If we love God and believe He is the ultimate in goodness, then life with Him in Heaven will be the ultimate in goodness, absolutely devoid of anything dark or negative. No suffering, no boredom at all, not even for one second. Those who have been given a vision of Heaven have been unable to describe what they saw, since it is so far beyond human description.
As the Bible states: "But, as it is written: That eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love him." (1 Corinthians 2:9 )
"And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes: and death shall be no more, nor mourning, nor crying, nor sorrow shall be anymore, for the former things are passed away." (Revelations 21:4)
"And night shall be no more: and they shall not need the light of the lamp, nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God shall enlighten them, and they shall reign for ever and ever." (Revelations 22:5)
Humans can only be fully human in Heaven, with all our purest desires fulfilled to overflowing, yet each new joy in Heaven will be surpassed by a new joy, and then again another new joy, and so on, forever and ever without end.
" November 27, 1936. Today I was in heaven, in spirit, and I saw its unconceivable beauties and the happiness that awaits us after death. I saw how all creatures give ceaseless praise and glory to God. I saw how great is happiness in God, which spreads to all creatures, making them happy; and then all the glory and praise which springs from this happiness returns to its source; and they enter into the depths of God, contemplating the inner life of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, whom they will never comprehend or fathom. This source of happiness is unchanging in its essence, but it is always new, gushing forth happiness for all creatures. Now I understand Saint Paul, who said, “Eye has not seen, nor has ear heard, not has it entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for those who love him.” And God has given me to understand that there is but one thing that is of infinite value in His eyes, and that is love of God; love, love and once again, love; and nothing can compare with a single act of pure love of God. Oh, with what inconceivable favours God gifts a soul that loves Him sincerely! Oh, how happy is the soul who already here on earth enjoys His special favours! And of such are the little and humble souls. The sight of this great majesty of God, which I came to understand more profoundly and which is worshipped by the heavenly spirits according to their degree of grace and the hierarchies into which they are divided, did not cause my soul to be stricken with terror or fear; no, no, not at all! My soul was filled with peace and love, and the more I come to know the greatness of God, the more joyful I become that He is as He is. And I rejoice immensely in His greatness and am delighted that I am so little because, since I am little, He carries me in His arms and holds me close to His Heart. O my God, how I pity those people who do not believe in eternal life; how I pray for them that a ray of mercy would envelop them too, and that God would clasp them to His fatherly bosom... "
(Diary of St Faustina. No 777. Notebook ii).
So, if Heaven is so fantastic, and God loves us so much, why does Hell exist, and why does God allow so many souls to go to hell?
HELL IS REAL!
Why does hell exist?
For a person to exist, but yet be uncreated, means that the person is infinite, which can only be God. Because the universe is beautiful, and was created by an uncreated person, then that person, God, is infinitely beautiful, therefore infinitely good. If God is infinitely beautiful, and life in Heaven is beautiful beyond human description, why are we here to suffer this life? Why didn't this loving God just create us in Heaven, since, in His word, the Bible, He continually states that our arrival in Heaven is His greatest desire? The first and greatest point is that God is infinite love and He offers everyone many opportunities to arrive in Heaven and avoid hell. God most certainly doesn't want anyone to go to hell, but He will not over rule our free will.
Why free will? The reason for free will is that for each of us to love one another requires an act of our free will to love. For a man and woman to love each other, requires an act of free will, by both, to love. We certainly don't want someone to slavishly love us because we have told them to. We want them to choose to love us because of who we are. The same goes for God. The absolute primary reason we are here on earth is for us to choose to love God for all eternity in Heaven. This also means that, just as we can choose to love and live with God in Heaven, we also have the free will to choose to live without God, to not love Him. This then means we have to live all eternity without God, and the place to do this, since it cannot be in Heaven, is in a place, which God, in the Bible, calls hell.
We must choose, and all humans certainly do, whether they want to or not. This is absolutely inescapable. No matter what you think or believe, no matter what true or false philosophy or science you choose to believe, no matter what sophistry you get into, you WILL die and face God and be judged, and ultimately, will either live in Heaven or hell forever, and you WILL choose! There is absolutely no escape from this choice! And, remember, do you want to leave your eternity to the roll of the dice? Not a good idea, since souls don't fall into Heaven, they fall into hell. So, don't leave it to chance, MAKE the right choice, based on obedience to God!
