Angels, we understand, are beings of pure intellect and will. They are not subject to confusion. They never “change their minds”. The evil spirits, then, incomprehensively more intelligent than we are, not subject to any kind of confusion or misjudgment, made a clear choice. The nature of angels is such that their decisions are forever because their wills are united with their being in such a way that they “make themselves” what they are by their decisions. So, in making their decision against God, the evil spirits had a totally clear idea what they were doing. So why, then, did they do it? One explanation is pride. Not pride in the sense we understand it exactly, but a pride that is a rejection of the governance of Divine Providence. In other words, they did not want to be ruled; did not want to make a self-declaring act of the will united with the will of God, and gave up the Beatific Vision in order to govern themselves, within their power, totally.
St. Therese of Lisieux said everyone in hell is a volunteer. She described the Particular Judgment, in which we see, in total detail, in its full evilness, every single sin we ever committed. At that time, our minds are totally clear; clear in a way they never are in life. It is a terrible experience, she said. Then, we are required to do two things. First, we must admit the truth of what was made manifest. Then, Jesus offers us forgiveness, but we must accept it in that way-totally as forgiveness. There is no rationalization possible. There is no self-deception possible. There is no excuse possible. We simply accept forgiveness or we don’t.
Then, she said, with a total clarity, we choose. Some choose God because the soul loves God enough to accept himself as God accepts him, and to accept the purest form of forgiveness that can possibly be. But acceptance is on His terms, not ours.
Some say “no” and deny that the truth, which is as clear as clear can be, is the truth and, in so doing, deliberately affirm a lie known to be a lie; that our existence can be fulfilled without God. We refuse forgiveness, declaring, in effect, that we are not unjust; it is God who is unjust to require this of us. We then choose an eternity in contemplating our own being instead of that of God, because we do not choose to love Him. It is an irrevocable choice because we “make ourselves what we are” in so doing, something like the angels did. Because of the clarity of the thought, we never change our minds. We “hate” God because it is the only alternative to love; there being no “gray areas” in the clarity of the light of God…
St. Therese’s declaration is not necessarily the way things are. She was a living human when she said that. But she is a Doctor of the Church and, as such, strongly deserves consideration.
It’s hard to picture a person choosing hell, but if you think about it long enough, you can kind of picture it. If a person has “trained himself” to “choose himself” and “worship himself” enough in life, it is imaginable. We all do it every day. Jesus Himself said “even the just man falls seven times a day.” We train both ways at best.
She also said all souls in Purgatory are volunteers. They do not “choose themselves”, but know with total clarity that they are not fit to be in the presence of God and are unable to love God as God wishes to be loved, but we do not reject Him, and volunteer for (we do not know exactly what, but it is not a picnic) to cleanse ourselves and prepare ourselves, and change ourselves, and when we do, we know exactly what is needed to do so. Theoretically, they could avoid Purgatory, but do not, of their own free wills. It is our alternative to hell.
A fascinating picture. Scary too. What is it to “love God as God wishes to be loved” exactly? It’s right there in the Bible. But how, exactly; as a practical matter, right now? That is precisely why St. Therese’s “Little Way” has proved such a boon for so many.
