing of teeth," the "undying worm " at the heart's core, the "pool of fire"; of the sterile branch lopped off and cast into the fire, of the cockle burnt in bundles, of the "foolish virgins" shut out of the wedding, of the guest found at the banquet with the soiled clothes of the street; the account of the "unmerciful servant" given over to the torturers, of the dread enemy "who destroys both soul and body in hell," and most impressive of all of the Judge of the living and the dead who is to come with power to sentence the wicked to the "everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels."
Plain as this is, unbelief is widespread. The parable refers to the strength of it. "If they hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither will they believe if one rise again from the dead." The fact of the matter is that there are multitudes who do not wish to believe in an eternal hell, and who banish it from their minds as a pure man banishes a bad thought. They like not to take the thought into their minds as a principle of action which would hinder them from the full enjoyment of the world that now is.
There are two worlds, after all. The proud rich man is now the crying beggar in awful torments, calling for relief from Lazarus, happy and powerful. "Lifting up his eyes"--for the first time they are open to the real world and raised aloft. It is too late for faith: This is experience. You have received good things. You were on probation. You had your choice between this world and the next. You chose this world, temporal and passing, for your all. You have had your lot; now there is nothing beyond. This world leaves you at death. You have nothing to expect in the eternal world. You had free will, and there was God before you as your destiny--God to be accepted or rejected: Christ and redemption--to be saved or lost. Quid prodest homini, si mundum universum lucretur, animae vero suae detrimentum patiatur (Matt 16:26).
The thought of a bitter pain, prolonged forever, makes the head reel and the heart sink. How time drags in pain, "What time is it?" asks a feverish man in pneumonia. "Twelve o'clock, midnight." He moans and cries: "Will it ever be morning?" The way to realize distance is to walk it. Eternity does not seem so long till we apply a rule of measure we know. I remember from childhood the illustration of the missioner; it is not easily forgotten. Imagine the world one vast rock, and imagine that every one hundred years a bird comes and lightly brushes its wing against the earth. The earth would sustain some loss in bulk, we suppose, though we might not be able to see or estimate it, so infinitesimal would it be. Well, some time the earth would be worn away by this abrasion, and eternity would be but begun. If an angel should go to that region with authentic tidings that at the end of things hell itself would be abolished, what a change would come about. Pain and anguish would continue, of course, but despair would cease; there would be a foothold for patience, and hell would be turned into purgatory.
We know what time is--the succession of the moment, of the "now." We measure it by tick of watch or clock, by bell on tower, by the roll of the world in its vast revolution about the sun. Eternity is not indefinite succession, though that is the only way to imagine it. At death we leave the order of creatures and are taken into God. No tick of clock then, no strike of bell, no change of season or waste of years or decay of force, no death in God, taken up into His eternity. Man's life is finite; God's is infinite; man's measure is time, God's eternity. The angel puts one foot on the land and the other on the sea, and swears that time is no more.
Then there is everlasting fire. The Christians under Nero were soaked in pitch and chained to stakes: living, breathing lamp posts illuminating the circus when the sun sank in the Mediterranean. There was a puff of white and yellow smoke, then the explosive, enveloping flame in flesh and blood and marrow, but it was all over for each in a single night.
Suppose the body preserved in fire like new lamp mantels: living, breathing flames through the downfall of Rome--more than three centuries later through the crusades, the rise of universities and of modern states, of old culture revived after fifteen centuries and the revolt of Luther and on through the French Revolution. Ages pass: a bit of eternity in the abiding now. New worlds rise and fall, and yet these tortured beings still breathe and live in flame.
We are living in a sensual age. The senses are steeped each in its own pleasure. Men fly from pain, as a saint would fly from sin. Medicine attacks it as if it were the only evil of the world. What with drugs, anodynes, anesthetics, even death itself has no longer any sting. But the holy doctrine of hell--fire will correct and purify, and following the common teaching of the Catholic Church, I believe in the real fire of hell. Our Lord said "fire" over and over again. He knew the meaning of the words and the full implications of the judicial sentence: "Depart into fire." I believe He meant what He said. He knew the laws of language, and spoke to this refined age which is in revolt against physical pain. Our Lord's mission was not to be a great poet like Dante. The people of Verona, when they saw the Florentine poet in their streets, used to say, "See, there is the man who was in hell." But Christ is the way, the truth and the life and I do not begin by setting bounds to omnipotence. I do not ask "How?" I do not pretend to know how fire affects spirit, but I do know that even here body is acting on soul and soul on body all the time.
Dives, the hard--hearted sensualist was "in torments"; "I am tortured in this flame." He is in fire as in his element; clothed in fire, breathing an atmosphere of fire, fire for food and drink. We may have known the anguish of parching thirst, but we have never been in the midst of flames. How men dread the touch of fire--throw themselves from hotel windows and are dashed to pieces rather than be swallowed up in fire. Dives begs only a drop of water from the tip of the finger, Crucior in hac flamma!
We are conscious persons with power of free choice. The difference of right and wrong is in the foundation of our conscience, and the structure of the moral world. A man's destiny depends upon his own choice. He, not death, makes or unmakes himself, and if he surrenders God Who is the fulfilment of his being, he destroys himself forever. In this world God has not given him up, but He ministers to him through creatures who aid and comfort him; but when God gives him up for good, all creation turns against him. He is under malediction. Then what happens; death? No. He persists; he is himself--no shadowy world of dreams, but of spiritual realization; illusions and phantoms are gone. He has the burden of his choice. His acts cling to him--his state. There is a fearful wrench of nature, of mind and heart and destiny: his mind to know what he has lost forever; his heart to feel a fiery, everlasting thirst and the sickening torment of hate; his memory to sink into stony despair: to realize that his lot is the outcome of his own folly--to curse himself as an eternal and unsalvageable freak.