In Sister Lucy's memoirs, she recorded the vision of hell that the children were shown by Our Lady: "...and we looked as into a sea of fire, in which were huge numbers of devils and damned souls in human form, like transparent coals of black and bronze embers. They would be raised in the air by the flames, then falling back on all sides and in all directions, without weight or equilibrium and unable to control their contorted movements. On fire within and without, they floated and showered about like sparks in a great conflagration, amid shrieks and wailing screams of fiendish terror, pain and despair which filled the fiery atmosphere."
"In this dreadful place there is no longer any purpose and everything is aimless and chaotic. Nothing will ever have value or meaning! Ever!! "
Humans can NEVER be fully human in hell, where all their desires are fully evil, amidst this reign of terror, forever and ever without end.
What on this Earth is so great, so worth having, for such a short time, that it justifies the descent into hell for ever, when this life is over?
What is eternity?
Imagine a bird lands on the beach, picks up a grain of sand, flies away, then, after a millions years, returns to the same beach. It then picks up another grain of sand and flies away, returns again after another millions years, picks up another grain of sand, flies away. And so on, untill every beach on earth is picked clean of sand. After all that "time", we wouldn't have even scratched the beginning of eternity! So, where do you wish to live this amount of "time", your eternity? Heaven, or hell? You MUST decide to choose the right path, because you WILL choose one!
The fire of hell
Mother Adelle Garnier (Founder of the Tyburn Nuns) describes her spiritual experiences using certain images that symbolise what she is going through at the moment. In addition, she does so because she is not always able to describe them with appropriate words, for words alone were inadequate at times to convey the meaning of the work of God in her.
In particular she describes her union with God as a fire that burns inside: "as a fire in me", "like a flame of love", as a fire of love within me", "as a fire in the heart." [The Path of Mother Adele Garnier. P 260]
The image of fire clearly expresses how the love of God consumes her, transforms her, reclothes her, resulting in a burning heat in her soul. If this fire is what the love of God does in the soul, just what must the fire be like when the soul has decided by it's own free will to be eternally without God's love. What a fire of loss it must be!
St Faustina: "Once, as I was talking with my spiritual director, I had an interior vision - quicker than lightening - of his soul in such agony that God touches very few souls with such fire." [St Faustina, Biography, P171 -378]
essential characteristic of heaven, hell or purgatory is that they are states of being of a spirit (angel/demon) or human soul, rather than places, as commonly perceived and represented in human language. This language of place is, according to the Pope, inadequate to describe the realities involved, since it is tied to the temporal order in which this world and we exist. In this he is applying the philosophical categories used by the Church in her theology and saying what St. Thomas Aquinas said long before him. Read the full text : www.ewtn.com/library/papaldoc/jp2heavn.htm
"Incorporeal things are not in place after a manner known and familiar to us, in which way we say that bodies are properly in place; but they are in place after a manner befitting spiritual substances, a manner that cannot be fully manifest to us." [St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Supplement, Q69, a1, reply 1]
What all this is saying is that the horror of hell is worse than fire, but the realty of the suffering of hell cannot be described in human terms because it is not of the material world, but the spiritual world.
SISTER JOSEFA MENÉNDEZ
God permitted the Devil to take her down to Hell
Sr Josefa M
One of the greatest mystics of this century was Sister Josefa Menendez, who died in 1923 at the age of 33.
This young Spanish sister, who had a short religious life of great suffering, experienced revelations throughout much of her life, compiled in 'The Way Of Divine Love'.
God permitted the Devil to take her down to Hell.
More than once, she was taken to Hell to witness and feel the suffering first-hand. There she spent long hours, sometimes a whole night, in unspeakable agony.
Though she was dragged down into the bottomless pit more than a hundred times, each sojourn seemed to her to be the first, and appeared to last countless ages. She endured all the tortures of Hell, with the one exception of hatred of God.
Not the least of these torments was to hear the confessions of the damned, their cries of hatred, of pain and of despair.
Nevertheless, when at long last she came back to life, shattered and spent, her body agonised with pain, she looked on no suffering, however severe, as too much to bear, if by her suffering she could save a one soul from that dreaded abode of torment.
As gradually she began to breathe more freely, her heart bounded with joy at the thought that still she could love her Lord.
