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Rage and anger against a brother are judged by Christ as damnable (see Matthew 5:22). Such hardness of the heart focuses not on justice or mercy, but on revenge and is frequently accompanied by a curse. I suspect that those in hell are locked into that posture and cannot escape. They can never say they are sorry. There is no healing. Their own self-hatred is projected upon God and everyone else.  

Given that the sin of wrath or out-of-control anger is a damning sin, it must assuredly have a role to play in hell, no doubt polluting the atmosphere more than the smoke of any ordinary fire.  While it might be directed toward God, it is a type of anger that is always diffusive, violently assaulting everyone and anything around the enraged person.  The loss of control makes any type of meditative composure or resignation utterly impossible. The hearts of hell are forever restless or agitated. The irony is that the damned can never be whole or truly free. Their anger betrays a self-hatred that evades any semblance of supernatural love. The subject experiencing wrath always believes that he has been wronged and that his anger is justified. However, it allows for no levelheaded analysis. There can be no dialogue or reasoned accommodation. Note that stories of possessions often portray the demoniac as similarly explosive toward any efforts at exorcism. They act like cornered wild animals. Hell would constitute their ultimate cage. Unable to get their way, many souls might resemble wild beasts more than rational men and women. Wrath in hell is a demonic occupation, wrestling against a darkness that has nested in the human soul.  There can be no exorcism for those in hell so infested.  The soul strikes out and seeks to expel an invader and yet it no longer has any strength to do so. It is property. One cannot both hate or reject divine power and call upon it for help. Like an old battery left in a flashlight, the acid of wrath has eaten away at the insides. The light can never again be switched on.

Wrath eclipses the soul and casts hell in eternal twilight. This anger is literally hatred itself. It impacts upon the two properties of identity in the soul, intellect and will. The fire of wrath buries any possibility of good judgment and a humble heart.  While in this world, the fiery tentacles of wrath would reach out to draw all within its reach into the embrace of hell. It desires harm and the downfall of others, even the most innocent.  

While we are still pilgrims in this world, we should replace the raging lava of hate that threatens to consume hearts with the calming waters of Christ. The antidote to wrath in this world is the mystery of Christ’s Cross and the selfless love of Jesus in enduring his passion. If he could accept a death so outrageous, then why can we not embrace with docility the heavenly Father’s will in our lives? It is humility that can keep us from the grips of this sin. Oddly enough, Christ’s victory in the Cross is also the focus for the rage of Satan and his minions on the other side of the divide. The devil has allowed himself to be duped.

We often speak of contrition as the precondition for faith and saving grace. However, even more foundational is humility. The acceptance of God’s providence voids any claims at self-justification before the Lord. It makes possible clarity of judgment and resignation of spirit.  If we want mercy, then we must also be vehicles for forgiveness and healing.

Rage is irrational and out-of-control. It is associated with vengeance and murder.  It signifies an anti-gospel.  The good news of Christ is about the acquisition of the truth, the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. While the abode of hell is an expression of God’s justice; the horror stories about hell are due to its denizens, themselves. It is not the just punishment of God but the rage of sinners that leads to the excessive chastisement of the damned.

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Hell is defined as a place of eternal punishment. Nevertheless, the Scriptures relate that the devil and his demons actively roam the earth. It is for this reason that some speculated about hell being located on earth or at least deep within it. I would argue this is unlikely. It may be enough to say that the earth or the material universe falls outside the parameters of the heavenly kingdom. The kingdom of Christ is breaking into the world but has yet to be fully realized.  When Satan tempted Christ, he took for granted that he owned the world as a sort of adjunct to hell. Of course, our Lord’s passion and death redeemed us from the devil.  We need no longer to be his property. Given the ministry of exorcism and the testimony of Job 1:7, Satan does indeed roam the world and he and his minions can negatively influence souls. Indeed, in some cases they seem to have limited power within the material order. This has given a few of us real pause, not only regarding traditional hauntings and stories of possession, but also about the internet and the rise of artificial intelligence.  Might these new technologies open doors for the direct influence of the demonic on a wider scale than thought possible?  Can we be certain that conversations online and even in social media are always with purely human and/or A.I. agents?    

If the devil can influence men and intrude through tarot cards and Ouija boards, why not in the new electronic and digital media? I knew a priest-exorcist taunted through odd phone calls. Just look at the gross violence in gaming. Online pornography has utterly replaced adult bookstores and X-rated movie houses. All are now targeted with impunity.  The devil has a hand in this for sure. Would the devil not use technology to undermine faith and to deform moral conscience? Such is a real potentiality if the devil is not rigidly restricted to the confines of hell.  