Once there was no hell, because no sin. It is a creation, but in back of it is God and His unalterable nature and holy attributes. This is the reason for an endless hell, though we cannot understand the mystery. We do not understand the malice of sin because we have imperfect ideas of God and His attributes. The saints, who have a professional standard of holiness and insight into God, see into the mystery far deeper than we do. This I do, know, that if a man from self-satisfaction puts himself deliberately in the place of God, he must, from the nature of things, wreck himself; for God, not self, is his destiny. As there is a heaven, so there is a hell. As there is eternal life, so there is eternal death. God is holy by nature, just by nature, pure by nature, true by nature, and unchangeable by nature; then if a man, by his own choice, yet under probation for union with God, makes himself unholy, unjust, impure or false, and will not change by repentance, he establishes an opposition to God which can never be bridged. "And besides all this, between us and you, there is fixed a great chaos: so that they who would pass from hence to you, cannot, nor from thence come hither." Here's the pain of loss. '' A yawning chasm, too deep to be filled up, too wide to be bridged over." Mortal sin being given, hell is in the nature of things. As the result of some fearful convulsion, God and heaven and that soul are forever severed. The lost cannot pass over for comfort or peace; nor can the saints go to their relief. '' Out of hell there is no redemption."
After a thousand years spent in hell, what must a damned soul think of the night of beastly pleasure which he had on earth? What eating remorse he must have, what self-condemnation! He cannot shut his eyes in sleep, he cannot take a drug; he must think forever. There is no rest, no forgetfulness, no occupation to lift the realization of his loss of God. There is no consolation in the ulcered and dried hearts of the damned. They cannot love. "This is the place," said St. Teresa with a shudder, "where there is no love," no look of compassion, no word of encouragement for them from any companion, no hope. They retain their powers of mind, imagination, feeling, but no light in their outlook, concentrated in their present misery, with the gigantic shadow of eternity stretching before them. If there is a piercing voice that exhausts mortal fear and anguish, its cry must be "Eternity."
And could I be damned forever with Christ's seal of priesthood upon my soul, with Christ's truth in my mind, Christ's power in my hands, Christ's protection around me, a living ostensorium to my people! And all in vain, if I hear at last from Christ: "I never knew you." How many, many people in my parish with heavy drawbacks and few privileges will be saved by my common ministrations ; and I myself lost! What a fury of self-hatred to have for enemy "Him in whom I live and move, and have my being."
The loss of God! I cannot realize it. I know what the loss of a father, a mother, a friend means. I know what the loss of a brother means. These things I can feel. I am aware that the saints and holy persons know hell as the loss of God. So little do men think of it that a man will lie down with certain mortal sin on his soul, at the brink of hell, with only a heartbeat to keep him from it, and yet that man will not lose one minute's sleep on account of it.
All this is of intense interest to me if I have committed one mortal sin. If I have committed one mortal sin, I have deserved hell as much as the rich man in the parable. Now if I had gone after my first sin to hell; if I had lost my soul, and now, God in His infinite pity had opened the gate '' that never outward swings," and making just one only exception to His inexorable law of justice had drawn me out again; what gratitude would be too great! If He were to demand an atonement by confession, I should exclaim, "What, to one priest? I'll do what St.Augustine did--write my confession and publish it to the world. Restitution? I'll restore four--fold, like Zachaeus. Break with an occasion of sin? Penance? If He were to demand a year's penance, I would offer ten years, twenty years; a lifetime would be nothing.
Now, which is the greater mercy, to have gone through once, and to have been rescued, or to have been prevented by His mercy from that doom? I cannot doubt but that for His special mercy with all the waste that marks God's operations in grace as in nature, (for our redemption is copiosa) I should have been damned forever. I was no further from hell than from death. I have deserved to be there now, and if I am not there, I owe it to God, He has suspended His own law and the nature of the case, the consequences of my own choice, and brought me back from hell to life and the hope of Heaven. He has put out the flames of hell for me. I have been in the hell of mortal sin, and His hand and the Blessed Mother's have drawn me to the Calvary of Confession where the Precious Blood has poured its red torrent over my raging concupiscence and put out the mad fires of my passions.
This one thought should be enough for me. It is a small thing now to give up the "good things'' of this life, because if I cling to them, as the rich man did, I shall suffer "evil things" forever. Of two evils, one ought always to choose the less. So I must make every sacrifice to be saved; consent to lose something rather than everything. And this is the one conclusion to which Our Lord leads us in His own sermon on hell.
No one is a hero who sacrifices a hand or a foot or an eye to save himself. It is the sensible thing to do. It is rational, reasonable, self-love. "And if thy hand scandalize thee, cut it off; it is better for thee to enter life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into unquenchable fire, where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not extinguished. And if thy foot scandalize thee, cut it off. It is better for thee to enter lame into life everlasting, than having two feet, to be east into the hell of unquenchable fire, where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not extinguished. And if thy eye scandalize thee, pluck it out. It is better for thee with one eye to enter into the Kingdom of God, than having two eyes to be cast into the hell of fire, where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not extinguished."(Mark, 9:42--48) I must let all else go, that I myself be saved. "It is better" for me, Our Lord says.
Love is better than fear, but fear is better than sin. And I want to be safe in all my moods from hell. I do not want to go there. I will leap back instantly from sin, as from a furnace when the flames belch out. Moments come when temptation is strong: the object is so fascinating and urgent, the supernatural so dim, the will so weak. We then need the fear of hell in our very flesh or else the fire of passion will break out in veins and muscle and marrow.
The thought of hell is not sterile and crushing, but most salutary. Holy men have ever found it so. Let us cling to strong religion that saves. I must feel gratitude deep in my heart to God for saving me from myself. There ought to be a look of gratitude in my eyes. " Misericordiae Domini quia non sumus consumpti." (Lam. 3:22) I must make an iron resolve to keep from mortal sin. I have only that to fear in this life: a break with God: hunc timete. Apart from that, nothing can do me real harm, neither death nor demon. I will never trifle with mortal sin. That is a bomb with a blazing fuse--full of hell--fire. "Jam noli peccare, ne deterius aliquid tibi contingat." (John, 5:14) I must be humble and patient with the ills of life. And I must develop a noble resolve to save others as I have been saved from damnation, I cannot do anything nobler. If we save only one soul, what a gain! How grateful that soul should be; how grateful Our Lord should be! The souls I save will be the pledge of my own salvation. I should do anything I can, offer anything however precious, sacrifices, prayers, for poor sinners who are about to die. There ought to be a look in my face, an accent in my voice, an appeal in my feelings, that should put compulsion on sinners when I stand in the pulpit, or whisper in the confessional, or take charge of the dying. I ought to take my stand as a sentinel on the approach to hell, and push poor sinners from the path of damnation. Plorabunt sacerdotes.
