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passions, our pleasures. The great multitude of
those, says Sacred Scripture, "who sleep in the dust
of the earth, shall awake; some unto life everlasting, and others unto reproach, to see it
always."
(Dan. 12:2). Yes, these unfortunates now sleep in the dust of their blindness; but, in the other
life, unfortunately for them, they will awaken and realize the immense good which they have
lost in voluntarily losing God.

Greatest Pain of Hell

The sword which shall pierce them with the greatest sorrow will be the thought of having lost God,
and of having lost Him through their own fault. Unfortunates that they are! They now seek to lose
sight of God, but once fallen into Hell, they will no longer be able to cease thinking of Him, and
in this will their chastisement consist.
St. Augustine says that in Hell, the damned will
be forced to think of nothing but God, and that
will cause them terrible torment. And St. Bonaventure, expressing the same sentiments, says that
no thought will torment the damned more than the thought of God. The Lord will grant to them such a
vivid knowledge of their offended God, His goodness so unworthily spurned, and consequently, of
the chastisement which their crimes have merited, that this knowledge will cause them a suffering
greater than that of all the other punishments of Hell.
We read in the book of Ezechiel: "Over the heads of the living creatures was the likeness of