Why does a good God give the devil liberty to tempt, influence and frighten us? The serpent in the garden tempted humanity with his own sin, urging that a bite of the forbidden fruit would make them gods. The cost was the dark side of mortality and the reduction of the devil to a worm that borrows the dirt. More than a snake, Satan was imaged as a serpent or dragon. Not only did he tempt Eve, but he intimidated her. The devil still seeks to frighten as the big boogeyman. This dragon appears in Genesis, the first book of the Bible, and in Revelation, the last.  He was the great deceiver and was cast out from heaven, hurled to earth, along with his fallen host of angels (Revelation 12:7-9).  

I suspect the presence of the demonic on earth has to do with the specific sin of Satan.  He refuses to bend the knee to the Christ Child. Jesus, by making our humanity his own, dismissing Satan’s temptations in the desert and claiming victory by the Cross, incites the devil to target us all in his crosshairs. If he cannot take out Jesus, then he will go after us.   He tempts our first parents, and the original sin would inflict great harm upon humanity and material creation. Our Lord would pay the price to make satisfaction for this dishonor to God, and he would heal the rift between heaven and earth. However, since the devil targeted the incarnation and humanity; all men and women would be called to take up their crosses and to take their turn in being tested. Now, not only the divine Person of Christ would assail the devil, but armed with faith and grace, even the smallest and weakest of God’s children might put the devil to shame.  Jesus tells his friends not to be afraid but the devils and the damned have every reason to be fearful. The parable story of Christ has not ended with the Gospel but is extended into the life of the Church and her saints.  The devil has lost the war, but the saints and martyrs still face the darkness in various skirmishes and battles. The devil fights on in spite and this intensifies his humiliation.  It is as if he will never learn. He thought the crucifixion would be his great victory and yet it proved to be his bitter defeat. Now in time, with every selfless act of love and martyrdom, his loss is revisited.

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I suspect even the damned seek to run away from the truth of perdition, seeking to make some semblance of heaven in hell. What powers remain to them? They still have intellect and will.  C. S. Lewis may have been on to something in his book THE GREAT DIVORCE. The damned fashioned their worlds through imagination and separated themselves ever more and more from one another. The reality would be most unpleasant. Might they seek escape through the phantasms of the mind just as mortal men turn to drugs or the bottle?  Such seems to be a symptom of self-preoccupation and self-destruction. 

What are the characteristics of the damned? Let us look first at the saved. At the very beginning of the catechism, we are asked about our ultimate meaning. Why did God make us? The answer is short and decisive— to know him, to love him, to serve him, and to give him glory.  The damned do not want to know God and either hate or are indifferent to him. This failure to love will also show itself with an impoverishment regarding charity to our neighbor.  The devil’s sin becomes that of fallen humanity. Milton’s Satan swears, “I will not serve!” We read in the epic poem, PARADISE LOST: “The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n. . . Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav’n.”  The saints are about God’s business in the world. They worship him at Mass and take their adoration and praise with them into heaven. By contrast, a fallen humanity might go through the motions, but their love is purely for show. They might curse and throw God’s name around, but they rarely if ever pray. They miss more Masses than they attend. As I stated before, if they cannot worship God once a week for an hour, why should they want to enter heaven where the saints and angels give endless glory to God? 

Many people wrongly assume that the souls of saints become angelic after death. However, this is not the teaching of the Church. When a human being dies, his body becomes a corpse, and his soul becomes a ghost.  Human ghosts are regarded as helpless. They have no angelic powers. It is for this reason that after the final judgment, the righteous dead will be restored body and spirit. Like the glorified Christ, they will be reconstituted albeit like Jesus able to appear in locked rooms and no longer subject to sickness, suffering or death.  By contrast, the angels were never born and are not human.  They have no true bodies or physical extension. While we are born in time, the number of angels is fixed.  Just like men, some angels rebelled against God. Fallen angels followed Satan and are called devils or demons.  Fallen human beings are called the damned.  They are not the same and fallen humanity is largely subject to the will of the demonic.  While it is generally accepted that demons can sometimes evade or escape or extend hell; many if not most authorities view the fallen dead of humanity as imprisoned in hell without any possible respite. However, the Church has not given a certain answer to this query.

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The gravity of the parable in Luke 13:22-30 is not about the dimensions of the door but the fact that it is closed. No one will enter heaven except those that the Lord allows to do so. Hell is not simply another path or door that might be chosen but also regards being locked outside the kingdom of the just. St. Augustine writes in THE CITY OF GOD about two competing cities.  The great doctor of the Church argued that in this world it is often difficult or impossible to determine the kingdom to which a person belongs. Wicked people sometimes do good things.  Good people sometimes commit grievous wrongs. All will be made clear on the other side of the mortal veil. 

