How could an all merciful God condemn somebody to hell?
I’ve been having this discussion with people for a long
time. Many are convinced that, at best,
hell is a temporary place. “My God
wouldn’t send anybody there permanently,” being their argument.
Here is another way to approach the idea:
We spend this lifetime conditioning our minds, bodies, and souls. We don’t magically become something different
in the next life. We won’t become angels
and dogs won’t become humans. We will be
who we are. According to St. John Paul’s
Theology of the Body we will even retain (when glorified body and soul are
reunited) some identity as to our sex.
(Always a hot topic during my seminary years.) If all that remains, if a person hated (or
would not at least accept) the laws and ways of God on earth (unless some sort
of invincible ignorance played a role), that won’t magically change
either after a lifetime of conditioning. And since in the next life we
are not prone to illusion or delusion (meaning we will see all clearly) we won’t “change
our minds” over time. (Purgatory is
another topic.)
So remember this: the most used image for the way Christ
relates to His Church is bride and groom.
Christ is the Bridegroom, the Church is the bride.
To be united to Him reveals the nuptial meaning
of our bodies.
The union is intimate and total.
Using an earthly example, let’s suppose someone proposed to
your who everyone, just EVERYONE said is THE perfect person; rich, good
looking, powerful, loving, attentive, generous, admired and respected, healthy,
supportive – just go on and on and end with, "and smells good." The only glitch in the whole thing is that you can’t
stand this person. You like messy, you
don’t want to be supported but challenged, you like Valuetime Cheesecurls for
dinner, and you smell bad and like other people who also smell bad. As perfect as the other person may be, you
will be miserable being married to that person for 50 years.
Now imagine that the union is permanent and
eternal; someone
who does not love God and is forced to be in an intimate union with Him for all
of eternity.
That would be
horrific for that person.
So God creates a place for
these persons to be.
We call it
hell.
We know how awesome God is and all
He has to offer and would consider it a catastrophic loss.
But if you don’t want what is being offered,
you can't see it as a loss and in fact would be tormented by it and so it a mercy that God allows you to be someplace “else.”
In this way He condemns no one, we choose and
tell Him where we want to be.
Is hell then a great place for these souls? No.
Like a person in this life who you cannot help, the person who returns
to abuse or the person who returns to drunkenness, it is what they know and to
some extent “choose.” To someone who has
chosen heaven
, it seems a life of hell, wailing and gnashing of teeth.