able to shut it out of their thoughts for a single moment, as the Prophet Daniel saw in his vision: “Many of these that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake: some unto life everlasting, and others unto reproach, to see it always.”[1] Mark the words, “to see it always.” The eyes of those unhappy wretches shall be opened so that they shall see always. They shall always see the sovereign Good for the possession of which they were created; they shall always see the sovereign Good that they could have gained possession of if they had earnestly wished it; they shall always see the sovereign Good that they have no hope of possessing for all eternity; they shall always see and long eagerly for the joys of heaven, from which they are forever banished. Besides, as the Almighty strengthens and raises above their nature His elect in heaven by a supernatural light called “the light of glory,” as theologians tell us, that his chosen friends may have an almost infinite joy and pleasure in contemplating Him; so, on the other hand, the just, avenging God shall fill the minds of His reprobate enemies with a painful light, that the knowledge and contemplation of the joys of the elect may be to them a source of almost infinite torment and unhappiness.
This is called the pain of loss, and is the worst of all. This is the terrible pain of loss, as it is called, that is so often alluded to in Holy Writ, as a warning to the living that we may all avoid hell, that is, sin. “He shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God,” such are the words of St. John in the Apocalypse, speaking of one of the reprobate, “which is mingled with pure wine in the cup of his wrath, and shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the sight of the holy angels, and in the sight of the Lamb.”[2] Nearly similar are the words of St. Paul concerning those “who obey not the gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall suffer eternal punishment in destruction, from the face of the Lord and from the glory of His power.”[3] That is, in the midst of their torments they shall know the glory and majesty of the Lord and of His elect, not otherwise than as the sick man, whilst suffering the pains of illness, clearly recognizes what a great good health is, and ardently longs for it.
It is increased by the fact that The Prophet Isaias also testifies to the fact that one of the worst torments of the damned shall be to suffer while they have,
- ↑ Multi de his, qui dormiunt in terra pulvere, evigilabunt: alii in vitam æternam, et alii in opprobrium, ut videant semper.—Dan. xii. 2.
- ↑ Bibet de vino iræ Dei, quod mistum est mero in calice iræ ipsius, et cruciabitur igne et sulphure in conspectu angelorum sanctorum, et ante conspectum Agni.—Apoc. xiv. 10.
- ↑ Qui non obediunt evangelio Domini nostri Jesu Christi, pœnas dabunt in interitu æternas a facie Domini, et a gloria virtutis ejus.—II. Thess. i. 8, 9.
