I regret at times listening to such gruesome details. Yeesh! I suppose the good padre wanted to encourage us to stay away from the entrapments of the devil.
This aspect of his eschatology (the possibility of no human in hell) bothers me greatly because it fundamentally undermines the truth that "the fear of the Lord" is a direct gift of the Holy Spirit.
If there is no Hell, why didn’t God just stick us all straight into Heaven instead of putting us all through this suffering for nothing, including His own Son? The infliction of needless suffering is defined as sadism. I refuse to believe God is a sadist, so the purpose of this life is to determine our eligibility for Heaven; and Hell is where we go if we don’t qualify. I’m open to correction, but as far as I know the Church has never pronounced any defined individual as being in Hell, but I wouldn’t bet my house on Judas not being there. Perhaps, Bishop Barron has become too close in his relationship with the tribe who killed Christ?
Go along, get along, go along get along, go along get along. It seem to me that one of the great marks of a Church doing well would be how badly it gets along with any particular State. The worse it gets on the better the spiritual state it is probably in. There is no doubt that Bishop Barron bends over backwards to get along. Constantly smiling, constantly being nice. Constantly trying not to offend. Matthew 5:11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.
Divine Mercy in My Soul (St. Faustina’s diary), entry 741 Today, I was led by an Angel to the chasms of hell. It is a place of great torture; how awesomely large and extensive it is! The kinds of tortures I saw: the first torture that constitutes hell is the loss of God; the second is perpetual remorse of conscience; the third is that one's condition will never change; the fourth is the fire that will penetrate the soul without destroying it – a terrible suffering, since it is a purely spiritual fire, lit by God's anger; the fifth torture is continual darkness and a terrible suffocating smell, and, despite the darkness, the devils and the souls of the damned see each other and all the evil, both of others and their own; the sixth torture is the constant company of Satan; the seventh torture is horrible despair, hatred of God, vile words, curses and blasphemies. These are the tortures suffered by all the damned together, but that is not the end of the sufferings. There are special tortures destined for particular souls. These are the torments of the senses. Each soul undergoes terrible and indescribable sufferings, related to the manner in which it has sinned. There are caverns and pits of torture where one form of agony differs from another. I would have died at the very sight of these tortures if the omnipotence of God had not supported me. Let the sinner know that he will be tortured throughout all eternity, in those senses which he made use of to sin. I am writing this at the command of God, so that no soul may find an excuse by saying there is no hell, or that nobody has ever been there, and so no one can say what it is like. I, Sister Faustina, by the order of God, have visited the abysses of hell so that I might tell souls about it and testify to its existence. I cannot speak about it now; but I have received a command from God to leave it in writing. The devils were full of hatred for me, but they had to obey me at the command of God. What I have written is but a pale shadow of the things I saw. But I noticed one thing: that most of the souls there are those who disbelieved that there is a hell. When I came to, I could hardly recover from the fright. How terribly souls suffer there! Consequently, I pray even more fervently for the conversion of sinners. I incessantly plead God's mercy upon them. O my Jesus, I would rather be in agony until the end of the world, amidst the greatest sufferings, than offend You by the least sin. + J.M.J.
Terrifying. We really need the warning before many more souls end up there. Lord have mercy on this faithless world.
Apparently one exorcist was told by devils that God did not make hell it was the devils themselves that created it for themselves. This seems logical. St Teresa of Avila warned her father not to meditate on hell one time which he intended to do on a retreat. This underlines the mystery of hell and of demons and of the damned. It is good to know they exist but not so good to think too much about them. To try and work it all out. I think it is meant to be something of a closed book.
Here are some of St. Faustina’s descriptions of heaven to stir in our souls Love for the Lord: Divine Mercy in My Soul entry #592: I learned in the Heart of Jesus that in heaven itself there is a heaven to which not all, but only chosen souls, have access. Incomprehensible is the happiness in which the soul will be immersed. O my God, oh, that I could describe this, even in some little degree. Souls are penetrated by His divinity and pass from brightness to brightness, an unchanging light, but never monotonous, always new though never changing. O Holy Trinity, make yourself known to souls! 596: Once, a certain priest [Father Sopocko] asked me to pray for him. I promised to pray and asked for a mortification. […] strange pain seized my soul, and I began to weep softly. Then I heard in my soul a voice, saying, My daughter, why are you weeping? After all, you yourself offered to undertake these sufferings. Know that what you have taken upon yourself for that soul is only a small portion. He is suffering much more. And I asked the Lord, "Why are You treating him like that?" The Lord answered me that it was for the triple crown meant for him: that of virginity, the priesthood and martyrdom. […] great joy flooded my soul at the sight of the great glory that is going to be his in heaven. Right away I said the Te Deum for this special grace of God; namely, of learning how God treats those He intends to have close to himself. Thus, all sufferings are nothing in comparison with what awaits us in heaven. 777: November 27, 1936. Today I was in heaven, in spirit, and I saw its inconceivable 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, nor has it entered into the heart of man what God has prepared for those who love Him."
