Hope for the Damned

[GeorgeSword]

I was reading a post on another forum by a Catholic who was saying that as Catholics we believe that there is hope for someone who is damned, since God is not limited to chronology… I’ve never heard this before. Is anyone familiar with a belief like this? Of course, it could be that I missed it, but it doesn’t make much sense, considering that if someone goes either to heaven or hell (and they may pass through Purgatory) at the end of our life, how can our prayers affect this? Is God going to yank them out of hell and put them into heaven?

 

[FCEGM]

I was reading a post on another forum by a Catholic who was saying that as Catholics we believe that there is hope for someone who is damned, since God is not limited to chronology… I’ve never heard this before. Is anyone familiar with a belief like this? Of course, it could be that I missed it, but it doesn’t make much sense, considering that if someone goes either to heaven or hell (and they may pass through Purgatory) at the end of our life, how can our prayers affect this? Is God going to yank them out of hell and put them into heaven?

Nope. From the Council of Constantinople, 543 A.D. :

“If anyone holds that the punishment of demons and of impious men is temporary, and that it will have an end at some time, or that there will be complete restoration of demons and impious men, anathema sit.”

Also see, too, the Catechism, nbrs. 1034, 1035, 1036, 1037.

 

[CB_Catholic]

I was reading a post on another forum by a Catholic who was saying that as Catholics we believe that there is hope for someone who is damned, since God is not limited to chronology… I’ve never heard this before. Is anyone familiar with a belief like this? Of course, it could be that I missed it, but it doesn’t make much sense, considering that if someone goes either to heaven or hell (and they may pass through Purgatory) at the end of our life, how can our prayers affect this? Is God going to yank them out of hell and put them into heaven?

Well, if one has made it to the state of damnation, which would occur after death, there is not any hope. However, if one appears to be on their way to damnation, by their lifestyle, or rejection of God, for instance, there is always hope that the prayers of others can help bring them to salvation, even at the last possible moment. God, of course, is not limited by chronology, but I would interpret that to mean that he already has foreknowledge of our destination, since He is omniscient, not that He is going to snatch someone out of hell that has made the choices necessary to get there and refuses to repent. God will not go against the free will given to everyone–it is our choice to go to hell, not God’s.

 

[Nita]

What you can do is pray for a happy death (final repentance and conversion) for someone who is already dead. What this means is that at the time of that person’s death, God (who is not confined to our linear time) will take into account the prayers He knows you will be offering in the future. (Of course it doesn’t mean the person will repent and convert. But the graces God may bestow due to your future prayers could help bring it about.)

I recall a story about Padre Pio. He was praying, and a fellow monk inquired about who he was praying for. Pio said for his deceased father (his release from purgatory, I think). Anyway, the monk said to Pio - “But you told me your father was already in heaven.”
Pio said, “Yes. But it was contingent on my praying for him for the rest of my life.”

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

I was reading a post on another forum by a Catholic who was saying that as Catholics we believe that there is hope for someone who is damned, since God is not limited to chronology… I’ve never heard this before. Is anyone familiar with a belief like this? Of course, it could be that I missed it, but it doesn’t make much sense, considering that if someone goes either to heaven or hell (and they may pass through Purgatory) at the end of our life, how can our prayers affect this? Is God going to yank them out of hell and put them into heaven?

No hope for the damned, Hell is eternal. Better to die in Sanctifying Grace in union with God.