Seventh Sunday After Pentecost
by Fr. Francis Xaveir Weninger, 1877
"By their fruits you shall know them."--Matt. 7.
The world is full of deception, and this deception is the more dangerous, because no one is secure from it. The Apostle assures us that Satan at times changes himself into an angel of light in order to corrupt souls under the appearance of good. Christ Himself speaks in today's Gospel of false prophets, who inwardly are wolves, but who have clothed themselves in sheep's skins.
There is one kind of deception especially which is often practiced by those having the happiness of being children of the Catholic Church, namely: the belief that their salvation is secured because they are children of that holy Church, and also because they really perform many of the duties imposed by Christianity. This apparently Catholic life is the sheep-skin with which they clothe themselves, while they secretly indulge in the most abominable vices, and are like rapacious wolves in the corruption of others.
The enormity of the deception of a person who is satisfied with living only nominally a Catholic life, becomes clear to us from the parable of the good and bad tree. A good tree brings forth good fruit, an evil tree brings forth evil fruit; and by the fruits will we recognize whether a man walks really upon the path of salvation or not.
Let us earnestly consider today this parable of Christ, for what would it avail us to be Catholics if we nevertheless went to eternal perdition? O Mary, thou tree of life, who hast borne for the blessing of all nations Jesus, the fruit of thy womb and of thy virtuous life, pray for us that His grace may bear fruit within us. I speak in the most holy name of Jesus, to the greater glory of God!
"A good tree," says Jesus, "brings forth good fruit." Certainly, but it does not follow from this that every bough or seed of a good tree must bring forth fruit. That this may happen several conditions must be fulfilled which have all a spiritual signification. A short reflection on these conditions will be not a little beneficial to our soul, to the end that the fruit-tree of our life may not wither, or stand barren, and without fruit.
That a tree may bring forth fruit, it is necessary, first, that the roots have good soil, such as can give them nourishment and strength. The ground for the tree of a good life is faith-- instruction in religion, reflections on the truths of revelation, according to St. Paul, who says : "The just man lives by faith."
What an important admonition, especially for parents ! How often is it not the case that they themselves are only nominal Christians, imperfectly instructed in their faith, and hence but little concerned about the instruction of their children! This is particularly so here in America. What is the consequence? The sapling of life withers before it has grown up. The sand and rubbish of temporal cares is the earth in which such people place the shoot of their tree of life. It draws no sap from the earth, and soon dies.
Secondly, that a fruit-tree may grow, it must be watered, and the dews of heaven must refresh it. The water, the dew, is an emblem of prayer. How much this watering process is neglected in the education of the young! The parents frequently pray neither at morning nor at night, and thus accustom their children to live without having recourse to God. Hence no growth, no progress in virtue. Yes, even on Sundays and festivals of obligation, many parents neglect to hear Mass; and their children, following their example, do not go to Church either. Perhaps the parents even work on holydays, and in this the children also soon imitate their elders.
There is, above all, among Christians a neglect of spiritual reading, and of the frequentation of the Sacraments. They have recourse to the Sacraments only when the weeds and brambles of sin have outgrown the sapling of virtue. What is worse, even when at last they approach these fountains of graces, they commit sacrileges, and the young tree is poisoned and destroyed to the very roots.
Thirdly, if a sapling is to grow up and bear fruit, its trunk must be carefully watched, that it may not fork and throw out saplings, but grow up straight towards heaven; otherwise it becomes a bush, and perhaps instead of fruit bears thorns. What does this signify? It signifies that our will, our character, should be one and undivided, that we be resolved not to live for that which is earthly, but for that which is eternal for God, for heaven; to raise eye and heart continually upward, as the priest daily tells the children of the Church from the altar. This aim is the trunk of the tree of life.
But that this aim may be practical the trunk must spread out branches; we must namely make resolutions to live according to our station in life. Our life must be well regulated, our duties must stand clearly defined before our inner eye, and we must be determined to fulfill them from love to God. This desire makes the tree blossom, and brings out the buds of good resolutions. But that these blossoms may not wither and die, that they may develop into fruit, the tree needs light, as also that inner flow of the sap which the root diffuses through the trunk into the branches.
The light exemplifies our good intentions, our continual remembrance of the presence of God, which, like the sun, sends light and warmth through our interior life. The inner sap exemplifies sanctifying grace, which has to dwell within us if the virtues of life shall not be mere semblances, but be real solid fruit brought to maturity and ripeness. If this is the case fruit will not be wanting, especially if the disposition of the heart is such that it secures the ripening, and does not allow the fruit to fall and be lost before its time. This is the work of holy patience. How vigorously, how encouragingly this virtue acts upon the growth, the ripening of the fruit!
A fruit-tree does not stand in a conservatory, but in the open field, and is exposed to all the inclemency of the weather to rains and chilly winds, and the fiery rays of the midsummer sun. The branches are tossed by the storm, and the trunk sways under its violence. It is change of temperature and variations in the weather that develop the bud and mature the fruit.
"Heaven suffers violence." This admonition of Christ should be constantly before our eyes if we desire to grow up like a good fruit-tree, and not only bear some, but abundant fruit in accordance with the measure of divine grace which God has given us.
This is the parable that Christ proposed to us. May we carefully consider it, and make use of the lessons it points out to us, in order that our life may become fruitful, and bear a rich crop for eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord, the heavenly gardener! Amen!