Sister Josefa was reluctant to write on the subject of Hell, and did so only to conform to Our Lord's wishes.
Sister Josefa repeatedly dwelt on what she described as the greatest torment of Hell, namely, the soul's inability to love.
One of these damned souls cried out: "This is my torture...that I want to love and cannot; there is nothing left me but hatred and despair. If one of us could so much as make a single act of love... But we cannot, we live on hatred and malevolence..." (March 23, 1922).
Sister Josefa Menendez was allowed to experience Hell.
"On the night of 16th March towards ten o'clock", wrote Josefa, I became aware, as on the preceding days, of a confusing noise of cries and chains. I rose quickly and dressed, and trembling with fright, knelt down near my bed. The uproar was approaching, and not knowing what to do, I left the dormitory, and went to our Holy Mother's cell; then I went back to the dormitory.
The same terrifying sounds were all round me; then all of a sudden I saw in front of me the Devil himself.
"Tie her feet and bind her hands," he cried. Instantly I lost sight of where I was, and felt myself tightly bound and being dragged away. Other voices screamed: "No good to bind her feet; it is her heart that you must bind." "It does not belong to me," came the answer from the devil. Then I was dragged along a very dark and lengthy passage, and on all sides resounded terrible cries.
On opposite sides of the walls of the narrow corridor were niches out of which poured smoke, though with very little flame, and which emitted an intolerable stench. From these niches came blaspheming voices, uttering impure words. Some cursed their bodies, others their parents... It was a medley of confused screams of rage and despair.
I was dragged through that kind of corridor which seemed endless. Then I received a punch in the stomach which doubled me in two, and forced me into one of the niches. I felt as if I were being pressed between two burning planks and pierced through and through with scorching needle points. Opposite and beside me souls were blaspheming and cursing me. What caused me most suffering... and which no torture can be compared, was the anguish of my soul to find myself separated from God...
It seemed to me that I spent long years in that Hell, yet it only lasted six or seven hours...
I see clearly that all the sufferings on earth are nothing in comparison with the horror of no longer being able to love, for in Hell all breathe hatred and thirst to damn other souls."
She records, too, the accusations made against themselves by these unhappy souls: "Some yell because of the martyrdom of their hands. Perhaps they were thieves, for they say: 'Where is our loot now?' ...Cursed hands! Others curse their tongues, their eyes...whatever was the occasion of sin... 'Now, O body, you are paying the price of the delights you granted yourself!...and you did it of your own free will...'" (April 2, 1922).
"It seemed to me that the majority accused themselves of sins of impurity, of stealing, of unjust trading; and that most of the damned are in Hell for these sins." (April 6, 1922).
[On the sin of impurity, Our Lady said at Fatima, in 1917: "More souls go to Hell because of sins of the flesh than for any other reason."]
Sister Josefa stated: "I saw souls fall into Hell, and among them was a child of 15 years, cursing her parents for not having taught her to fear God, nor that there was a Hell. Her life had been a short one, she said, but full of sin, for she had given in to all that her body and passions demanded in the way of satisfaction..." (March 22, 1923).
"Some damned souls accused people, others circumstances, and all cursed the occasions of their damnation." (September 1922).
"My soul fell into abysmal depths, the bottom of which cannot be seen, for it is immense...; Then I was pushed into one of those fiery cavities and pressed, as it were, between burning planks, and sharp nails and red-hot irons seemed to be piercing my flesh.
I felt as if they were endeavouring to pull out my tongue, but could not. This torture reduced me to such agony that my very eyes seemed to be starting out of their sockets.
I think this was because of the fire which burns, burns... not a finger nail escapes the terrifying torments of Hell, and all the time one cannot move even a finger to gain some relief, nor change posture, for the body seems flattened out and yet doubled in two.
Sounds of confusion and blasphemy do not cease for an instant. A sickening stench asphyxiates and corrupts everything, it is like the burning of putrefied flesh, mingled with tar and sulphur... a mixture to which nothing on earth can be compared... although these tortures were terrible, they would be bearable if the soul were at peace. But it suffers indescribably...
All I have written," she concluded, "is but a shadow of what the soul really suffers, for no words can express such dire torments." (September 4, 1922).
Again, she wrote: "Souls were cursing the vocation they had received, but not followed... the vocation they had lost, because they were unwilling to live a hidden and mortified life..." (March 18, 1922.
