Hell – real-time risk for the obstinate

One day one of the girls of Fatima asked Our Lady: “Could a condemned soul repent? Could God take him from hell and put him in paradise?” Our Lady responded: “Oh yes, He could, but they do not wish it!”

When one persists in evil, nothing can be done. I once asked a demon, “But you, if you could go back, would you do the same thing? Don’t you see that, before, you were happy in Paradise and now you are damned to Hell?” “You don’t understand me,” he answered. “I have the strength and courage to rebel against God! Therefore, I am superior to Him!”

When a being believes that disobeying and sinning against God makes him superior to God, nothing can be done.

It is impossible for a damned soul, a soul already in Hell, to be saved. It is impossible.

All the conceivable attempts to convert him have already been offered to him by God. Saint Peter tells us, “The Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness, but is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). God wishes everyone’s conversion, and then one sees so many perverse people to whom everything is given, and everything goes well: they have health, financial success, and friends. Everything goes smoothly. In addition, God gives them opportunities to convert while they are on earth: afterward there are no more chances. What has been done has been done!

We have no idea whether a condemned soul becomes a demon in every way or remains “chained.” We have so many descriptions of Hell given by saints who have had the grace to see it. They give different descriptions but always speak of atrocious sufferings.

For example, regarding solitude, I once asked a demon: “If two people hated each other until death and found themselves together in Hell, would they continue to hate each other?”

He responded, “Don’t you understand that each soul in Hell thinks only of himself? He does not look at others. He is focused solely on his own suffering. He makes light of the suffering of all others.”

[…]

Hell is reserved for those who refuse the mercy of God up to the last instant, because God offers the possibility of conversion up to the last instant.

Excerpt taken from Father Amorth: My Battle Against Satan, by Fr. Gabriele Amorth (with Elizabeth Fezzi), Sophia Institute Press, 2018. From Part I entitled “The Last Conversations,” pp. 70-72. www.sophiainstitute.com.

Late priest of the Congregation of San Paolo, FR. GABRIELE AMORTH (1925-2016) was recognized as the world’s greatest exorcist. His mission of expelling Satan through incessant dedication earned the gratitude of thousands, and esteem of the highest Church authorities. He wrote many works, and hosted a popular radio program on Radio Maria.