How earnest and solemn is the Lord's menace in today's Gospel: " Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire!" And mark well, not only every tree that bringeth forth bad fruit is threatened with this dreadful punishment, but also such trees as do not bring forth good fruit.
For, if we wish to be numbered amongst the children of God, we must, as our Lord Himself declares in today's Gospel, fulfill the will of our heavenly Father, according to the spirit of our vocation and in conformity with the duties of our state of life. The neglect of this obligation is an evil in itself, and brings down upon us the sentence of condemnation.
Unless we strive with all earnestness to advance in the way to perfection, we shall, even in this life, be deprived of many consolations, without which we easily fall a prey to despondency and despair. Thus, through a neglect of our spiritual welfare, we shall never know the joy and happiness which flow from a peaceful conscience; nor shall we ever experience the complete security and cheerful hope with which the fervent, earnest Christian may look forward to the day of retribution.
But certainly the most awful punishment with which the negligent Christian is threatened in today's Gospel, is his eternal banishment to the flames of hell! For, "Every tree," says the Lord, "that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire."
Mary, our refuge and hope, obtain for us, thy children, the grace, that we may live in such a manner as one day to be found worthy of being united to thee for all eternity in heaven ! I speak in the most holy name of Jesus, to the greater glory of God!
The first thing with which the tree that bringeth not forth frood fruit is threatened, signifies the chief punishment of the damned, "it shall be cut down." If we have fulfilled the will of God during our earthly life, if we have brought forth good fruit for eternity, we shall then be transplanted as good trees from the paradise of the Church into that of heaven. But should we have been careless in the service of the Almighty, should we have slighted His commandments and neglected our duties towards His holy Church, we should then be cut down like a tree that has brought forth bad and worthless fruit, and which is good for nothing but the fire!
What do we mean by the words "cut down"? It will be easy to understand the signification of this expression, if we but consider the joys of heaven as they are revealed to us by the light of faith. Holy Writ calls heaven a paradise; i.e., a world of wonders, created by God for the recompense of His faithful servants. And now, though no man can divine the beauty and splendor and grandeur of the paradise of God, still it does not surpass a mortal's comprehension to understand that a God, who is infinite beauty, infinite splendor, infinite might and glory, that such a God, I say, should be able, and is able, to call into being creations grander and nobler than the greatest beauties of the earth.
What a beautiful fairy world can the imagination of man conjure up, by recombining and rearranging the elements of the visible world about us! What grand and wondrous things, then, must not God, the almighty Creator, be able to design and execute!
And now, dear Christians, if you fulfill the holy will of God as it has been taught you by your pastors; that is, if, as good trees in the paradise of the Church, you bring forth good works for eternity, you will then soon be admitted into the heavenly paradise; where, rejoicing with great joy, you will exclaim: "I see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living;" heaven is mine, all is mine! If, on the contrary, you have not performed good works, or have done evil deeds, you will hear the voice of the Judge, saying: "Cut down the tree, and throw it into the fire." Far from tasting the indescribable joys of heaven, you will, O horror! be condemned to the everlasting torments of hell!
Holy Writ calls heaven the kingdom of joy. Indeed, nothing but joy, infinite joy, reigns in heaven! "I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice from the throne, saying: Behold the tabernacle of God with men, and He will dwell with them. And they shall be His people: and God Himself with them shall be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes: and death shall be no more, nor mourning, nor weeping, nor sorrow."
Yes, dear Christians, nothing but everlasting joy is the inheritance of the blessed in the kingdom of God. There is not a moment of care, not a moment of sadness or sorrow. Such will be your reward, if, during your life here below, you will treasure up good works for the life to come. But if you have not brought forth good fruit, you will, like a dead tree, be cut down, and never, never taste of those pure joys, of which St. Paul tells us: "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for those who love Him." Never, unless you be a tree productive of good fruit in the paradise of the Church of God, will you, even for one single moment, through all the ages of eternity, enjoy this heavenly bliss, this all-surpassing beauty!
What a loss! The tree is cut down and cast away. What a dreadful evil! Holy Writ calls heaven the place of reward for the good works which we have performed, and the sufferings which we have patiently borne for the love of God. Nay, not even a glass of water given to the least of our neighbors for the love of Jesus, shall remain without its reward. And what will be this reward? Ah, dear Christians, its beauty and splendor will surpass all imaginable magnificence in this world; not the richest crowns, not the grandest princely pomp, will bear comparison to the things which God has prepared for the reward of those who show themselves His faithful and devoted children!
Happy you, God-loving soul, who, as a good tree, have brought forth good fruit by a faithful observance of the Divine law, and by the patient endurance of your daily trials! Indeed, the day will come, when you will exclaim in astonishment: Too great, O Lord, too great is Thy bounty towards me; never have I deserved, O Lord, the good things Thou hast given to me!
But woe to you, O sinner, who have not brought forth good fruit! You will be cut down, and will for evermore lament your miserable lot in the flames of hell! The menace of the Lord will be fulfilled in you: "He shall die in his sin, and his justices which he hath done, shall not be remembered." What a loss! what a terrible punishment!
Holy Writ calls heaven the communion with angels and saints in all their bliss. Who can imagine what a flood of joy and happiness awaits the soul of the just in such an assembly! Happy you, who, during life, have endeavored to imitate the saints your departed brethren, and have, as good trees, brought forth good fruit in abundance! The bliss of angels and archangels will soon be your own.
But if you have not performed good works, or even have done evil deeds, then will your Judge pronounce the terrible sentence of condemnation against you: "Cut down the tree." And instead of enjoying the community of angels and saints, you will be most unmercifully tormented by the evil spirits and by the damned, especially by those souls to whom you have given scandal by your dissolute manner of life.
Instead of partaking of the beatitude of Christ and His blessed mother, the Lord will say to you: "Depart from Me, you cursed!"
