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Question

Dear Father Angelo,

I am here today with a different kind of question, or should I say, with a reflection rather than a question.

I, as a Catholic, welcome and believe in everything the Church teaches.

Thinking about divine Judgment, evil and free will, a rather sad reflection came to my mind this summer.

The Church teaches that if you die in a state of mortal sin without having repented, you could go to hell, even though the ultimate judgment belongs to God and we cannot say with certainty who will go to hell and who does not.

While I was at the beach, I thought about my summer friends. I know that among my summer friends there are many non-practicing Christians, atheists, agnostics, or other. Although, looking at their upbringing and character, they are good people, and although I care about some of them deeply, I know for a fact that none of them (or almost any of them) go to Mass, go to confession, avoid impurity (even if they don’t go to extreme levels) or certain jokes; plus, I don’t think any of them (I think) support the Church’s moral, marital, and bioethical positions.

Being aware of this, one day I started thinking about divine Judgment: according to the Church’s teaching (which I fully agree with), all of them would go to hell; therefore, I imagined some of them in particular lost forever and me watching them from afar, with no chance of getting them back.

I saw several summer friends (including the one I consider my best friend), a girl with whom there would be a small chance (but quite feeble, for moral reasons) of building something more than a friendship, and people connected to me by family ties, and many others.

I felt like crying. It was a very sad thought that made me cry every time I thought about it again, and I feel tears coming up even now as I write.

God gives free will to choose, and God judges justly; however, Father Angelo, how can I be happy if I am aware that many people, including dear friends, summer friends, relatives, will go to hell if they continue in their conduct?

For quite a while I ignored this thought, but it doesn’t help: every time I think about it I feel sad, but I know I can’t do anything about it, because God has given freedom to everyone, but unfortunately it can be misused.

What are your thoughts concerning this, Father Angelo?

Thank you

Priest’s answer

Dear friend,

1. reading your email I instinctively came to think of our Holy Father Dominic.

His first successor, Blessed Jordan of Saxony, says that “the Lord had granted him the singular grace of weeping for sinners, for the unhappy and the afflicted, whose misfortunes he bore as a burden in the depths of his heart, and the love for them, which burned him within, burst forth through the opening of his eyes” (Libellus de initio Ordinis Fratrum Praedicatorum, 12).

2. He writes further, “Everywhere he manifested himself as an evangelical man, in words as in works.

During the day, no one was more sociable with the brothers, with his fellow travelers, no one was more cheerful with them than he was.

Conversely, at night no one was more assiduous in keeping vigil in prayer than he was. In the evening he would burst into tears, but in the morning he would beam with joy.

He devoted the day to his neighbor, the night to God, knowing full well that God bestows his mercy by day and his song by night.

He wept often and abundantly; tears were of his bread day and night: by day, especially when he solemnly celebrated Mass often or daily; by night, however, when more than any other he prolonged his exhausting vigils” (Ib., nn. 104-105).

3. During the canonization process a witness said that “Blessed Brother Dominic was so full of zeal for souls that he extended his charity and compassion not only to the faithful but to the infidels and pagans as well and even to the damned in hell, for whom he often wept” (P. Lippini, St. Dominic as seen by his contemporaries, p. 451).

4. During the canonization process another witness stated, “When he was in prayer, he groaned so loudly that he could be heard on all sides. Groaning he said, ‘Lord, have mercy on your people. What will become of the sinners?”.

And so he spent sleepless nights, weeping and groaning for the sins of others” (Ib., pp. 509-510).

5. The love he had for the salvation of his neighbor, indeed for the salvation of all, prompted him to organize preaching not only to the faithful but also to the Cumans, a barbarian people yet to be evangelized.

6. Blessed Jordan emphasizes that he “had received the grace to weep.”

It was the grace of a special closeness and sensitivity to all those who were far from God.

It was a gift received from God that found correspondence in his very sensitive soul.

I think the same thing happened to you.

It was not only your sensitivity that was affected.

There was above all the grace of God that moved and inspired you to weep for them and to do something concrete for the eternal salvation of your loved ones and many other people.

7. In the Missal of our Dominican Order there are prayers to obtain the gift of tears.

In the opening prayer it is prayed thus, “Almighty and most merciful God, who brought forth from the rock a spring of living water for your thirsting people: bring forth tears of compunction from our hardness of heart, that we may grieve for our sins, and, by your mercy, obtain their forgiveness. Through Our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who is God, and lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.”

In the offertory prayer it is prayed thus, “Look graciously, O Lord God, upon this offering which we present to your majesty for our sins, and from our eyes let streams of tears flow that we may quench the ardor of the flames we have deserved. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.”

In the prayer after Communion: “Graciously pour out upon our hearts, O Lord God, the grace of the Holy Spirit; may it cause us to blot out with groans and tears the stains of our sins and obtain for us from your bounty the effect of the desired forgiveness. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.”

With the wish that you keep giving fruits to the grace the Lord has given you, I bless you and remember you in my prayers.

Father Angelo