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Question

Dear Father.

How are you? I dare to disturb you in order to submit a question to you.

I’m attending a  professional development  course destined to teachers of religion (which I am). It was argued that damned souls have a temporary mortality, that is, they will be eternally destroyed and they will disappear into the abyss. This really upset me because I’ve never heard this idea before.

Gathering informations I’ve noted that the concept of apocatastasis was condemned by the 5thCouncil of Constantinople. 

So, despite Origen having supported “We think that the goodness of God, through His Christ, may recall all His creatures to one end” (De principiis), the Catholic doctrine refuses it.

However, Revelation 20:14-15 refers to “burning lake” that seems to accord with Origen…

Can you help me figure this out? I would be really and profoundly grateful.

Don’t Saints tell us very different things about hell or not?
I cordially greet you asking for your blessing.

Response from the priest

Dearest,

1. The  pond of fire and sulphur is hell, the second death in a spiritual sense, clearly.

Saint John himself deals with this when he tells that there are sins that lead to death: 1 John 5:16-17.

Saint John tells us about the death of the life of grace, because we can also continue to live with mortal sin… 

2. The biblicist A. Wikenhauser, in his Commentary on Revelation, writes:”The name of second death given to the abyss of fire indicates that only the man who falls into it has to be considered definitely dead, because he’s separated from God and divine life” (p. 216).

3. It’s true that Saint Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:26 says that “the last enemy to be destroyed is death”.

It will be destroyed because everyone will resurrect.

And everyone will resurrect according to Lord’s teaching:”Do not be amazed at this, because the hour is coming in which all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out, those who have done good deeds to the resurrection of life, but those who have done wicked deeds to the resurrection of condemnation” (John 5:28-29).

4. It would be sufficient to remember  what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says about hell. 

Here what it says in the exposure of the Creed:

IV. Hell

1033 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. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him” (1 John 3:15). 

Our Lord warns us that we shall be separated from him if we fail to meet the serious needs of the poor and the little ones who are his brethren (Matthew 25:31-46). 

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. 

It is this state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed that is designated with the word is called “hell.”

1034 Jesus often speaks of “Gehenna” of “the unquenchable fire” reserved for those who to the end of their lives refuse to believe and be converted, where both soul and body can be lost (Matthew 10:28). 

Jesus solemnly proclaims that he “will send his angels, and they will gather . . . all evil doers, and throw them into the furnace of fire” (Matthew 13:41-42), and that he will pronounce the condemnation: “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire!” (Matthew 25:41).

1035 The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, “eternal fire” (Quicumque, DS 76).

The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs.

1036 The affirmations of Sacred Scripture and the teachings of the Church on the subject of hell are a call to the responsibility incumbent upon man to make use of his freedom in view of his eternal destiny. 

They are at the same time an urgent call to conversion: “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:13-14).

Since we know neither the day nor the hour, we should follow the advice of the Lord and watch constantly so that, when the single course of our earthly life is completed, we may merit to enter with him into the marriage feast and be numbered among the blessed, and not, like the wicked and slothful servants, be ordered to depart into the eternal fire, into the outer darkness where “men will weep and gnash their teeth” (Second Vatican Council, Lumen gentium, 48).

1037 God predestines no one to go to hell (Second Council of Orange, DS 397); for this, a willful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end. In the Eucharistic liturgy and in the daily prayers of her faithful, the Church implores the mercy of God, who does not want “any to perish, but all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9): Father, accept this offering from your whole family. Grant us your peace in this life, save us from final damnation, and count us among those you have chosen (Roman Missal, Roman Canon).

5. Of course, no doubt about the update (?) that has been done on this subject.

Reproposing what the Magisterium of the Church has repeatedly rejected is an obstinate (obdurate) update towards error!

Continue to remain faithful to the Church’s teaching and also to common sense.

I remember you to the Lord and I bless you.

Father Angelo