Issues with sin and hell

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I admit that the idea that one single mortal sin condemns someone for eternity in Hell is terrifying to me, but I just cannot help but feel that it is unfair, and it demands a perfection that we by nature are simply unable to provide. I don’t think anyone WANTS to go to Hell, but all of us due to our nature fall into sins that in our hearts we really do not want to do. “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak” It’s just that this whole concept has manifested so much misery inside me while I worry about the fate of my own soul and the fates of the souls of the ones I love most, I just don’t understand how God who is infinitely loving can send someone to an eternity of agony for just one mortal sin. I would never presume to think I am more merciful than God, but I just do not see how an eternity in Hell makes any sense as a just punishment for sin. It seems completely disproportionate to the crime when seen in the light that no one can harm God, and God’s existences and perfectness could never ever be threatened by any sin, so why are weak human begins born with a fallen nature that they didn’t ask for which informs every single decision they make faced with the worst fate imaginable as the result of one solitary mortal sin? Please help me make some sense out of this, because I certainly cannot.

Here is one other question:

Let’s say someone commits a mortal sin with all three conditions met, afterwards they were sorry and resolved to go to confession at the soonest possibility (usually saturdays at most parishes) Now on that morning this person was on their way to Church and got into a fatal car crash and was killed. Would this person have been forgiven by God? I cannot see how God could possibly condemn this person. They were a weak sinner just like everyone else and messed up, they recognized their sin, were sorry, and sought forgiveness in confession at the next possible time but died before making it there. So under these conditions, would this person have been saved?

I just do not see how an all loving God who gave His very life so that each and everyone one of us could spend eternity with Him would condemn one of His children because they did not make it to the confessional in time in spite of their sorrow and desire for forgiveness. This sounds perfectly reasonable to me, but according some on this site in other threads this person would still end up in Hell and I just can’t help but feel that that is absurd.
 
_L said:
I admit that the idea that one single mortal sin condemns someone for eternity in Hell is terrifying to me, but I just cannot help but feel that it is unfair, and it demands a perfection that we by nature are simply unable to provide. I don’t think anyone WANTS to go to Hell, but all of us due to our nature fall into sins that in our hearts we really do not want to do. “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak” It’s just that this whole concept has manifested so much misery inside me while I worry about the fate of my own soul and the fates of the souls of the ones I love most, I just don’t understand how God who is infinitely loving can send someone to an eternity of agony for just one mortal sin. I would never presume to think I am more merciful than God, but I just do not see how an eternity in Hell makes any sense as a just punishment for sin. It seems completely disproportionate to the crime when seen in the light that no one can harm God, and God’s existences and perfectness could never ever be threatened by any sin, so why are weak human begins born with a fallen nature that they didn’t ask for which informs every single decision they make faced with the worst fate imaginable as the result of one solitary mortal sin? Please help me make some sense out of this, because I certainly cannot.

Here is one other question:

Let’s say someone commits a mortal sin with all three conditions met, afterwards they were sorry and resolved to go to confession at the soonest possibility (usually saturdays at most parishes) Now on that morning this person was on their way to Church and got into a fatal car crash and was killed. Would this person have been forgiven by God? I cannot see how God could possibly condemn this person. They were a weak sinner just like everyone else and messed up, they recognized their sin, were sorry, and sought forgiveness in confession at the next possible time but died before making it there. So under these conditions, would this person have been saved?

I just do not see how an all loving God who gave His very life so that each and everyone one of us could spend eternity with Him would condemn one of His children because they did not make it to the confessional in time in spite of their sorrow and desire for forgiveness. This sounds perfectly reasonable to me, but according some on this site in other threads this person would still end up in Hell and I just can’t help but feel that that is absurd.
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It is not GOD who condemns the person --and it is UNREPENTED mortal sin which a person freely chooses whereby that PERSON (not God) chooses Hell.

Here’s the thing. The NORM for the Catholic is confession of mortal sins to a priest.

PERFECT contrition, in the absence of a priest, CAN (that means it is POSSIBLE but not CERTAIN) secure absolution of mortal sin. Not many people are capable of that but it IS possible.

So. . . the scenario of a man in mortal sin on his way to confession does not automatically mean he is, without a single solitary doubt, condemned to hell. If he is repentent, God is merciful and we do not know FOR CERTAIN that this contrition was NOT perfect.

However, suppose the man in mortal sin is on his way to confession and he is doing so because even though he doesn’t really repent, he figures he wants to ‘play it safe’. This man MIGHT not be truly repentant but only God knows, not us. Plus at the last instant of life he might get truly repentant even if he hadn’t been.

All that people are saying is, IF a person is in mortal sin and IF that person dies with mortal sin unrepented, that person has CHOSEN hell.

We are not saying that individual B who is such a sweet soul and is hurrying off to confession with mortal sin but got hit by a bus while saving a toddler is ‘bound for hell without fail.’

We ARE saying if individual B, no matter how ‘sweet’, is in mortal sin and is NOT repentant before he dies, the CONSEQUENCE of UNREPENTED MORTAL SIN is the free choice of hell.

NOT ‘condemnation by God’ and certainly not unfairly.

NOBODY goes to Hell unknowingly, unwittingly, begging to be forgiven, pleading to be released, or regretting it. Nobody.

OH. . .and Hell is absolutely just punishment.

You see, suppose X commits a mortal sin. We’ll say fornication. Say it lasted an hour.

The sin however does not last ‘just that hour’. It doesn’t even last ‘just for while we’re on earth’. If you commit a mortal sin you are STILL IN A STATE OF SIN until you are absolved.

Therefore, a person with unrepented mortal sin is SINNING when he dies. And once he is in eternity. . .HE KEEPS ON SINNING. ETERNAL SIN, not a sin that is ‘over and done with’. Eternal hell is eternal because the SIN is eternal. Capisce?
 
If someone fulfilled all three requirements, then they probably do in fact want to go to hell. One can’t simply accidentally commit a mortal sin and damn oneself.

If one truly repented and resolved to make confession as soon as feasible, they may not receive eternal damnation. Repenting itself is something that doesn’t happen by accident - not even the confessional can forgive irrepentance :eek:!

Repentance sets in motion the healing of the severed relationship between the sinner and God. Simply being moved to seek the confessional may repair the relationship enough that eternal damnation is no longer necessary.

The prodigal son only got within faint eyesight of his father’s house, and the father came running out to meet him!
 
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