Hell

Hell is the name given to the destiny of those who die in mortal sin. It is the condemnatory sentence of God's judgment. It is the situation of punishment and suffering endured by those who died without repenting of their grave sins.

The sufferings of hell are eternal, they never end, and are usually grouped in two types:

• Pain of loss.- Separation from God, the supreme Good. This is the most tragic aspect of hell.
• Pain of sense.- Grave sufferings that include the presence and hatred of demons and of other condemned men. A special fire is usually mentioned.

At this very moment, the men who died without repenting of their sins and the demons endure that situation. Among the demons one especially wicked one is known, usually called Satan. Among the condemned men, no one's name is known with certainty, just as the names of those in heaven are also not known, except for the saints recognized by the Church. Several saints mention visions of men and demons condemned in hell, but give no specific names.

In part it is a self-condemnation since each person deliberately makes the decisions that lead them to that situation. In part it is a divine sentence (judgment), since the Lord has established it thus.

This topic has been much discussed. Let us give some answers:

• God has wanted human freedom to be real, so that it is not the same to act well as to act badly. Our decisions determine our destiny.
• Divine goodness and mercy are shown in the abundant helps provided to save us. For example: He forgives our sins time and again, each time we receive the sacrament of confession. These means of salvation cost Him His passion and death on the Cross.
• The punishments of hell are probably less than those deserved by sins.

Angels possess a very strong will, and their decisions are irrevocable. This is why demons cannot repent of the wicked decisions they made. The same is true of the souls of the condemned: after death their will is already firmly directed toward evil and they cannot repent.

Saint Faustina Kowalska in entry 741 of her Diary writes thus: Today I have been in the depths of hell, led by an angel. It is a place of great torments; how terribly large it is! The types of torments I saw:

• the first torment that constitutes hell is the loss of God; the second, the continual remorse of conscience; the third, that this destiny will never change;
• the fourth torment is the fire that penetrates the soul but does not annihilate it; it is a terrible torment; it is a purely spiritual fire, kindled by divine wrath;
• the fifth torment is the permanent darkness, a horrible, suffocating smell; and despite the darkness the demons and the condemned souls see one another and see all the evil of others and their own;
• the sixth torment is the continual company of Satan;
• the seventh torment is a tremendous despair, hatred of God, imprecations, curses, blasphemies.

These are the torments all the damned suffer together, but this is not the end of the torments. There are particular torments for different souls, which are the torments of the senses: each soul is tormented in a tremendous and indescribable way through what it has sinned. There are horrible dungeons, abysses of torments where one torment differs from another. I would have died at the sight of those terrible tortures if the omnipotence of God had not upheld me. Let the sinner know: with the sense by which he sins, by that will he be tormented for all eternity. I write this by the command of God, so that no soul may excuse itself saying that hell does not exist or that nobody has been there and knows what it is like.

I, Sister Faustina, by the command of God, was in the depths of hell to speak to souls and to testify that hell exists. (...) What I have written is a pale shadow of the things I saw. I observed one thing: the greater part of the souls there are those who did not believe that hell exists. When I came to, I could not recover from the horror, how terribly the souls suffer there. For this reason I pray with even greater ardor for the conversion of sinners, I ceaselessly invoke God's mercy for them. Oh my Jesus, I would rather agonize until the end of the world under the greatest tortures than offend You by even the least sin.

Saint Teresa of Jesus in chapter 32 of the book of her life describes the sufferings of hell in this way: I felt a fire in the soul that I cannot understand how I can express the manner of it. (...): a constriction, a choking, an affliction so deeply felt and with so desperate and distressed a discontent, that I do not know how to exaggerate it. For to say it is always tearing the soul is little, because it seems as though another is destroying your life; but here the soul itself is what tears itself apart. The fact is that I do not know how to exaggerate that interior fire and that desperation, together with such very grave torments and pains. I did not see who gave them to me, but I felt myself burning and being crumbled, as it seemed to me. And I say that that interior fire and desperation is the worst.

The Lord did not wish me to see more of all hell then. Afterward I have seen another vision of frightening things, of the punishment of certain vices. As for the sight, they seemed to me far more frightening; but as I did not feel the pain, they did not frighten me as much, for in this vision the Lord wished that I truly feel those torments and affliction in the spirit, as though the body were suffering them. (...) From this I also gained the very great sorrow that it causes me that so many souls condemn themselves.

Sister Lucia of Fatima thus recounts the vision she had of hell on 13 July 1917: Plunged into fire, the demons and souls, as though they were glowing embers, transparent and black and bronzed, with human form, floating in the conflagration, carried by the flames that issued from them, together with clouds of smoke falling in all directions, similar to the falling of sparks in great fires, without balance or weight, amid cries of pain and groans of despair that horrified and caused trembling with fear. The demons were distinguished by their horrible and loathsome forms of frightful and unknown animals, but transparent and black.