The Fire That Never Burns Out

Nothing on earth is so horrible as a dead soul. God turns His face from it and His angels flee from it. If ever you should be so unhappy as to commit a mortal sin, don’t go around with a dead soul within you, but tell a priest as soon as you can, for he can take away our sins and give back sanctifying grace.

It is a terrible thing to live with a dead soul, and it is still more terrible to die with a dead soul, for then the soul will be buried forever in hell.

Think of being locked up in a jail with thousands and thousands of devils and thousands and thousands of the worst men and women and children that have ever lived, all shrieking and cursing God through an endless night. And suppose the prison were made of red-hot iron and filled with roaring flames so that there was not a place on which you could lie or a spot on which you could stand without being terribly burned. And flames would shoot into your mouth and out through your ears and eyes and run through your veins and wrap you round like a cloak. And you would scream with pain and beat against the red-hot walls and beg to die and ask, “How long must this last?” And the answer would come back: “Forever. It will never, never end.” Ah! this is nothing to what hell really is!

Suppose you were told to sit in a comfortable chair in a beautiful room, surrounded by toys and games and picture-books. You could have everything you wanted, only you could never leave your chair, and just one of your hands would be buried day and night in red-hot coals, and yet could never burn up. If this were the punishment for mortal sin, do you think you would ever commit one?

Do you think you could plunge your hand for one minute in a burning fire? Could you hold it there for ten minutes, for one hour, for one day? Then how could you stand hell forever? Hell is the punishment for one mortal sin.

Oh, isn’t it better to be poor and lose our friends and have people laugh at us and even die than to commit a mortal sin?

At this very moment there are people burning in hell. Ask them why they are there and they will tell you it is through their own fault. Ask them what they would do if they could have one more chance, and they will tell you that they would die a thousand deaths rather than ever again commit a mortal sin.

But will they ever have another chance? Never. The gates of hell open only from the outside. Once within, it is impossible to get out.