But allow me once more to ask you : What is heaven? Holy Writ again answers for you, saying: "It is God!" "I Myself," says the Lord, "shall be thine inheritance." And what is God? God is infinite beauty, infinite bliss, infinite love. The possession of a God who is infinite beauty itself, did this possession last but for a single moment, would be, as St. Augustine says, an overwhelming recompense for a life-long martyrdom.
If our life has been full of good works, we will then be united with God, and will, through this union, be made partakers of His beatitude. If, however, our life has not been fruitful of good works, and even has been sullied with many a sinful deed and thought, then the terrible sentence, " Cut down the tree," will be unmercifully hurled against us. Our loss, in this case, will be God and His infinite glory. And this loss will be irreparable; it will last for all eternity! What a terrible loss!
Let us then, dear Christians, according to the counsel of St. Peter, secure our salvation by leading a truly edifying life, a life full of good and holy actions! Amen !
"Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be cut down,
and shall be cast into the fire."--Matt. 7.
The cutting down of the tree that does not bear good fruit reminds us of the first part of the punishment in hell, namely, the loss of eternal beatitude, of eternal delight, of eternal union with God in His glory, and in the enjoyment of all created bliss. The last words of the menace of Christ: "and shall be cast into the fire," recalls to our mind the second part of the punishment in hell, namely, the torment which the sinner is forced to endure there, if he has led a life barren of good deeds, if he has not brought forth good fruit, but, on the contrary, evil fruit.
Christ, in today's Gospel, speaks only of fire; but, in several passages of Holy Writ, mention is made of other torments. Meditation on the pains of hell, strengthens the soul in her resolution, rather to forego every temporary pleasure, and to bear every transient affliction, than to expose herself to the danger of enduring the eternal sufferings of the damned.
We shall today consider, in order, these torments of hell. O Mary, mother, we beg thee, by thy maternal heart, not to permit even a single one of thy children here present to be subjected to the torments of the damned! I speak in the most holy name of Jesus, to the greater glory of God!
"Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be cast into the fire." Our divine Saviour here mentions the punishment by fire as the greatest and most painful torment that the damned suffer; but it is not the only one. Christ speaks also of other torments ; and He has revealed to us, through His Prophets and Apostles, that in hell the sinner shall have to endure hunger, eternal hunger; thirst, eternal thirst; the most profound darkness, the worm that never dies, gnashing of teeth and bowlings of despair, fire, eternal fire!
Holy Writ speaks first of the hunger of the condemned: "They shall suffer hunger like dogs." What a dreadful torment is hunger, even when endured but a few days! Josephus Flavius, in his description of the siege of Jerusalem, says that the pangs of hunger were so dire as to cause mothers to eat their own children!
In hell this hunger reigns forever! What distress that is, sinner, you will experience in hell! There, too, unrelenting thirst is experienced for ever! The torment of thirst is greater than that of hunger, as all those inform us who have traveled in deserts. But what is their thirst compared to that of the rich man in hell, who, as Christ tells us, thus called to Abraham: "Send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water to cool my tongue, for I am tormented in these flames."
Christ further assures us that hell is the place where the worm never dies, and by this worm He signifies the remorse of conscience: It is your own fault; it was not the will of God; it was so easy to save your soul; God bestowed so many divine graces upon you; you neglected them, set no store by them.
Bitter as these complaints may be, more bitter still will be the anguish of those who had during life so many opportunities of saving their souls; and such is the case with all the children of the Church. Woe to me, cries the unfortunate Catholic who has lost his soul! I had so many graces; I was a Catholic; God gave me good parents, teachers, confessors and priests; and I am damned! I had so many means of securing my salvation: Catholic instruction from my youth, sermons, Holy Mass, confession, communion; and I am damned!
But these are not all the torments which the sinner suffers in hell. Let us try to conceive all the pain of the manifold maladies to which flesh is heir, all the tortures the martyrs endured, the very thought of which causes us to shudder, and yet all these are as naught, compared with the sufferings of the damned in hell; for there, gnashing of teeth, howling, despair, fire, prevail!
That such is really the punishment of the damned, no one can doubt who considers what the Old and New Testament, the Apostles, the Holy Fathers, and Christ Himself have said concerning it. Isaias and all the Prophets expressly state this punishment of fire. They call hell, the pit of death,--the soil of curses,--the pool of brimstone,--the fire. Isaias says, emphatically: "Which of you shall dwell with everlasting burnings? " "He will," says St. John the Baptist, "burn the chaff with unquenchable fire." St. Peter and St. Thaddaeus exclaim: They will suffer the punishment of fire, which God has prepared for the devil and his followers. "And the smoke of the pit arose," says St. John, "as the smoke of a great furnace;" and Christ Himself assures us that those to whom He says depart, "shall go into eternal fire!"
The Holy Fathers, whose commentaries on Holy Writ we have to follow according to the laws of the Church, give their testimony with the same precision. What can be more explicit than what the Holy Fathers say of the torments of Hell? St. Cyprian writes thus: "There are various pains in hell, where, through the utmost darkness, the flames of eternal fire break forth." Before him St. Justin wrote : "They will suffer eternal fire for their crimes." Ignatius, a disciple of the Apostles, tells us: "Those to whom He says, Depart from me into eternal fire, are condemned to remain forever in the same." St. Cyril, of Jerusalem, teaches: "The sinner receives an immortal body in order that, though burning for evermore, he may yet never be consumed." "There even spirits are tormented by material fire," writes St. Augustine.
What torture! How is it possible that any one, who, as a child of the Church possesses the grace of faith, should not be willing to endure anything in this world, rather than expose himself to the danger of suffering such torments for all eternity!
The only means of guarding ourselves against so dreadful a future, is to make use of the divine graces and talents God has bestowed upon us, to avoid all sin, to overcome all temptations; and thus by bringing forth fruits of life, by fulfilling the most holy will of God, follow in the footsteps of our Lord and Redeemer Jesus Christ.
