In Matthew 25:31-46, a description is given of the Last Judgment, an event every human being will have to face: "...and He (Jesus Christ) will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the king will say to those on His right hand, 'Come, blessed of my Father, take possession of the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave Me to eat; I was thirsty and you gave Me to drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; naked and you covered Me; sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.'
"Then the just will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You; or see You a stranger, and take You in; or naked, and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You? And answering the king will say to them, 'Amen I say to you, as long as you did it for one of these, the least of My brethren, you did it for Me.'
"Then He will say to those on His left hand, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the everlasting fire which was prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you did not give Me to eat; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me... And these will go into everlasting punishment, but the just into everlasting life."
The Social Crediters take this passage of the Gospel literally, for what is Social Credit all about if not working to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, and to shelter the homeless by working for a better economic system that would make money available for every human being to be able to buy at least his basic necessities to live. And the Social Crediter knows that what he does for the least of his neighbor, he does unto Our Lord Himself. So by working for the justice of God, he hopes to merit eternal happiness in the kingdom of Heaven. He dreams of being with a God who has an infinite love for him, who will make him happy beyond his wildest dreams.
But unfortunately, many think very little about life after death, being carried away with the cares and pleasures of earth. Or they delude themselves into thinking that they can reach the eternal kingdom of Heaven with little or no effort on their part, that they can break the Commandments of God as they so wish, that they can make money their God, and still reach their eternal goal, not at all caring about following the teachings of Christ.
We must keep in mind that there is also a hell. Our Lord proclaims the dogma of hell at least fifteen times in the Gospel. Yet many people today still question this dogma or even openly deny the reality of hell. But hell does also exist! And it is the teaching of the Catholic Church that if a soul dies in the state of mortal sin without repentance, that soul will go to hell for all eternity.
In his book "Crossing the Treshold of Hope", Pope John Paul II said this about the Last Things and the existence of hell:
"Not so long ago, in sermons during retreats or missions, the Last Things death, judgment, heaven, hell, and purgatory were always a standard part of the program of meditation, and preachers knew how to speak of them in an effective and evocative way. How many people were drawn to conversion and confession by these sermons and reflections on the Last Things!...
"Can God, who has loved man So much, permit the man who rejects Him to be condemned to eternal torment? And yet, the words of Christ are unequivocal. In Matthew's Gospel He speaks clearly of those who will go to eternal punishment (cf. Mt 25:46)... At the same time, however, there is something in man's moral conscience itself that rebels against any loss of this conviction. Is not God who is Love also ultimate Justice? Can He tolerate these terrible crimes, can they go unpunished?... Is not hell in a certain sense the ultimate safeguard of man's moral conscience?"
It does one no harm to meditate periodically on the horrors and eternity of hell in order to be more willing to say no to sin and to remain on the narrow road to the eternal kingdom of Heaven. Following are excerpts on this subject taken from a book entitled "Preparation For Death" by St. Alphonsus de Liguori. The subtitles are from the "Michael" Journal.
Melvin Sickler
by St. Alphonsus de Liguori
It is of Faith that there is a hell. In the middle of the earth there is a prison reserved for the chastisement of rebels against God. What is this hell? It is what the glutton who was damned called a place of torments. A place of torments, where all the senses and powers of the damned will have their proper torment, and where, the more a person has offended God by any sense, the more he will be tortured in that sense.
The sight will be tormented with darkness. How pitiable the condition of a man who is shut up in a dark cave for forty or fifty years, or during his whole life! Hell is a dungeon closed up on every side, into which a ray of the sun, or of any other light, shall never enter. The fire of this world sends forth light; but the fire of hell is utterly dark. In explaining these words, St. Basil says, that the Lord will separate the light from the fire, so that this fire will burn, but will not illuminate... St. Thomas teaches that the damned have only the light which serves to increase their torments. In that glimmering light they will see the deformity of their associates, and of the devils, who will assume horrible forms in order to increase the terrors of the damned.
The sense of smell will also be tormented. How painful to be confined in a close room along with a putrid corpse! The damned must remain in the midst of so many millions of the reprobate, who, though forever alive to pain, are called carcasses on account of the stench which they send forth. St. Bonaventure says, that if the body of one of the damned were placed on this earth, it would, by its stench, be sufficient to cause the death of all men. "There," says St. Thomas, "the society of the reprobate will cause, not a diminution, but an increase of misery." Their sufferings are more intolerable on account of the stench, on account of the shrieks of the damned, and on account of the narrowness of the place.
In hell, they will be one over the other, like sheep gathered together in the winter.
They will be even like grapes pressed under the wine-press of God's wrath. From this will arise the pain of immobility. Thus, in whatsoever position the damned will fall into hell after the last day, in that they must remain, without ever changing their posture, and without ever being able to move hand or foot, as long as God will be God.
