162. Free will and turning away from God

Free will and turning away from God

YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 162

Ave Maria series

162  But if God is love, how can there be a hell?

God does not damn men.  Man himself is the one who refuses God’s merciful love and voluntarily deprives himself of (eternal) life by excluding himself from communion with God.  [1036-1037]

The visionary children of Fatima, Portugal: Lucia Santos (left) with her cousins Francisco and Jacinta Marto in 1917.

Cardinal Luciani (the future Pope John Paul I) said on July 11, 1977 after a visit to Sister Lucia, “Hell exists, and we could fall into it.  At Fatima, Our Lady taught us this prayer: ‘O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fire of hell, lead all souls to Heaven, especially those  in most  need of thy mercy.’  There are important things in this world, but there is nothing more important than to merit Heaven by living well.  It is not only Fatima that says so, but the Gospel: ‘What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul?’” (Matthew 16:26) …..162

God yearns for communion even with the worst sinner; he wants everyone to convert and be saved.  Yet God created man to be free and respects his decisions.  Even God cannot compel love.  As a lover he is “powerless” when someone chooses hell instead of heaven.  51, 53

“I ask myself: What does hell mean? I maintain that it is the inability to love.”  Fyodor M. Dostoyevsky (1821-1881, Russian writer)

The Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness, but is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.  2 Peter 3:9

He desires that all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.  1 Timothy 2:4

[1036-1037]

HELL

1036 The affirmations of Sacred Scripture and the teachings of the Church on the subject of hell are a call to the responsibility incumbent upon man to make use of his freedom in view of his eternal destiny. They are at the same time an urgent call to conversion: "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few."( Matthew 7:13-14)⁶¹⁸  –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

Since we know neither the day nor the hour, we should follow the advice of the Lord and watch constantly so that, when the single course of our earthly life is completed, we may merit to enter with him into the marriage feast and be numbered among the blessed, and not, like the wicked and slothful servants, be ordered to depart into the eternal fire, into the outer darkness where "men will weep and gnash their teeth."( Lumen gentium 48 § 3; Matthew 22:13;compare Hebrews 9:27; Matthew 25:13,26,30,31-46)⁶¹⁹  –CCC

1037 God predestines no one to go to hell;( compare Council of Orange II (529):Denzinger-Schönmetzer 397; Council of Trent (1547):1567)⁶²⁰  for this, a willful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end. In the Eucharistic liturgy and in the daily prayers of her faithful, the Church implores the mercy of God, who does not want "any to perish, but all to come to repentance"(2 Peter 3:9)⁶²¹ –CCC

Father, accept this offering 
from your whole family. 
Grant us your peace in this life, 
save us from final damnation, 
and count us among those you have chosen.( Roman Missal, Eucharistic Prayer I (Roman Canon) 88)⁶²² –CCC

Saint  Apparition  Fatima