In addition to this our reason alone should tell us that, if God created rational and, hence, immortal beings; if He endowed them with freedom to fulfill or transgress His laws, He was also obliged to support these laws with endless punishment, if these immortal beings dared to violate them. I say endless punishment, because, for an immortal being, no sanction of a law is adequate unless it be eternal; for the contemptuous sinner might brave God, and choose to undergo any temporary punishment rather than be deprived of the present satisfaction of his passions. In that case the punishment would, in time, pass, and all would be over. But if the punishment is eternal without end even the devil must tremble at it, and the eternal laws of God have a sufficient sanction; otherwise, not.
Deign then, O Lord, to protect us from the transgression of Thy law, and from the everlasting evil of hell! Amen!
There is one kind of deception especially which is often practiced by those having the happiness of being children of the Catholic Church, namely: the belief that their salvation is secured because they are children of that holy Church, and also because they really perform many of the duties imposed by Christianity. This apparently Catholic life is the sheep-skin with which they clothe themselves, while they secretly indulge in the most abominable vices, and are like rapacious wolves in the corruption of others.
The enormity of the deception of a person who is satisfied with living only nominally a Catholic life, becomes clear to us from the parable of the good and bad tree. A good tree brings forth good fruit, an evil tree brings forth evil fruit; and by the fruits will we recognize whether a man walks really upon the path of salvation or not.
Let us earnestly consider today this parable of Christ, for what would it avail us to be Catholics if we nevertheless went to eternal perdition? O Mary, thou tree of life, who hast borne for the blessing of all nations Jesus, the fruit of thy womb and of thy virtuous life, pray for us that His grace may bear fruit within us. I speak in the most holy name of Jesus, to the greater glory of God!
"A good tree," says Jesus, "brings forth good fruit." Certainly, but it does not follow from this that every bough or seed of a good tree must bring forth fruit. That this may happen several conditions must be fulfilled which have all a spiritual signification. A short reflection on these conditions will be not a little beneficial to our soul, to the end that the fruit-tree of our life may not wither, or stand barren, and without fruit.
That a tree may bring forth fruit, it is necessary, first, that the roots have good soil, such as can give them nourishment and strength. The ground for the tree of a good life is faith-- instruction in religion, reflections on the truths of revelation, according to St. Paul, who says : "The just man lives by faith."
What an important admonition, especially for parents ! How often is it not the case that they themselves are only nominal Christians, imperfectly instructed in their faith, and hence but little concerned about the instruction of their children! This is particularly so here in America. What is the consequence? The sapling of life withers before it has grown up. The sand and rubbish of temporal cares is the earth in which such people place the shoot of their tree of life. It draws no sap from the earth, and soon dies.
Secondly, that a fruit-tree may grow, it must be watered, and the dews of heaven must refresh it. The water, the dew, is an emblem of prayer. How much this watering process is neglected in the education of the young! The parents frequently pray neither at morning nor at night, and thus accustom their children to live without having recourse to God. Hence no growth, no progress in virtue. Yes, even on Sundays and festivals of obligation, many parents neglect to hear Mass; and their children, following their example, do not go to Church either. Perhaps the parents even work on holydays, and in this the children also soon imitate their elders.
There is, above all, among Christians a neglect of spiritual reading, and of the frequentation of the Sacraments. They have recourse to the Sacraments only when the weeds and brambles of sin have outgrown the sapling of virtue. What is worse, even when at last they approach these fountains of graces, they commit sacrileges, and the young tree is poisoned and destroyed to the very roots.
Thirdly, if a sapling is to grow up and bear fruit, its trunk must be carefully watched, that it may not fork and throw out saplings, but grow up straight towards heaven; otherwise it becomes a bush, and perhaps instead of fruit bears thorns. What does this signify? It signifies that our will, our character, should be one and undivided, that we be resolved not to live for that which is earthly, but for that which is eternal for God, for heaven; to raise eye and heart continually upward, as the priest daily tells the children of the Church from the altar. This aim is the trunk of the tree of life.
But that this aim may be practical the trunk must spread out branches; we must namely make resolutions to live according to our station in life. Our life must be well regulated, our duties must stand clearly defined before our inner eye, and we must be determined to fulfill them from love to God. This desire makes the tree blossom, and brings out the buds of good resolutions. But that these blossoms may not wither and die, that they may develop into fruit, the tree needs light, as also that inner flow of the sap which the root diffuses through the trunk into the branches.
The light exemplifies our good intentions, our continual remembrance of the presence of God, which, like the sun, sends light and warmth through our interior life. The inner sap exemplifies sanctifying grace, which has to dwell within us if the virtues of life shall not be mere semblances, but be real solid fruit brought to maturity and ripeness. If this is the case fruit will not be wanting, especially if the disposition of the heart is such that it secures the ripening, and does not allow the fruit to fall and be lost before its time. This is the work of holy patience. How vigorously, how encouragingly this virtue acts upon the growth, the ripening of the fruit!
A fruit-tree does not stand in a conservatory, but in the open field, and is exposed to all the inclemency of the weather to rains and chilly winds, and the fiery rays of the midsummer sun. The branches are tossed by the storm, and the trunk sways under its violence. It is change of temperature and variations in the weather that develop the bud and mature the fruit.
"Heaven suffers violence." This admonition of Christ should be constantly before our eyes if we desire to grow up like a good fruit-tree, and not only bear some, but abundant fruit in accordance with the measure of divine grace which God has given us.
This is the parable that Christ proposed to us. May we carefully consider it, and make use of the lessons it points out to us, in order that our life may become fruitful, and bear a rich crop for eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord, the heavenly gardener! Amen!
How earnest and solemn is the Lord's menace in today's Gospel: " Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire!" And mark well, not only every tree that bringeth forth bad fruit is threatened with this dreadful punishment, but also such trees as do not bring forth good fruit.
For, if we wish to be numbered amongst the children of God, we must, as our Lord Himself declares in today's Gospel, fulfill the will of our heavenly Father, according to the spirit of our vocation and in conformity with the duties of our state of life. The neglect of this obligation is an evil in itself, and brings down upon us the sentence of condemnation.
