345. What the damned want; and why suicide can never work
345. WHAT THE DAMNED WANT; AND WHY SUICIDE CAN NEVER WORK
Will the damned in Hell want simply to cease to exist? Is it possible to desire nonexistence? Is non-existence possible for a soul? Do suicides desire to cease to exist? Is that desire possible? Is its fulfillment possible? If not, does that show the ultimate tragedy of suicide? What is the difference between the state of soul in a suicide and the state of soul in the damned? Are suicides necessarily damned?
Whether the damned . . . wish not to be?
It is written (Rev 9:6): In those days men . . . shall desire to die and death shall fly from them.
The unhappiness of the damned surpasses all unhappiness of this world. Now in order to escape the unhappiness of this world, it is desirable to some to die, wherefore it is written (Sir 41:3 DR): O death, thy sentence is welcome to the man that is in need and to him whose strength faileth. . . . Much more, therefore, is not-to-be desirable to the damned.
I answer that Not-to-be may be considered in two ways. First, in itself—and thus it can nowise be desirable, since it has no aspect of good but is pure privation of good. Secondly, it may be considered as a relief from a painful life or from some unhappiness; and thus not to be takes on the aspect of good, since to lack an evil is a kind of good, as the Philosopher says. In this way it is better for the damned not to be than to be unhappy. Hence it is said (Mt 26:24): It were better for him if that man had not been born. . . . In this sense the damned can prefer not to be (S98,3).
What is not desirable cannot be desired. Simply not to exist, rather than to exist without pain, is not desirable, for there is nothing there to be desirable. Therefore simple nonexistence cannot be what either the damned or suicides desire.
However, it is possible even in this world to focus on the pains of life and to desire simply to be free from them, without desiring anything else. In that sense both the damned and suicides do desire not to be, i.e., not to be as they are, in pain.
The great difference between the damned and suicides is that there is still hope for suicides but not for the damned. This is confirmed by the fact that many who attempt suicide come back from near—death with experiences, either Heavenly or Hellish, that convince them that their suicide attempt was a mistake and could not possibly succeed in getting them what they sought, viz. freedom from all pain. Suicides usually see the cause of their pains as external, and want to escape the external world; but if they have near—death experiences, as some do, they usually discover that they made a terrible mistake because the experience of pain is in themselves, and they can never escape themselves, in time or in eternity. When they are given a second chance by coming back from a failed attempt, they are grateful, and rarely attempt suicide again. Some have experiences of the brink of Hell; some of something more hopeful and positive like Purgatory.
It is very wrong to despair of “successful” suicides’ salvation because the human heart is complex and many-layered. Many suicides are insane and not fully responsible for the act; all are profoundly confused. God in His tricky mercy will get them to Heaven eventually if it is at all possible, through a Purgatory that will shock but cleanse. Their “fundamental option” may have been for life, not death, but buried beneath more obvious, more conscious layers of fear and reaction to pain that motivated their act. Thus we should never despair of them because we never know whether with their whole heart they despaired of God. We should always hope they had an ember of hope that God could blow into a fire of life.
It remains true, however, that suicide is one of the very worst possible mistakes to make.