346. Sins in Hell
346. SINS IN HELL
Can you still sin in Hell? Don’t the damned hate?
Envy reigns supreme in the damned. Therefore they grieve for the happiness of the blessed, and desire their damnation (S98,4).
Whether the damned hate God?
It is written (Ps 73[74]:23): The pride of them that hate Thee ascendeth continually.
I answer that The appetite is moved by good or evil apprehended. Now God is apprehended in two ways: namely, in Himself as by the blessed, who see Him in His essence, and in His effects, as by us and by the damned. Since, then, He is goodness by His essence, He cannot in Himself be displeasing to any will; wherefore whoever sees Him in His essence cannot hate Him. On the other hand, some of His effects are displeasing to the will. . . . [A]ccordingly a person may hate God not in Himself but by reason of His effects. Therefore the damned, perceiving God in His punishment, which is the effect of His justice, hate Him.
Objection 2. No one can hate goodness itself, as neither can one will badness itself. Now God is goodness itself. Therefore no one can hate Him.
Reply to Objection 2. This argument would prove if the damned saw God in Himself . . . in His essence (S98,5).
Hell is the worst thing there is. The worst thing there is, is sin itself. (St. Thomas says that “the evil of fault is worse than the evil of punishment or pain.”) Therefore Hell is not just the punishment for sin but also sin itself.
What sins can be committed in Hell? At least two, the two that cause the most pain and the least pleasure, even forbidden pleasure, on earth: envy and hate.
It gives us a shock of horror to read, in St. Thomas, that the damned, like the devils, desire the damnation of the blessed. But there is a tiny hope for a “happy” or hopeful spin that it is possible to put on this horror: think of a person you fear might go to Hell, or be in Hell. Could he in this life desire your eternal unhappiness? If not, perhaps he could not do so in the next life either.
A similar hopeful spin could be put on the other Hellish sin, hatred of God. Most unbelievers do not hate God. (Is it possible to hate a being you think does not exist?) They just don’t love Him, because they don’t believe He’s real.
In the long “I answer that” paragraph, and in his reply to Objection 2, St. Thomas explains why Plato was right when he said that if you really know the good, you cannot help but love it. Plato’s mistake was to confuse earth with Heaven. Only there will we see God so clearly that it will be absolutely impossible not to love Him. Here, it is possible to hate Him because of His just punishments, just as it is possible to hate your good and loving but just and punishing earthly father.