Hell As God's Mercy?

[CatholicCid]

In Catholic teaching, can Hell be said to be a form of God's Mercy?

Hell is the eternal seperation from God and the beautific vision.

The souls in Hell have choosen to go against their natural end, unity with God, and instead are unwilling to be with God.

We are made for God. To be complete, we are to be united with him in Heaven.

Yet, for those who refuse this, is Hell a mercy?

Would the unification with God in Heaven for an unwilling person be truly worse then eternal seperation?

Instead, is Hell as person's way of saying "Lord, while it pains me to go against my natural end of being in heaven with you, it would pain me more to join with you when I do not wish too. Through my own free will, I have refused you."

And yet, while it pains God for us to be seperated from Him, through his divine mercy he accepts our free will and will allow those who reject him to be seperated from him. Even though this pains both, he knows that by forcing one unwilling person into Heaven will cause them more pain then the eternal seperation of Hell.


I've been thinking about this especially with the Creation story (How God threw man out of Eden, because he had sinned AND put an angel with a fiery sword infront of the tree of life... I could expand if necessary)

Am I way off base here or could this idea be somewhat correct on some level?

God Bless.

Edited September 20, 2007 by CatholicCid

[Thy Geekdom Come]

One of my theology professors had this way (not a Church teaching, just a possible explanation) of seeing it: God is eternal fire, a fire of love, and wishes to draw all to Himself. Those who receive grace and allow it to fortify them in the flames of His love are like fire-tried gold or silver, and will be able to resist the flames of love, growing hotter and brighter in them, therefore being greater images of God. The closer they get to the fire of divine love, ultimately in heaven, the brighter the get. When one has not received grace, he is like a very poor material, incapable of being refined, and because God loves him and does not want to destroy him (because it would be against truth and love that the fire of divine love should destroy and not create), God casts him away into darkness, away from the divine fire, and into the cold. What little existence he still has, in pain and darkness, is his own pain and darkness, the unwillingness to accept grace and be made strong for divine love, and he is kept alive by the few little vapors of divine love which reach him there, although he is incapable of sensing them.

I like the imagery. It is, though, always unfortunate that anyone chooses hell.

[CatherineM]

My dad used to describe hell as the absence of God, and only people who wanted nothing to do with the Lord ended up there. So, I guess in a way that would be them getting what they wanted. Atheists think there is nothing after this life. If hell is nothingness without God, then I guess they will get what they think is coming.

[CatholicCid]

[quote name='Raphael' post='1389318' date='Sep 20 2007, 04:29 PM']One of my theology professors had this way (not a Church teaching, just a possible explanation) of seeing it: God is eternal fire, a fire of love, and wishes to draw all to Himself. Those who receive grace and allow it to fortify them in the flames of His love are like fire-tried gold or silver, and will be able to resist the flames of love, growing hotter and brighter in them, therefore being greater images of God. The closer they get to the fire of divine love, ultimately in heaven, the brighter the get. When one has not received grace, he is like a very poor material, incapable of being refined, and because God loves him and does not want to destroy him (because it would be against truth and love that the fire of divine love should destroy and not create), God casts him away into darkness, away from the divine fire, and into the cold. What little existence he still has, in pain and darkness, is his own pain and darkness, the unwillingness to accept grace and be made strong for divine love, and he is kept alive by the few little vapors of divine love which reach him there, although he is incapable of sensing them.

I like the imagery. It is, though, always unfortunate that anyone chooses hell.[/quote]

Actually, Ratzinger discussed a similiar thing in "God in the World", expanding on how Christ mentions "wailing and gnashing of teeth". He says "Hell is usually depicted as fire, as burning. But gnashing of teeth actually happens when you are freezing. This suggests a picture of fallen people, wailing and mourning and crying in protest, shut out in the cold, the cold into which one enters by refusing love. In a world seperated from God and thereby from love you begin to freeze--your teeth begin to chatter."

[Apotheoun]

Hell is a form of salvation, since the alternative is the annihilation of being, i.e., non-existence (cf. St. John Chrysostom, "Homily 9 on 1st Corinthians," nos. 5 and 6).

[beatty07]

looks like you're getting a lot of encouragement about this line of thinking. In some sense, everything God does is an act of mercy by definition, since the "characteristics" of God that are seperate in our minds are not separate in God. Love, mercy, justice, they merge into the Divine Being. I'm not putting this well, but it has to do with Aquinas' treatment of the "simplicity of God."

As a counterpoint, many have looked at damnation not as something God does to us, but as something we do to ourselves. Like, the damned soul beholds the goodness of God and runs as fast as he can in the other direction. C.S Lewis described this well. If there's truth in that, then maybe we should consider the possibility that damnation is utter separation from God's love and mercy. That it isn't God doing the best he can for this recalcitrant soul, but the soul rejecting the least iota of grace that could ram them through the eye of the needle?

I'm sympathetic to both approaches, and hope not to find out firsthand. By the way, I love the Hell as cold thing; isn't the end of Dante's Inferno just stunning that way? Check it out if you haven't read it.

[pippo buono]

[quote name='CatholicCid' post='1389556' date='Sep 20 2007, 10:07 PM']Actually, Ratzinger discussed a similiar thing in "God in the World", expanding on how Christ mentions "wailing and gnashing of teeth". He says "Hell is usually depicted as fire, as burning. But gnashing of teeth actually happens when you are freezing. This suggests a picture of fallen people, wailing and mourning and crying in protest, shut out in the cold, the cold into which one enters by refusing love. In a world seperated from God and thereby from love you begin to freeze--your teeth begin to chatter."[/quote]

This might be overkill by now, but this is also a concept that Scott Hahn discussed in [i]Rome Sweet Home[/i] when he was debating with his wife about purgatory. i cannot recall or find a direct quote for the life of me, he saw a similar connection. Hahn noticed that God often manifested his glory in terms of fire (the Shekina cloud, certain angels, Elijah's fiery chariot, burning bush, etc.). He imagined heaven then to be hotter than hell, and purgatory is what forms us to take the heat of God's love. A very different image of the concept, but not one i would place too much emphasis on.

[Thy Geekdom Come]

[quote name='Apotheoun' post='1389711' date='Sep 21 2007, 06:49 AM']Hell is a form of salvation, since the alternative is the annihilation of being, i.e., non-existence (cf. St. John Chrysostom, "Homily 9 on 1st Corinthians," nos. 5 and 6).[/quote]
Sweet. That jives with the view I expressed.

[T-Bone _]

[quote name='beatty07' post='1389727' date='Sep 21 2007, 07:01 AM']I'm sympathetic to both approaches, and hope not to find out firsthand. By the way, I love the Hell as cold thing; isn't the end of Dante's Inferno just stunning that way? Check it out if you haven't read it.[/quote]

I have always (well, after my faith matured) imagined Hell not as a hot inferno with pitchforks and such, but as a cold and lonely place. It's the "being pitched into the darkness, with the wailing and the gnashing of teeth" that leads me to this image. Nothingness is much more Hellish than a big fire.

[beatty07]

I have a priest friend who suggested imagining yourself spending eternity in a small chamber that was all mirror. Having rejected Love absolutely, you get to spend eternity contemplating...yourself. I've always thought there was much truth in that image.