"I heard a demon, from whom a soul had escaped, forced to confess his powerlessness. 'Confound it all... how do they manage to escape me? They were mine' (and he rattled off their sins)... 'I work hard enough, yet some slip through my fingers... Someone must be suffering and making reparation for them.'" (January 15, 1923).
Sister Josepha stated: "Today, I saw a vast number of people fall into the fiery pit . . . they seemed to be worldlings and a demon cried vociferously: 'The world is ripe for me . . . I know that the best way to get hold of souls is to rouse their desire for enjoyment . . . Put me first . . . me before the rest . . . no humility for me! But let me enjoy myself . . . This sort of thing assures victory to me . . . and they tumble headlong into Hell.' " (October 4, 1923)
"Tonight I was transported to a place where all was obscure. . . Around me were seven or eight people; I could see them only by the reflections of the fire. They were seated and were talking together. One said: 'We'll have to be very careful not to be found out, for we might easily be discovered.'
"The devil responded: 'Insinuate yourselves by inducing carelessness in them... but keep in the background, so that you are not found out... by degrees they will become callous, and you will be able to incline them to evil. Tempt these others to ambition, to self-interest, to acquiring wealth without working, whether it be lawful or not. Excite some to sensuality and love of pleasure. Let vice blind them...' (Here they used obscene words).
"'As to the remainder... get in through the heart... you know the inclinations of their hearts... make them love... love passionately... work thoroughly.. take no rest... have no pity; the world must go to damnation.. and these souls must not be allowed to escape me.'
"From time to time Satan's satellites answered: 'We are your slaves... we shall labor unceasingly, and in spite of the many who war against us, we shall work night and day. We know your power!'
"They all spoke together, and he whom I took to be Satan used words full of horror.
In the distance I could hear a clamour as of feasting, the clinking of glasses... and he cried: 'Let them cram themselves with food! It will make it all the easier for us... Let them get on with their banqueting.
Love of pleasure is the door through which you will reach them...'
"He added such horrible things that they can neither be written nor said. Then, as if engulfed in a whirl of smoke, the demons vanished." (February 3, 1923).
"The evil one was bewailing the escape of a soul: 'Fill her soul with fear, drive her to despair. All will be lost if she puts her trust in the mercy of that...' (here they used blasphemous words about Our Lord). 'I am lost; drive her to despair; do not leave her for an instant, above all, make her despair.'
"Then Hell re-echoed with frenzied cries, and when finally the devil cast me out of the abyss, he went on threatening me.
Among other things he said: 'Is it possible that such weaklings have more power than I, who am mighty... I must conceal my presence, work in the dark; any corner will do from which to tempt them... close to an ear.. in the pages of a book... under a bed... some pay no attention to me, but I shall talk and talk... and by dint of suggestion, something will remain... Yes, I must hide in unsuspected places.'" (February 7, 8, 1923).
"On one occasion when I was in Hell, I saw a great number of priests, religious and nuns, cursing their vows, their order, their Superiors and everything that could have given them the light and the grace they had lost...
"I saw, too, some prelates. One accused himself of having used the goods belonging to the Church illicitly..." (September 28, 1922).
"Priests were calling down curses on their tongues which had consecrated, on their fingers that had held Our Lord's Sacred Body, on the absolution they had given while they were losing their own souls, and on the occasion through which they had fallen into Hell." (April 6, 1922).
"One priest said: 'I ate poison, for I used money that was not my own... the money given me for Masses which I did I not offer.'
"Another said he belonged to a secret society which had betrayed the Church and religion, and he had been bribed to connive at terrible profanations and sacrileges.
"Yet another said that he was damned for assisting at profane plays, after which he ought not to have said Mass... and that he had spent about seven years thus."
Here, finally, is the full text of Josefa's notes on "the Hell of consecrated souls." (Biography: Ch. VII--September 4, 1922).
"The meditation of the day was on the 'Particular Judgment of religious souls': I could not free my mind of the thought of it, in spite of the oppression which I felt. Suddenly, I felt myself bound and overwhelmed by a crushing weight, so that in an instant I saw more clearly than ever before how stupendous is the sanctity of God and His detestation of sin.
"I saw in a flash my whole life since my first Confession to this day. All was vividly present to me: my sins, the graces I had received, the day I entered religion, my clothing as a novice, my first vows, my spiritual readings, and times of prayer, the advice given me, and all the helps of religious life.
