People describe hell as a place of complete and utter torment.beaten and burn and in constant pain.People say that the air in hell is suffocating and your greatest fears are used against you.I don’t believe that anyone could possibly deserve this. Even the most psychotic,physciopathic,evil people should not have to endure an eternity of unimaginable abuse
The experience of Hell is something that cannot be accurately described by people in this life. All of these descriptions and language are used in an attempt to convey that Hell is somewhere you don’t want to be.
Perhaps imagining it like this may help you.
Consider that not all pain is physical. For example, the pain of losing a loved one, of betrayal, of depression, of sadness, of anger, of embarrassment, of disappointment, of loss, etc… These pains, while they can sometimes lead to physical manifestations of discomfort, are primarily
intellectual pains.
Considering these kinds of sufferings helps me to imagine the “pains” experienced during Purgatory and those in Hell that are suffered by the damned.
In Purgatory, all the decisions of our life are shown to us. We see how much God loves us, and we see how our decisions have gone against His will. We experience the pain of disappointment and sorrow when we see how much we have hurt others during our life. We experience the pain of seeing the consequences of all of our actions.
In Hell, we experience the pain of anger, resentment, jealousy, rage, hatred, etc… These emotions burn within us and perpetually devour us from the inside out. God does not inflict this pain on us; rather, it is an eternally self-inflicted consequence of our own selfishness.
As I said in my previous post, when we choose God and to love Him, we say to Him, “
Thy will be done” and in return He says to us, “
My will be done.” What is God’s will for us? To come to know Him, Love Him, and serve Him in this life so as to be eternally happy with Him in the next.
On the other hand, when we reject God, we say to Him, “
No… My will be done.” and in return, God loves us so much that He restrains Himself and His power and control; He refuses to overwhelm our free will choice with His grace and says to us in return “
Thy will be done.”
God honors our free will choice to accept Him or reject Him. We make that choice every second of every day throughout our life.
For this reason, with every breath, and with every heart beat, we should align our lives with His will.
“Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”