The sense of hearing will be tormented by the unceasing howling and wailing of those miserable beings, who are sunk in an abyss of despair. The devils will torment the damned by continual noises. How painful to a person longing for sleep to hear the groans of a sick man, the barking of a dog, or the screams of an infant! But, oh! how miserable the condition of the damned, who must listen incessantly for all eternity to the clamor and cries of the companions of their torments!
The damned will be tormented by a ravenous hunger. But they never will have a morsel of bread. Their thirst will be so great that all the waters of the ocean will not be able to quench it; but they will never be allowed a single drop. The rich glutton asked for a drop of water; but he has not as yet had it, and he never, never will have it.
The pain which most severely torments the senses of the damned arises from the fire of hell, which tortures the sense of touch. Even in this life, the pain of fire is the greatest of all torments; but according to St. Augustine, our fire, compared with the fire of hell, is but painted fire.
St. Vincent Ferrer says, that in comparison with the fire of hell our fire is cold. The reason is, that the fire of this earth has been created for our use; but God has made the fire of hell purposely to torment the damned. The wrath of God lights up this avenging fire.
The damned will be sent, not to the fire, but into the fire. "Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire." Thus, like a piece of wood in the furnace, they will be surrounded by fire. They will have an abyss of fire below, an abyss of fire above, and an abyss of fire on every side. If they touch, or see, or breathe, they touch and see and breathe nothing but fire. They will live in fire, like a fish in water. But this fire will not only surround the damned, but will also enter into their very bowels to torment them. Their bodies will become all fire. Thus, this fire will burn the bowels, the heart, the brain, the blood within the veins, and even the marrow within the bones. Each of the damned will be in himself a furnace of fire.
As a wild beast devours a lamb, so the fire of hell devours the damned; but it devours them without ever causing causing death. "Fools," says St. Peter Damian, addressing the unchaste, "continue, continue to indulge your flesh; a day will come when your impurities, like pitch, will nourish and increase within your bowels the flame which will torment you in hell." St. Jerome says that this fire will bring with it all the pains and torments to which men are subject on this earth pains in the sides, in the head, in the bowels, in the nerves. But we must always keep in mind, that all the torments of this earth are, as St. John Chrysostom says, but the shadow of the pains of hell.
The powers of the soul will also have their proper torment. The damned will be tormented in the memory by the remembrance of the time which was given to them in this life, that they might save their souls, and which they spent in procuring their own damnation; by the remembrance of the graces which they have received from God, and of which they have not profited. They will be tormented in the understanding by thinking of the great good which they have lost in losing heaven and God, and that this loss is forever irreparable.
In the will, by seeing that they will be refused whatsoever they ask. These miserable beings will never have anything which they desire, and will be forever afflicted with the eternal torments which they abhor. They would wish to be rid of these torments, and to enjoy peace; but in these torments they will forever remain, and peace they will never find.
But all these torments are nothing, compared with the pain of loss. Hell does not consist in the darkness, stench, shrieks, and fire; the pain which constitutes hell is, the pain of having lost God. "Let torments," says St. Bruno, "be added to torments, and let them not be deprived of God." And St. John Chrysostom says that a thousand hells are not equal to this pain. According to St. Augustine, if the damned enjoyed the vision of God, "they should feel no pain, and hell should be converted into a paradise."
At its departure from this world, the soul, as St. Antonine says, instantly sees that it has been created for God. Hence it will suddenly rush forward to embrace its Sovereign Good: but, if it be in sin, God will cast it off.
Ah! if we now heard the wailing of one of the damned, and asked him why he weeps so bitterly, his answer would be: I weep because I have lost God, and shall never see Him more. Perhaps the miserable man can love God in hell, and can resign himself to His will? No, if he could do this, hell would not be hell. The unhappy being can never resign himself to the divine will. Neither can he love his God; he hates and will hate him forever; and his hell will consist in the conviction that God is an infinite good, and that he is compelled to hate Him, while he sees that He is worthy of infinite love.
The damned will hate and curse God; and in cursing God, they will also curse the benefits he has conferred upon them; they will curse the benefits of creation, of redemption, of the sacraments, particularly the sacraments of baptism and penance, and, above. all, the most holy sacrament of the altar. They will hate all the angels and saints, but especially their angel-guardians and their holy advocates, and above all the divine Mother. But they will principally hate the Three Divine Persons, and among them they will hate in a special manner the Son of God, who once died for their salvation; they will curse His wounds, His blood, His pains, and His death.
Were hell not eternal, it would not be hell. Torments which continue but for a short time, are not a severe punishment. A slight pain in the eye, or in the teeth, when it lasts for a long time, becomes insupportable... What then must hell be, where the damned do not submit merely to pains in the eyes, or in the teeth, or to the torture of the red-hot iron, but to suffer all pains and all torments? And for how long? For all eternity!
