350. The harrowing of Hell?
350. THE HARROWING OF HELL?
There was a medieval legend about “the harrowing of Hell” in which Christ descended into Hell and emptied it, at the end of time. Is there any possible truth to this hopeful story?
Whether by God’s mercy all punishment of the damned, both men and demons, comes to an end?
It is written (Mt 25:41): Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels. Therefore they will be punished eternally. . . .
If the unhappiness of the wicked angels comes at length to an end, the happiness of the good will also come to an end, which is inadmissible.
As Augustine says, Origen erred in maintaining that the demons will at length, through God’s mercy, be delivered from their punishment. But this error has been condemned by the Church . . . because it is clearly contrary to the authority of Holy Writ (Rev 20:9-10). . .
Objection 1. It would seem that by God’s mercy all punishment of the damned, both men and demons, comes to an end. For it is written (Wis 11:24): Thou hast mercy upon all, O Lord, because Thou canst do all things.
Reply to Objection 1. God, for His own part, has mercy on all. . . . [H]owever, His mercy . . . does not reach to certain people who render themselves unworthy of that mercy (and incapable of receiving it, by rejecting it) as do the demons and the damned who are obstinate in wickedness. . . (S99,2).
However pleasing they may be, human legends cannot trump clear, direct divine revelation. When there is a contradiction between what man says and what God says, which do we choose? It’s a “Duh!” for anyone but an unbeliever. (That’s the simple point of St. Thomas’ second and fourth paragraphs above.)
We saw above (#349) that if there is time for the most fundamental change possible in our lives after death; if we can change our essential orientation toward God; if there is a “second chance”; then there must be a second chance for apostasy as well as for repentance. If Hell is not secure, neither is Heaven. There is a similar parallel in regard to time’s extent after death. If time after death is finite rather than infinite, then Heaven can end as well as Hell. (That’s the point of the third paragraph.)
The objection from God’s mercy is answered not by mitigating this mercy in any way—it is infinite. There is no possible sin that God will not forgive, willingly and instantly and happily. But forgiveness is a gift, and a gift must be free: freely given and freely received. God always freely gives His mercy, but we do not always freely accept it. If we do not believe Him and trust Him, we keep the hands of our soul closed even though God’s hands are open. It is this unbelief and pride that makes us refuse to repent and receive God’s forgiveness, rather than the gravity of any sins we have committed, that renders us “unworthy” of His mercy. “Unworthy” does not mean “undeserving”, for we are all undeserving! It means “incapable of receiving.” To ask for mercy to force itself upon the unwilling is to ask for what is intrinsically impossible and self—contradictory.
Lack of faith (trust) toward the giver causes us to refuse the gift. This is why faith is necessary for salvation. And this is why it is so important for parents to be trustable to their children, by showing them total love and honesty. If children learn to be suspicious, cynical, and mistrustful of others, beginning with their parents (who are inevitably their primary models for the whole human race), it will be much harder for them to trust God when they grow up. Even St. Augustine found it very difficult to call God “Father” because he had such a bad relationship with his own earthly father. This is one way in which we experience “the iniquity of the fathers upon the children” (Ex. 20:5).