It is impossible to describe the confusion and shame a soul feels at that moment, when it realises: 'All is lost, and I am damned forever.'"
As in her former descents into Hell, Sister Josefa never accused herself of any specific sin that might have led to such a calamity. Our Lord meant her only to feel what the consequences would have been, if she had merited such a punishment.
She wrote:
"Experiencing my 'Particular Judgment', I instantly found myself in Hell, not dragged there as I had been before. After death and the 'Particular Judgment', the soul precipitates itself to Hell, as if to hide from God, in order to be free to hate and curse Him forever.
"My soul fell into abysmal depths, the bottom of which cannot be seen, for it is immense... at once, I heard other souls jeering and rejoicing at seeing me share their torments.
It was martyrdom enough to hear the terrible imprecations on all sides, but what can be compared to the thirst to curse that seizes on a soul, and the more one curses, the more one wants to. Never had I felt the like before. Formerly my soul had been oppressed with grief at hearing these horrible blasphemies, though unable to produce even one act of love. But today it was otherwise.
"I saw Hell as I had always before; the long dark corridors, the cavities, the flames... I heard the same execrations and imprecations, for--and of this I have already written before--although no corporeal forms are visible, the torments are felt as if they were present, and souls recognise each other. Some called out, 'Hello, you there? Are you like us? We were free to take those vows or not... but no!...' and they cursed their vows."
"All this I felt as before, and although those tortures were terrible, they would be bearable if the soul were at peace. But it suffers indescribably. Until now, when I went down into Hell, I thought that I had been damned for abandoning religious life. But this time it was different. I bore a special mark, a sign that I was a religious, a soul who had known and loved God, and there were others who bore the same mark or sign.
I cannot say how I recognised it, perhaps because of the specially insulting manner in which the evil spirits and other damned souls treated them. There were many priests there, too. This particular suffering I am unable to explain.
It was quite different from what I had experienced at other times, for if the souls of those who lived in the world suffer so terribly in Hell, infinitely worse are the torments of religious. Unceasingly the three words, Poverty, Chastity and Obedience, are imprinted on the soul with poignant remorse.
"Poverty: You were free and you promised! Why, then, did you seek that comfort? Why hold on to that object which did not belong to you? Why did you give that pleasure to your body? Why allow yourself to dispose of the property of the Community? Did you not know that you no longer had the right to possess anything whatsoever, that you had freely renounced the use of those things?... Why did you murmur when anything was wanting to you, or when you fancied yourself less well treated than others? Why?
"Chastity: You yourself vowed it freely and with full knowledge of its implications... you bound yourself.. you willed it... and how have you observed it? That being so, why did you not remain where it would have been lawful for you to grant yourself pleasures and enjoyment?
"And the tortured soul responds: 'Yes, I vowed it; I was free... I could have not taken the vow, but I took it and I was free...' What words can express the martyrdom of such remorse," wrote Josefa, "and all the time the jibes and insults of other damned souls continue.
"Obedience: Did you not fully engage yourself to obey your Rule and your Superiors? Why, then, did you pass judgment on the orders that were given you? Why did you disobey the Rule? Why did you dispense yourself from common life? Remember how sweet was the Rule... and you would not keep it... and now," vociferate satanic voices, "you will have to obey us not for a day or a year, or a century, but forever and ever; for all eternity... It is your own doing... you were free.
"The soul constantly recalls how she had chosen her God for her Spouse, and that once she loved Him above all things... that for Him she had renounced the most legitimate pleasures and all she held dearest on earth, that in the beginning of her religious life she had felt all the purity, sweetness and strength of this divine love, and that for an inordinate passion... now she must eternally hate the God who had chosen her to love Him.
"This forced hatred is a thirst that consumes her... no past joys can afford her the slightest relief.
"One of her greatest torments is shame," added Josefa. "It seems to her that all the damned surrounding her continually taunt her by saying: 'That we should be lost, who never had the helps that you enjoyed, is not surprising... but you... what did you lack? You who lived in the palace of the King... who feasted at the board of the elect.'
"All I have written," she concluded, "is but a shadow of what the damned soul suffers, for no words can express such dire torments." (September 4, 1922).
Praise the Lord Jesus Christ.
© 2012 WAF Contact