Fear after reading St. John Bosco's vision of hell?

[Walterross]

Hi everyone. So last night I fell into mortal sin again. I was reading a few articles on overcoming this sin and came across the vision of hell by St. John Bosco. I read it and, needless to say, I was terrified and went to confession this morning. Although I’m glad I’m in a state of grace again, after reading the vision, I feel very sad and fearful. I am sad because it basically reveals that many good-intentioned people are going to go to hell. I’m also scared because I know that it just as well could be me. I almost feel paralyzed in life right now. I feel like I might be doing God’s will more out of fear now than out of love. I understand that fear of the Lord is important, but I am more scared than full of love now. I tend to think that most people are truly trying their best in their lives given certain circumstances. I can’t imagine being sentenced to hell for a “slip” or “mistake” in this very challenging life. I know I’ll never know until judgement comes, but I’m scared. I want to share this story with family and friends but I’m afraid to scare them into being scared of God, like I am. I’m sure I’ll feel better soon but hearing this story just makes me sad and almost hopeless for the salvation of humanity. I know Jesus died for us all, but we do have to choose him. I just feel like the majority will not make it based on that vision, and to me that is upsetting. Does anyone else have fears like this and how do you cope with them while staying close to God?

 

[mythbuster1]

The reason the majority will not make it is that they neglect to wage war against sin. St. John Bosco’s vision is a warning against those who neglect to care for their souls; a mortal sin is not something that can be committed by accident. One commits a mortal sin by flagrantly and deliberately transgressing God’s Law or by being culpably negligent in serious moral matters.

 

[SPBlitz]

It is good to be afraid of Hell - you aren’t wrong about that. And it is tragic how easy it could be to find yourself on the road to perdition. With that being said, St John Boscos vision was just that - a vision. It was private revelation and need not be taken literally. I’ve read many visions of Hell - most are pretty different front each other - they can’t all be right. All the images of Hell in scripture, and art, and even, in my opinion, private revelation, are meant to suggest something unspeakably horrible, but are not meant to be a literal picture. They are meant to suggest something horrible, and once they’ve convinced you of that, you need not look too much more into them.

 

[Limoncello4021]

Strongly suggest you pray for confidence and trust in God’s mercy. The Divine Mercy chaplet and Rosary should be part of your arsenal, and also prayers to such saints as Therese of Lisieux whose spirituality is one of trust in God’s goodness. God is kind and merciful. He loves us and deeply wants us to love Him back. He throws no one in hell; rather, people choose to throw themselves in hell by turning away from God. Pray every day and stay away from sin. It is a simple formula but works. If you fall, do what St. Therese says and throw yourself again into the arms of God, like the prodigal son.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

First of all it’s generally understood that St. John Bosco’s private revelation of hell did not mean that every boy he saw heading for Hell was going to end up there, it was meant as a warning of what could happen to people if they don’t change their behavior. He was a teacher and needed to communicate this to his students. Perhaps the revelation was to help him do so.

Second of all, some years ago when I first read that revelation and others like it, I was afraid of hell for a little while, especially as I had previously not been living a good life. But then my good friend St. Therese along with my other friend Padre Pio showed me that I should pray, hope, not worry, and trust God. Other saints like St. Faustina and holy people like Luisa Piccaretta have said much the same thing. We need to let go of fear and love God.

I just heard a homily that said that the opposite of love was not hate. Rather, the opposite of love is fear. Perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). We are called upon to live by God’s laws not out of fear of hell, but out of love of God. Once you start loving God, if you continue to live a good life, try to avoid sin and receive the Sacraments regularly, God helps you and you love God more and more and as a consequence you don’t fear Hell or get afraid after reading these revelations because you trust your loving father God to take care of you and your soul. So when you read some scary revelation just pray to God and ask him to please help you not sin and to replace the fear and anxiety you feel with love of Him.

 

[mythbuster1]

Likewise, when St. John Chrysostom said nary a hundred would be saved out of the thousands in his city, he wasn’t prophesying, but rather warning what would happen if things continued as they were.

 

[TK421]

God gives us warnings of where sin leads and it’s supposed to be terrible because it is. Compared to being separated from God, any present suffering we might experience isn’t worth comparing to. Things such as the vision of the Lake of Fire at Fatima are meant to be a splash of water on our faces to wake us up and move us towards prayer and penance. It’s a warning of what can happen and not necessarily what will happen.

 

[Dan_Defender]

God’s mercy exceeds his justice. This is evident in Exodus, where despite the terrible things that the people did along the way, God still brought them to the promised land. Repentance is key.