We are reminded of a two-fold movement, first, pilgrims toward God and the land of promise; and second, the God who comes searching for us. God knows those who belong to him. When it comes to the damned, some will jump ship before reaching the promised shore. They may literally knock on the door to God’s house, but they will never come in. Self-deception can take one to the very entry of heaven but without the key hidden in the human heart, no one can enter. A single step inside would bring the full weight of truth crushing down. Lies have no place under the light of divine truth. God’s revelation about this takes into consideration human freedom and the tension between virtue and vice.  The Lord readily showers his grace upon those who are disposed to receive his help and life. Unfortunately, others shun the rain of God’s gifts and favor.

Ours is no angry God who hates sinners as depicted in radical Calvinism.  God loves us all, even those who would reject him.  Indeed, he loves us so much that he is willing both to die for us and to give us space to exercise our own freedom, even if that means letting us go. There is no annihilation as supposed by the Adventists. God would love us into heaven but that same love will follow us into hell with a fire that can never be extinguished. If heaven is the proper home for love, then hell is where that love is never accepted. That love brings joy to some and agony to others.

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Matthew 7:13-14 urges us to enter through the narrow gate and that “the broad road leads to destruction.”  Our Lord tells us that salvation demands struggle (taking up the cross to follow him) and that there are few who take the narrow gate into the kingdom. This summons to mind the somewhat comical door to the ground level bathroom in my rectory. It is a half-door, fondly called the “Hobbit” door to the toilet. It requires that anyone who is somewhat wide to squeeze into the room. Visitors have laughed about it but those of us who are on the large side find it disconcerting. While it may be unlikely, it is hard to shake the prospect of getting stuck. Indeed, it precipitated a story that I told parish friends.  Preaching on how our salvation is not a private affair, I insisted that it had a communal or interpersonal dynamic.  While we must each make our own choices, we can assist one another in making and keeping them. Sharing a mental image, I related imagining myself standing before the entry way to heaven.  The door is open, but the opening is very small.  Despite many efforts, I cannot squeeze through. Suddenly friends appear that I have known in life. Yes, this is a somewhat elaborate fantasy. Those already in heaven started to pull and pull, so that I might join them.  Meanwhile, I am holding up the line. More friends start to push me from behind. While it might be a peculiar and comical image, I would offer it as a depiction for the communion of saints.  Starting at the font when we come in the arms of parents and godparents, we never come to God alone.  Intercession plays an essential role in our approach to the Lord and our life in the kingdom.  Jesus establishes a “church” or community of faith.  He gives us sacraments and one another.  It might take a lot of pulling and pushing, but those who love the Lord will eventually get through that small door or narrow gate. Maybe the struggle at the entry itself is another indication of purgatory?  

How many would give up and select the wider gate? Separated from others, one would be alone. Would there be any interest in taking the narrow gate to see God if love for him is lacking? Too many take the easy way out. Unfortunately, in the parable this route leads to destruction or hell.

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Put bluntly, the counterfeit Jesus of posturing Christians has no power to save. He is not real.  Such souls will have a true existential shock when they encounter the true Messiah and Savior. Those who trust in the Lord are summoned to a transformation in Christ. Mentally configuring Jesus into our own alter ego is a backward act that serves no purpose other than self-deception. Of course, this false Jesus may have substance in that the demonic can masquerade as holy personages and deities. This assessment of idols extends back to the first martyrs. They suffered torture and death at the bloody spectacle of the arena for failing to worship the emperor and the pagan pantheon of gods. The associated bloodlust was a sure indication that the pagan deities had an association with the demons and the devil.  We must always be wary of a darkness that feigns being light.

Saints are made on earth, not in heaven.  We are molded by our actions and by the intervention of divine grace.  Actual grace helps us to behave as God’s children in this world, ensuring that we will be receptive and retentive of saving grace. Sanctifying grace makes us worthy of heaven and the beatific vision.  Finding an analogy in modern science fiction, numerous futurists predict as an alternative to terraforming planets, that a super science might seek to biologically augment human beings to accommodate planetary environments otherwise inhospitable for human life. While this is farfetched, it is our conviction that divine grace and the sacraments condition us for the sacred environment of heaven.  Humanity must be healed of original sin, weaned from concupiscence, and made able to breathe the air of eternal joy over that of proximate pleasures.  The mutable and mortal must give way to the perfect and immortal.  We must be reborn or made brand new. Similarly, the absence of grace will not only fail to sustain the new man but leave the natural man gasping for air. This world is passing.  Heaven is the only way to get off before it is too late.  The devil would prefer to leave us stranded. That is enough for him to steal souls. But the devil is not satisfied with inaction, he exploits human weakness and fear. He imposes vice over virtue. He would condition us for a habitation of bondage and darkness. It is somewhat ironic that we associate hell with fire because it is a flame that offers no illumination. It is a fire that blinds and casts all in the darkness of night. By contrast, our Lord calls us to a new beginning, a new day.   

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