If hell lasted but a hundred, or even but two or three years, it would be the extreme of folly in a Christian to condemn himself to fire for two or three years for the vile pleasure of a moment. But there is not the question of thirty, of a hundred, or of a hundred thousand years; but there is question of eternity; there is question of suffering forever the same torments torments which will never end, and which will never be mitigated in the slightest degree.
Perhaps the damned may flatter themselves with a false hope, and thus find some relief in their despair. The man who is mortally wounded, confined to his bed, and given over by his physicians, may console himself with the hope of finding a physician or a remedy to heal his wounds. And may not the damned at least say: "Who knows but I shall one day escape from this prison?" and thus delude himself with this false hope. No: in hell there is no hope, whether true or false; there is no perhaps. The unhappy damned will always see the sentence of their reprobation written before their eyes. In it they will read, that they will weep forever in that pit of torments. Hence the damned not only suffer the torments of each moment, but in each moment they endure the pain of eternity, saying, "What I now suffer, I must suffer forever." "They bear," says Tertullian, "the weight of eternity."
The punishment of hell will be great; but what ought to terrify us more is, that it will be irrevocable.
If an angel said to one of the damned: "You will leave hell, but only after the lapse of as many ages as there are drops of water in the ocean, leaves on the trees, or grains of sand in the sea," he would feel greater joy than a beggar would at hearing of his elevation to a throne. Yes, all these ages will pass away, they will be multiplied an infinite number of times, and hell will be at its commencement.
The damned will ask the devils what is the hour of the night. When will it end? When will these trumpets, these shrieks, this stench, these flames, these torments cease? Their answer is: "Never, never!" And how long will they last? "Forever, forever!"
Ah Lord! give light to so many blind Christians, who, when entreated not to damn themselves, say: "If I go to hell, I must have patience." O God! they have not patience to bear the least cold, to remain in an overheated room, or to submit to a buffet on the check. And how can they have patience to remain in a sea of fire, trampled by the devils, and abandoned by God and by all, for all eternity?
But an unbeliever will say: "Can it be just to punish a sin which lasts but a moment, with eternal torments?" But how, I ask, can a sinner, for a momentary pleasure, dare to insult a God of infinite majesty? Hell is but a small punishment for mortal sins; an offence against infinite majesty deserves infinite chastisement. "In every mortal sin," says St. Bernardine of Sienna, "an infinite insult is offered to God; but an infinite injury merits infinite punishment."
Besides, since the damned are incapable of making satisfaction for their sins, their punishment should be necessarily eternal. In this life penitent sinners can atone for their iniquities only in as much as the merits of Jesus Christ are applied to them. But, from the application of these merits the reprobate are excluded. Hence, since they cannot appease the anger of God, and since their sin is eternal, their punishment also must be eternal. Hence, Belluacensis says: "There sin can be forever punished, and can never be expiated;" for, according to St. Augustine, "there the sinner cannot repent." Therefore the wrath of the Lord shall be always provoked against him.
It is St. Alphonsus who always said: "Those who pray will be saved; those who do not pray will be condemned."
Let us reflect on the necessity of prayer. St. John Chrysostom says that, as the body without the soul is dead, so the soul is dead without prayer. He also teaches that, as water is necessary to prevent the decay of plants, so prayer is necessary to preserve us from perdition.
God wills that all men be saved. But He also wishes that we ask Him for the graces necessary for salvation. For, on the one hand, it is impossible for us to observe the divine commands, and save our souls, without the actual assistance of God; and on the other, ordinarily speaking, God will not give us His graces unless we ask for them from Him...
St. Augustine teaches, that God gives without prayer the first graces, such as vocation to the Faith and to repentance; but all other graces, and particular the gift of perseverance, He gives only to those who ask Him. Hence, theologians, after St. Basil, St. Augustine, St. John Chrysostom, Clement of Alexandria, and others, teach that for adults prayer is necessary as a means of salvation; so that, without it, it is impossible to be saved. And the most learned Lessius says that this doctrine must be held as of Faith.
He who prays, is certainly saved; he who does not pray, is certainly lost. All the elect are saved by prayer; all the damned are lost by neglect of prayer, and their greatest despair is, and will be forever, caused by the conviction, that they had it in their power to save their souls so easily by prayer, and that now the time of salvation is no more.
St. Alphonsus de Liguori
On July 16, 1251, Our Lady appeared to St. Simon Stock, and handed to him the Brown Scapular, giving this promise: "Whosoever dies wearing this Scapular shall not suffer eternal fire."
One of the 15 promises Our Lady gave to Blessed Alan concerning the recitation of the Rosary is: "The soul which recommends itself to Me by the recitation of the Rosary shall not perish."
And Our Lady had said to St. Dominic: "One day through the Rosary and Scapular I will save the world."
Is it asking too much for everyone to wear the Brown Scapular and to recite at least a five-decade Rosary every day?
M.S.
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