Unless we strive with all earnestness to advance in the way to perfection, we shall, even in this life, be deprived of many consolations, without which we easily fall a prey to despondency and despair. Thus, through a neglect of our spiritual welfare, we shall never know the joy and happiness which flow from a peaceful conscience; nor shall we ever experience the complete security and cheerful hope with which the fervent, earnest Christian may look forward to the day of retribution.
But certainly the most awful punishment with which the negligent Christian is threatened in today's Gospel, is his eternal banishment to the flames of hell! For, "Every tree," says the Lord, "that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire."
Mary, our refuge and hope, obtain for us, thy children, the grace, that we may live in such a manner as one day to be found worthy of being united to thee for all eternity in heaven ! I speak in the most holy name of Jesus, to the greater glory of God!
The first thing with which the tree that bringeth not forth frood fruit is threatened, signifies the chief punishment of the damned, "it shall be cut down." If we have fulfilled the will of God during our earthly life, if we have brought forth good fruit for eternity, we shall then be transplanted as good trees from the paradise of the Church into that of heaven. But should we have been careless in the service of the Almighty, should we have slighted His commandments and neglected our duties towards His holy Church, we should then be cut down like a tree that has brought forth bad and worthless fruit, and which is good for nothing but the fire!
What do we mean by the words "cut down"? It will be easy to understand the signification of this expression, if we but consider the joys of heaven as they are revealed to us by the light of faith. Holy Writ calls heaven a paradise; i.e., a world of wonders, created by God for the recompense of His faithful servants. And now, though no man can divine the beauty and splendor and grandeur of the paradise of God, still it does not surpass a mortal's comprehension to understand that a God, who is infinite beauty, infinite splendor, infinite might and glory, that such a God, I say, should be able, and is able, to call into being creations grander and nobler than the greatest beauties of the earth.
What a beautiful fairy world can the imagination of man conjure up, by recombining and rearranging the elements of the visible world about us! What grand and wondrous things, then, must not God, the almighty Creator, be able to design and execute!
And now, dear Christians, if you fulfill the holy will of God as it has been taught you by your pastors; that is, if, as good trees in the paradise of the Church, you bring forth good works for eternity, you will then soon be admitted into the heavenly paradise; where, rejoicing with great joy, you will exclaim: "I see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living;" heaven is mine, all is mine! If, on the contrary, you have not performed good works, or have done evil deeds, you will hear the voice of the Judge, saying: "Cut down the tree, and throw it into the fire." Far from tasting the indescribable joys of heaven, you will, O horror! be condemned to the everlasting torments of hell!
Holy Writ calls heaven the kingdom of joy. Indeed, nothing but joy, infinite joy, reigns in heaven! "I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice from the throne, saying: Behold the tabernacle of God with men, and He will dwell with them. And they shall be His people: and God Himself with them shall be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes: and death shall be no more, nor mourning, nor weeping, nor sorrow."
Yes, dear Christians, nothing but everlasting joy is the inheritance of the blessed in the kingdom of God. There is not a moment of care, not a moment of sadness or sorrow. Such will be your reward, if, during your life here below, you will treasure up good works for the life to come. But if you have not brought forth good fruit, you will, like a dead tree, be cut down, and never, never taste of those pure joys, of which St. Paul tells us: "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for those who love Him." Never, unless you be a tree productive of good fruit in the paradise of the Church of God, will you, even for one single moment, through all the ages of eternity, enjoy this heavenly bliss, this all-surpassing beauty!
What a loss! The tree is cut down and cast away. What a dreadful evil! Holy Writ calls heaven the place of reward for the good works which we have performed, and the sufferings which we have patiently borne for the love of God. Nay, not even a glass of water given to the least of our neighbors for the love of Jesus, shall remain without its reward. And what will be this reward? Ah, dear Christians, its beauty and splendor will surpass all imaginable magnificence in this world; not the richest crowns, not the grandest princely pomp, will bear comparison to the things which God has prepared for the reward of those who show themselves His faithful and devoted children!
Happy you, God-loving soul, who, as a good tree, have brought forth good fruit by a faithful observance of the Divine law, and by the patient endurance of your daily trials! Indeed, the day will come, when you will exclaim in astonishment: Too great, O Lord, too great is Thy bounty towards me; never have I deserved, O Lord, the good things Thou hast given to me!
But woe to you, O sinner, who have not brought forth good fruit! You will be cut down, and will for evermore lament your miserable lot in the flames of hell! The menace of the Lord will be fulfilled in you: "He shall die in his sin, and his justices which he hath done, shall not be remembered." What a loss! what a terrible punishment!
Holy Writ calls heaven the communion with angels and saints in all their bliss. Who can imagine what a flood of joy and happiness awaits the soul of the just in such an assembly! Happy you, who, during life, have endeavored to imitate the saints your departed brethren, and have, as good trees, brought forth good fruit in abundance! The bliss of angels and archangels will soon be your own.
But if you have not performed good works, or even have done evil deeds, then will your Judge pronounce the terrible sentence of condemnation against you: "Cut down the tree." And instead of enjoying the community of angels and saints, you will be most unmercifully tormented by the evil spirits and by the damned, especially by those souls to whom you have given scandal by your dissolute manner of life.
Instead of partaking of the beatitude of Christ and His blessed mother, the Lord will say to you: "Depart from Me, you cursed!"
But allow me once more to ask you : What is heaven? Holy Writ again answers for you, saying: "It is God!" "I Myself," says the Lord, "shall be thine inheritance." And what is God? God is infinite beauty, infinite bliss, infinite love. The possession of a God who is infinite beauty itself, did this possession last but for a single moment, would be, as St. Augustine says, an overwhelming recompense for a life-long martyrdom.
If our life has been full of good works, we will then be united with God, and will, through this union, be made partakers of His beatitude. If, however, our life has not been fruitful of good works, and even has been sullied with many a sinful deed and thought, then the terrible sentence, " Cut down the tree," will be unmercifully hurled against us. Our loss, in this case, will be God and His infinite glory. And this loss will be irreparable; it will last for all eternity! What a terrible loss!
