St. Thomas Aquinas and many of the fathers and saints hold that we will rejoice when we see the damned suffering in hell because we will see God vindicated and his justice glorified. Look at the book of Revelation and see how the martyrs cry out for the blood of their murderers. In heaven, we will not see things from the point of view of partisan interest but we will see things from God’s point of view. Since God is supremely blessed he cannot be unhappy with souls being damned in hell, since to be unhappy would be to experience pain. In the divine substance, where there is no passing or change, there cannot be such a motion as pain.
Amen! We will be removed of all pride and closed mindedness. We will consider everyone in Heaven with us as family. The family and friends we had on Earth will mean nothing. We will all be equal, no favorites among us.
Sounds interesting, but I’m not following all the way yet.
Jesus had to become man in order to feel pain, just as He had to become man in order to die, because pain and death could not be experienced by God unless He united himself to a human nature.
Just two comments. First, you say that seeing God’s justice implemented is “petty.” Well, tell that to the victims of injustice and tell that to God. Second, divine wrath and judgment is not exclusively OT and divine mercy is not exclusively NT. One of the most false, gnostic, notions that has gotten into people’s heads is the idea that the OT is about wrath and the NT is about love. Most of the explicit teachings about eternal torment come from Jesus himself. Read the book of Revelation, which closes the New Testament, and you will see that the early Church was all for God’s wrath coming and destroying the wicked. God is not “Barney the dinosaur” and he isn’t just interested in giving everyone a big hug and a smile.Sounds interesting, but I’m not following all the way yet.
Why can’t God feel pain? Wasn’t that was Jesus did?
Regardless of the fact that God doesn’t let hell bum Him out, why would we, in heaven, care about such a petty thing as seeing God’s justice implemented and the guilty punished. I know God’s thoughts are not our thoughts, but this seems pretty OT as far as the mindset involved, and I wonder why all of a sudden when a Christian loses ties to earth, he derives pleasure from watching evil punished?
Hmmm, I’ve thought about how to turn evil into good. Maybe it’s something like that; feed off evil energy to drive the world into acceptance of the Truth, or something like that I guess.
Gosh I dunno. I don’t know what I’m saying. My wonderful, sainted father used to say, “Al, you just talk to hear your head rattle.” Here’s to you, Dad.
Time for my medicine.
Alan
Amen. Christ suffered in his humanity, not in his divinity. That is the teaching of the Church fathers. I would say that in heaven, we will be so consumed with the divine love and the beatific vision of God that we won’t have time to worry too much about what is going on in hell.
our happiness in heaven is not a feeling or emotion, it is an ontological state of union with God. God alone completes us, not our families or any creatures we loved while on earth. on the other hand, as Father said today in his brief homily at a wedding, even though marriage as it exists on earth does not exist in heaven (as Christ said) the love that is the basis of the marriage (and family) never dies and the love, whose source is God, is part of our happiness in heaven. I am willing to bet that a lot of people we “know” to be in hell may just surprise us when we enter the pearly gates, and a lot of people we expect to see there might be missing.
While I can understand what you are saying, I disagree that love is prideful or close-minded. Though I don’t think you were talking about love.
That’s an interesting idea. It makes quite a bit of sense too. Thank you
I’m sorry to hear that. I know it isn’t much to make you feel better but I will keep your Father in my prayers.