“God condemns people to hell out of mercy because the people don’t want to be with God.”
This talk by Friar Anthony (found here) is one of the most terrifying and yet beautiful things I have ever heard. It is terrifying because it is separation from God, and it is beautiful because God is beautiful – He isn’t doing it because He is mean, He is doing it out of mercy. He is perfect justice, perfect truth, perfect good. Here are a small excerpt from the talk:
“God doesn’t force us to be good and holy. He wants you to do it out of love. Cause you get a reward. You either get a reward of goodness or you get to live in the hell that you’ve always longed for. That is, you to be at the center of everything. That’s what hell is. You’re at the center of everything there. It’s just that you crush your own self there and are tormented by demons during the whole thing…because people who live for themselves here are kind of tormented by demons too – they don’t find peace, they’re jealous of everybody, they’re fearful of everything, they’re worried that they’re gonna die.”
“You can look at it in two ways, one, the sinner chooses hell and they are damned there forever. If they were face to face with God they would jump in hell. A sinner who dies in sin, that means, someone who dies unrepentant without the grace of God, if they die, they are fixed in that. It’s not like they can repent after death, you can’t repent after death, you’re fixed right there. What you’ve done is what you’ve done. Now you’re going to face goodness itself. Spotless goodness as I said. And as you stand before spotless goodness all truth is revealed to you because you’re looking at truth, God is truth, and Christ is our judge and He’s the truth of God. So you stand before the truth of God and you are illuminated completely in His truth, you see. All you see is all the filthiness, all the wretchedness, how vile you are and how you hate Him. You hate the one you stand in front of. So what if He tries to give you a hug? You hate Him. You won’t accept it.
“This is how horrible it is. This is what has to be meditated on. To die in a state of sin means that you hate God. Whether you feel like you hate God or you don’t it doesn’t matter. Not having the grace of God means that you hate Him. And you would never let Him embrace you. You would never step in the same room with Him, and to be with Him would be a greater torment (than) to be in hell and so in His mercy, says St. Alphonsus, out of His mercy He condemns you to hell. Do you see that? Absolutely. It is a magnificent thing. Magnificent in the sense that God’s goodness – it isn’t so much of this wicked God, casts people into hell and laughs at the fact that they are burning down there when they are so simple, they just want to love Him and He won’t let Him. That’s what we try to picture today. It isn’t that. Goodness itself is there to judge, and wickedness stands before it. Wickedness jumps into hell. And goodness waits for the next one. Unfortunately the great majority jump into hell and there’s only a couple He can actually embrace. People don’t like hearing that one either, they get really mad. You know it from the fewness of the saved and that’s why we’ll always read that quote from our Lord, and people still, that way if they get mad at you you can be like ‘Listen, I’m not making it up our Lord is the one that said, He didn’t say, ‘Yet, not many…’ but He said, you know, strive. Strive, because very few, many will seek…many will go to Mass…many will go to Confession, many will pray, many will do the things they are supposed to do, but few will be chosen. People don’t think of it that way. But that’s the way it is. The great majority of the saved will be Catholics, but the great majority of Catholics will not be saved. That’s a hard one for people – they hear that and they get really upset. But it does make sense because the great majority, even of Catholics, will not cooperate with God. You see it when you go out and talk to people. If you don’t believe in hell, you don’t just accidentally arrive at Heaven. You usually do it by striving. Our Lord said to strive to enter. By the narrow gate. Strive to enter. But many will seek and few will actually make it. That’s going to apply across the board. Again, the great majority of the saved will be Catholic, obviously, because they have the salvation of the Church, they can receive the Sacraments, they can even get a prayer at the end of their life, an Apostolic Blessing, let alone the great Sacrament of Final Unction which is so powerful, can heal you right there, that’s how powerful it is.”
“If someone is in hell, they are an enemy of God. And God hates them. And they hate God.”
“That’s because we’re in God, we’re in the truth of God. Because in that peace and in that joy, everything that is perverted and distorted and hateful and wretched all of that stuff has no part in what you want to do…that’s why, all you need is this – die in the state of grace. You might be in purgatory for a while, but die in a state of grace and you will not be damned.”
