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Himself, who is the one
good embracing all other goods?
God Makes Hell
It is also God who will
make Hell, for, as St. Bernard remarks, He Himself will be the chastise
ment of the damned. For just as the elect will be supremely happy because God is
for him, and he
is for God, so also will the reprobate be unhappy, because God is no longer for
him, and he is
no longer for God. Let us listen to the threat which God made against those who
refused to belong
to Him during this life: "Call his name, 'Not my people'; for you are not my
people, and I will not
be yours." (Osee 1:9). It is in this, then, that the torment of the damned will
consist; it
consists in the first sentence which Jesus Christ will pronounce over His
enemies: "Depart from me
into everlasting fire." This eternal separation will constitute Hell for the
damned.
Eternal Choice Is Made During Life
For the present, sinners, blinded by the apparent goods of this earth, choose to
live far from
God and to turn their backs upon Him. And should God, who cannot dwell with sin,
wish to enter
into their hearts by expelling sin from them, they are not ashamed to repel Him,
exclaiming:
"Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of thy ways." (Job 21:14). Depart
from us, we do not
wish to follow Your ways, but our own, our