Masochists and Hell

[EgoSum]

Hi guys,

This probably is not the right forum for this question, but…

I was talking to my friend the other night, and he (a Jew) was wondering about the Catholic stance on masochism and Hell. If a masochist goes to Hell, is it a worse Hell than that for other people? Since masochists love pain, is Hell not torture for them? And my question that arose was, What is Hell in the first place? Is it an actual location where pain is inflicted? But I seem to recollect John Paul II speaking of Hell as a mental state for those who do not walk with God. Maybe I am completely off the mark, though…

Thanks so much for any answers you can provide.

 

[Rand_Al_Thor]

Pax tecum!

Hell would be so much worse than anything any masochist could ever imagine, that it wouldn’t matter if they enjoyed earthly pain. Also, as I understand it, the biggest torture of Hell is the complete and total absence of God. That would be worse than any physical pain.

In Christ,
Rand

 

[batteddy]

And, being dead, a masochist won’t have their body anymore, and thus no brain, and thus no pathologies or miswirings of said brain.

We lose all our memories, imagination, personality, preferences, everything except the choice we made for or against God in our life. Anything else is re-infused at God’s discretion, but death is incredibly denuding.

 

[BLB_Oregon]

Masochism is it’s own Hell, don’t you think? Just because you get sexual stimulation from something does not mean that it gives you any joy.

I was talking to my boys today about Hell. I told them that we are made to love others and to love God. If you have a car, and you put the right fuel in it and take care of it and keep it between the lines, it works well. That is the kind of life a car might “enjoy”. But if you put sugar in the tank and crash it into stuff, that might be exciting and it might be novel, but as it is against the way the car was made, it wouldn’t be “enjoyable” and it will also little by little or all at once destroy the car.

If we do not live our lives in divine love, we cannot be anything but miserable, for to live outside the life of God is to live outside our own nature. The nature of a masochist is not different than ours in terms of what the person is made for. It is only different in the brokenness that the person endures in this life.

A masochist in Hell would not be any more or less in torment than anyone else cut off from God. Once God heals the person of their masochism, however, Heaven would not be any more strange to them than to any of us…it would be just as much home, just as much Heaven to him or her as to anyone.

This is where the old saying comes from: It is Hell all the way to Hell and Heaven all the way to Heaven. Acting according to our natures can be very difficult, due to the original sin that makes us resist putting God’s will before our own. It is, though, the only thing that works.

 

[Darrel]

And, being dead, a masochist won’t have their body anymore, and thus no brain, and thus no pathologies or miswirings of said brain.

We lose all our memories, imagination, personality, preferences, everything except the choice we made for or against God in our life. Anything else is re-infused at God’s discretion, but death is incredibly denuding.

What is the source of this information?

-D

 

[Steadfast_love]

Thanks so much for any answers you can provide.

As far as masochists go, they are tremendously particular about the type of suffering they enjoy. Sadly, even if they like fire and brimstone their hunger for candies and salty snacks eventualy trumps any pleasure they would have otherwise enjoyed. Or at least that’s how it works here on earth.

 

[batteddy]

What is the source of this information?

What do you mean? When the body dies, it doesn’t go with you to the afterlife…

Your brain is where memory, psychology, etc is stored and has their operations…when the body dies, so do they…

It’s not really “from” anywhere, just the logical consequence of death based on the Catholic (specifically Scholastic) understanding of the relationship between the soul and body, and death.

 

[Damascus]

What do you mean? When the body dies, it doesn’t go with you to the afterlife…

Your brain is where memory, psychology, etc is stored and has their operations…when the body dies, so do they…

It’s not really “from” anywhere, just the logical consequence of death based on the Catholic (specifically Scholastic) understanding of the relationship between the soul and body, and death.

But the body is joined again with the soul at the second coming of Jesus is it not? Then you are judged before all and plunked right back to your eternal state. (hopefully not hell) but even so, you are only confusing me now.

 

[batteddy]

The new body will not have any pathologies that will harm the Good and stop them from enjoying heaven, nor any benefits that will help the Wicked endure Hell.

The bodies of the Good will rise glorified. Any faulty “tangles” in the brain causing neuroticism, masochism, etc will be gone in the reconfigured brain of the glorified body.

And the bodies of the Bad will rise in wickedness and depravity. Any hope or masochism or dissociative disorders that could perhaps lessen the pain of hell, will be gone in their terrible risen bodies.

 

[The_Augustinian]

This reminds me of the masochist who begged the sadist to hurt him. He refused.

I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist!

 

[Damascus]

The new body will not have any pathologies that will harm the Good and stop them from enjoying heaven, nor any benefits that will help the Wicked endure Hell.

The bodies of the Good will rise glorified. Any faulty “tangles” in the brain causing neuroticism, masochism, etc will be gone in the reconfigured brain of the glorified body.

And the bodies of the Bad will rise in wickedness and depravity. Any hope or masochism or dissociative disorders that could perhaps lessen the pain of hell, will be gone in their terrible risen bodies.

Makes one really wake up to the situation. I wish there was more talk of hell today.

You word it so nicely but its all in what you dont say.

The mystery of Hell. And why do we avoid discussing it?