God's Mercy and Justice Towards the Damned

Scripture repeatedly tells us that the punishment of hell is everlasting. For instance, St. Matthew says (25:46) that”the wicked shall go into everlasting punishment.” As reward is measured to meet merit, so punishment is measured to meet guilt. But the guilt of mortal sin is the guilt of completelyrejecting God and offending him whose majesty is infinite. The guilt of such a sin deserves unending punishment.

There is no place for mercy in hell, for mercy cannot be exercised upon what, by its very nature, rejects it. The perverse will of both men and fallen angels in hell is ceaselesslyopposed to any mercy that might be shown them. Further, if mercy were to bring an end to retribution, justice would bring an end tothe happiness of heaven.

Despite God’s wondrous mercy, the fallen angels and lost human souls, cast themselves into hell. While they hate theirtorments, they still retain their perverse will against God. Sorrow for sin, in the sense of rejecting evil and turning to God, is utterly impossible in hell. Hence, even the mercy of the all-merciful God cannot penetrate the rebel wills of the lost and bring them relief.

Christians who go to hell are there eternally, just asnon-Christians are. Indeed, Christians who knew more than many others who are in hell, are more deserving than those others of endless torment.

It cannot be said that those who perform works of mercy during life on earth will necessarily escape the punishments of hell. Even great sinners may sometimes do remarkable deeds of mercy. During earthly life, such deeds may be the means of winning(congruously) contrition for the one who performs them, but theyare no guarantee that contrition will be accepted, or that it will endure to the end of life, and so enable the performer of the good deeds to escape hell.