Hell

Hell is the state of eternal separation from God, the lot of the one who dies in a state of mortal sin, refusing voluntarily the love of God.

The loss of God

The pain of hell is first the loss of God. The soul was created for God, as for its only happiness; to be separated from him forever is the deepest suffering, which tradition calls the pain of loss, the privation of God. “They will suffer the penalty of eternal perdition, far from the face of the Lord.” 2 Thessalonians 1:9 To this privation is added another pain, which tradition names the pain of sense and which Scripture figures by fire. “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire.” Matthew 25:41

Forever

Hell is eternal. “These will go into eternal punishment, and the just into eternal life.” Matthew 25:46 Its eternity holds to what is fixed at death: the time of choice ends then, and the soul remains forever in the orientation it has taken. The one who has definitively turned away from God remains enclosed in this refusal.

The fruit of a free refusal

The cause of hell is in the free refusal of man. God wills the salvation of all: “God wills that all men be saved.” 1 Timothy 2:4 Hell is the term of a refusal conscious and maintained to the end; God respects this choice and ratifies it. To love supposes being able to refuse, and the possibility of hell is the reverse side of the greatness of our freedom. This is why Christ warns of it with gravity, to turn each one away from this path and call him to conversion; and the Church, which declares no man damned, entrusts all the departed to the mercy of God.