He mocks and laughs at you. Oh, be He accursed forever! And Mary, the Virgin whom I have so often called by the sweet name of Mother, the Comfort of the afflicted, the Refuge of sinners, the Mother of mercy, has she too abandoned and rejected me? Yes; she too will mock and laugh at you for all eternity. Oh, then accursed be—alas! I cannot utter the name. You are shocked, my dear brethren, as I see clearly, and perhaps displeased with me for daring to utter publicly such dreadful imprecations and blasphemies as the damned howl forth, and you are right. I may not and cannot continue.
Thus increasing the pains of hell. But one thought strikes me. O torment of all torments! O hell of all hells! to hate and curse those whom one must acknowledge to be worthy of all love! to blaspheme Him for whom one sighs with the most ardent desire, to possess whom one is filled with the most eager longing! My God! shall I then hate Thee for all eternity with that heart that Thou gavest me that I might love Thee alone, above all things? Shall I curse and blaspheme Thee with that tongue that Thou gavest me to praise and bless Thee and Thy name? O saints of God! O my clearest guardian angel! O Mary, my sweetest Mother! Ah, I dare not think of it! O Jesus Christ my Saviour! 0 my God, worthy of all love! must I then hate, curse, and blaspheme Thee for all eternity? Is such a thing possible? Yes; and it will infallibly be the case if I die without true repentance, and without sincere amendment of life, and am damned. O torment of all torments! I must again cry out: O hell of all hells!
Hence, wo to those who either do not believe in hell, and there are many such. Let us, my dear brethren, at once shut up hell in our thoughts, and with a deep sigh exclaim in the words of Eusebius Emissenus: “Wo to those who have to experience those things before they believe them!”[1] Before they believe them, I say; because I am not all sure that most men believe in the existence of such a hell; if they do believe and are afraid of it, I cannot understand how to reconcile the lives they lead with such a faith and fear. No; they do not believe in or fear hell, for we hear many saying in a laughing tone: Oh, the devil is not so black as he is painted; people talk all sorts of things about hell, as if they had been there and knew all about it; up to this no one has come back from it to say what it is like. Let hell be hell; priests must have something to preach about; but it is not half so bad as they make out. See how they fear and believe in
- ↑ Væ! væ! væ! quibus hæc prius experienda sunt, quam credenda!