Let us then, dear Christians, according to the counsel of St. Peter, secure our salvation by leading a truly edifying life, a life full of good and holy actions! Amen !
"Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be cut down,
and shall be cast into the fire."--Matt. 7.
The cutting down of the tree that does not bear good fruit reminds us of the first part of the punishment in hell, namely, the loss of eternal beatitude, of eternal delight, of eternal union with God in His glory, and in the enjoyment of all created bliss. The last words of the menace of Christ: "and shall be cast into the fire," recalls to our mind the second part of the punishment in hell, namely, the torment which the sinner is forced to endure there, if he has led a life barren of good deeds, if he has not brought forth good fruit, but, on the contrary, evil fruit.
Christ, in today's Gospel, speaks only of fire; but, in several passages of Holy Writ, mention is made of other torments. Meditation on the pains of hell, strengthens the soul in her resolution, rather to forego every temporary pleasure, and to bear every transient affliction, than to expose herself to the danger of enduring the eternal sufferings of the damned.
We shall today consider, in order, these torments of hell. O Mary, mother, we beg thee, by thy maternal heart, not to permit even a single one of thy children here present to be subjected to the torments of the damned! I speak in the most holy name of Jesus, to the greater glory of God!
"Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be cast into the fire." Our divine Saviour here mentions the punishment by fire as the greatest and most painful torment that the damned suffer; but it is not the only one. Christ speaks also of other torments ; and He has revealed to us, through His Prophets and Apostles, that in hell the sinner shall have to endure hunger, eternal hunger; thirst, eternal thirst; the most profound darkness, the worm that never dies, gnashing of teeth and bowlings of despair, fire, eternal fire!
Holy Writ speaks first of the hunger of the condemned: "They shall suffer hunger like dogs." What a dreadful torment is hunger, even when endured but a few days! Josephus Flavius, in his description of the siege of Jerusalem, says that the pangs of hunger were so dire as to cause mothers to eat their own children!
In hell this hunger reigns forever! What distress that is, sinner, you will experience in hell! There, too, unrelenting thirst is experienced for ever! The torment of thirst is greater than that of hunger, as all those inform us who have traveled in deserts. But what is their thirst compared to that of the rich man in hell, who, as Christ tells us, thus called to Abraham: "Send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water to cool my tongue, for I am tormented in these flames."
Christ further assures us that hell is the place where the worm never dies, and by this worm He signifies the remorse of conscience: It is your own fault; it was not the will of God; it was so easy to save your soul; God bestowed so many divine graces upon you; you neglected them, set no store by them.
Bitter as these complaints may be, more bitter still will be the anguish of those who had during life so many opportunities of saving their souls; and such is the case with all the children of the Church. Woe to me, cries the unfortunate Catholic who has lost his soul! I had so many graces; I was a Catholic; God gave me good parents, teachers, confessors and priests; and I am damned! I had so many means of securing my salvation: Catholic instruction from my youth, sermons, Holy Mass, confession, communion; and I am damned!
But these are not all the torments which the sinner suffers in hell. Let us try to conceive all the pain of the manifold maladies to which flesh is heir, all the tortures the martyrs endured, the very thought of which causes us to shudder, and yet all these are as naught, compared with the sufferings of the damned in hell; for there, gnashing of teeth, howling, despair, fire, prevail!
That such is really the punishment of the damned, no one can doubt who considers what the Old and New Testament, the Apostles, the Holy Fathers, and Christ Himself have said concerning it. Isaias and all the Prophets expressly state this punishment of fire. They call hell, the pit of death,--the soil of curses,--the pool of brimstone,--the fire. Isaias says, emphatically: "Which of you shall dwell with everlasting burnings? " "He will," says St. John the Baptist, "burn the chaff with unquenchable fire." St. Peter and St. Thaddaeus exclaim: They will suffer the punishment of fire, which God has prepared for the devil and his followers. "And the smoke of the pit arose," says St. John, "as the smoke of a great furnace;" and Christ Himself assures us that those to whom He says depart, "shall go into eternal fire!"
The Holy Fathers, whose commentaries on Holy Writ we have to follow according to the laws of the Church, give their testimony with the same precision. What can be more explicit than what the Holy Fathers say of the torments of Hell? St. Cyprian writes thus: "There are various pains in hell, where, through the utmost darkness, the flames of eternal fire break forth." Before him St. Justin wrote : "They will suffer eternal fire for their crimes." Ignatius, a disciple of the Apostles, tells us: "Those to whom He says, Depart from me into eternal fire, are condemned to remain forever in the same." St. Cyril, of Jerusalem, teaches: "The sinner receives an immortal body in order that, though burning for evermore, he may yet never be consumed." "There even spirits are tormented by material fire," writes St. Augustine.
What torture! How is it possible that any one, who, as a child of the Church possesses the grace of faith, should not be willing to endure anything in this world, rather than expose himself to the danger of suffering such torments for all eternity!
The only means of guarding ourselves against so dreadful a future, is to make use of the divine graces and talents God has bestowed upon us, to avoid all sin, to overcome all temptations; and thus by bringing forth fruits of life, by fulfilling the most holy will of God, follow in the footsteps of our Lord and Redeemer Jesus Christ.
In addition to this our reason alone should tell us that, if God created rational and, hence, immortal beings; if He endowed them with freedom to fulfill or transgress His laws, He was also obliged to support these laws with endless punishment, if these immortal beings dared to violate them. I say endless punishment, because, for an immortal being, no sanction of a law is adequate unless it be eternal; for the contemptuous sinner might brave God, and choose to undergo any temporary punishment rather than be deprived of the present satisfaction of his passions. In that case the punishment would, in time, pass, and all would be over. But if the punishment is eternal without end even the devil must tremble at it, and the eternal laws of God have a sufficient sanction; otherwise, not.
Deign then, O Lord, to protect us from the transgression of Thy law, and from the everlasting evil of hell! Amen!
