The Mystery of Hell
We spoke about the “mystery of iniquity” in the last lesson. This mystery also includes the reality of hell. How are we to make sense of “eternal punishment”?
By considering in the last lesson the “eternal sin” (as our Lord put it), we’ve already brought some sense to it. An “eternal punishment” seems to be exactly what’s called for by “an eternal sin.”
But to go deeper, let’s actually consider the meaning of punishment itself.
The Catholic Dictionary defines “punishment” in part as “Any ill suffered in consequence of wrong-doing.” It goes on to give three potential purposes that punishment ideally should have:
First, Justice. To give the wrong-doer an appropriate penalty, in order to reestablish the balance of justice.
Second, Rehabilitation. To improve the wrong-doer, helping them grow in virtue, so they can be part of society without being a threat to others.
And third, Deterrence — discouraging other people from committing the same wrong-doing.
Each of these is important. But let’s focus on the first purpose of punishment — giving the wrong-doer their just penalty. The need for this is usually felt most strongly by the people directly victimized by the wrong-doer’s actions.
Imagine a case of premeditated (1st degree) murder. Even the best, most virtuous friends and family-members of a murdered person strongly feel the need “that justice be done.” In this case, usually that the murderer will be sentenced to life in prison. It is right and just that this happens. It may be right also to show mercy to the murderer — like giving him more freedoms while in prison, or reducing the time of his sentence — but only in ways that don’t treat his crimes as unimportant, making a mockery of his victims and the loss and suffering they’ve had to endure.
Pope Benedict XVI wrote,
Grace does not cancel out justice. It does not make wrong into right. It is not a sponge which wipes everything away, so that whatever someone has done on earth ends up being of equal value. … Evildoers, in the end, do not sit at table at the eternal banquet beside their victims without distinction, as though nothing had happened.
In other words, in assigning eternal rewards, God remains just, even as He shows mercy. The Scriptures make clear, again and again, that God is the protector of the innocent, the avenger of the righteous. He stands up for the poor who are oppressed, and He stands against the wicked who oppress them. God is good and just, and so He punishes those who do evil. If He didn’t, He wouldn’t be a good Father, but a “deadbeat dad.”
Of course, as a good Father, God also punishes for the purpose of reforming the sinner. … But — and this is key — only as long as this remains possible. When angels or human beings make that mysterious “irrevocable choice,” or “eternal sin,” this change is no longer an option. The wicked cannot reverse the evil they’ve created inside; in fact, they don’t want to. In this sense, as CS Lewis said, “The doors to hell are locked from the inside.”
All that remains, then, is for God to allow them finally to get what they have chosen. They’ve rejected God, and so now they are separated from Him. As the Catechism teaches, this is hell’s chief punishment. The Catechism defines hell as “The state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed, reserved for those who refuse by their own free choice to believe and be converted from sin, even to the end of their lives.” In a profound sense, the punishment of hell is that the wicked get what they want.
And because hell finally separates oppressors from the oppressed, we can also see that even hell manifests the faithfulness of God. In life, innocent people are oppressed and persecuted and killed, but in eternity God restores them to life and establishes a Kingdom for them. There, as the Scriptures say, “death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more.” God gives the oppressors another place to dwell, because this Kingdom of peace would not be possible if the obstinate wicked are allowed to enter. And then, when they enter hell, the wicked bring their misery with them.
Even after examining these things more closely, there are still mysteries. But the purpose of these reflections is that we better understand the sobering reality that human beings, by their own fault, can fall into deep evil without any chance of recovery. God has no part in this evil, but seeks to deliver us from it, so long as that remains possible. Once it becomes impossible, the wicked are like demons — and do the scriptures ever give us any indication, at all, that the demons might be saved? No; all that’s left is that the Lord save others from them.
Knowing all this motivates us to do everything that we can to avoid this fate, and to help others do the same.
These are hard truths. As such, they cannot be digested well without drawing near to God with abandonment and trust. Even in the face of the mystery of evil and hell, the mature disciple of Jesus has peace. Why? Because he knows in his deepest heart, from the Scriptures, from the Tradition of the Church, and also from experience, that God is good, and that all are embraced by God’s perfect love, even as his justice finally makes things right in the universe.
Believing this, the disciple also knows that God will bring a greater good out of all evil. As she considered the doctrine of hell, the Lord revealed to the medieval mystic Julian of Norwich, “Behold and see, [by my] power, wisdom, and goodness I shall make well all that is not well, and you shall see it.” And she says, “In this he wants us to keep the faith and belief of the Holy Church.”
Let us look forward with hope to this final consummation, where all things will be well — and “keep the faith and belief of Holy Church.”
In the last lesson, we’ll consider how continuing to reflect on the economy of salvation and the mystery of evil can stir us to action.