What is Hell?

The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us the following about Hell: “We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love Him. But we cannot love God if we sin gravely against Him, against our neighbor or against ourselves: ‘He who does not love remains in death.’ To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God’s merciful love means remaining separated from Him for ever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called ‘Hell.’” (CCC 1033)

Hell is a real possibility because our will (our power to make choices) is free. Our salvation consists in union with God, spiritual marriage to God, a love-relationship with God. And love by its essence is free, a free choice of the will. God has freely done his part in loving us into existence by creating us and then redeeming us from sin at infinite cost to Himself on the Cross. But if we do not freely do our part, we cannot attain this end of love-union with God. God cannot force us to love; if freedom is forced, it is no longer freedom and it is no longer love. “God predestines no one to go to Hell (CCC 1037). The cause of Hell is not God but man.

If Heaven is the object of our deepest desire, Hell is the object of our deepest fear. Our deepest desire is to be set free from our deepest fear and our deepest fear is that we fail to attain our deepest desire. So, if our deepest desire is to be in a love relationship with God—with infinite understanding, infinite love, and infinite beauty—then our deepest fear is to fail to attain that deepest desire forever, to have no hope of attaining it anymore. C.S. Lewis would say, “Ultimately, there are only two kinds of people here on earth. Those to whom God would say: Thy will be done. And those that say to God: Thy will be done.” Souls in Hell got what they wanted: that their will, be done. Selfishness is the greatest curse of man. Hell is simply the rejection of all things that is outside of oneself, including God. It is essentially choosing oneself over God and neighbor. “The core of sin is ‘I’ no matter how you spell it”, as Ed Cole would say. Dostoxevsky says that “Hell is the suffering of being unable to love.” There can be no greater pain than that, because there is no greater joy than loving. Loving is even greater joy than being loved, for “It is more blessed (happy, joyful) to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).

We get to wonder what is it in man that he would choose misery over joy? Hell over Heaven. The answer is everyone wants joy, but not everyone chooses the path of virtue or the path to God. There are many alternatives to virtue and to God that seems to be a better offer, but these are just apparent joys or seemingly joys but not the authentic one. Many would claim that they did not directly reject God or God’s love. True. But they have rejected His commandments persistently. To reject the rules of the school where you are enrolled is to reject the administration of the school who formulated those rules. Christ said, “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love.” (Jn 15:9-10) Obeying God’s commandments is how we show our love for God.

Satan’s primary lie that deceives humanity, keeps it in spiritual infancy and causes more suffering than anything else, is the lie that selfishness is fun and unselfishness is not. The origin of sin and suffering is faith in Satan’s lie (which began in Genesis 3), that life and joy come from disobedience to God, from “my will be done.” At the far end of that lie lies Hell.

No one goes to Hell because God casts them into Hell, or throws them there against their will. God is love; He does not throw us around like footballs. But it would also mean that He doesn’t just throw us into Heaven like a football either. He respects our free choice. (Engr. Carlos Cornejo)