The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1916-12-02
THE FIRE OF HE'LL

The hre OF hell is real fire; that is
to say, the word fire" is the most
proper and exact word which human
speech affords, to tell us what that ter
rible thing is. Everlasting fire" is
not figuratiye expression; it occurs
in judicial sentence. Judges in pass
ing sentence do not use figurative
language; not in any figurative or
metaphorical sense shall you be hung
by the neck until you are dead" At
the same time we have no exact and
certain knowledge of the precise ma
ture of the fire of hell Is it exactly
like the fire of earth? But what ex-
actly is the fire of earth? What is
combustion? Not till the end of the
eighteenth century was man able to
reply, combustion is rapid combina-
ton with oxygen" Our ancestors did
not scientifically know what fire was
They thought it was a substance"
an element" the lightest and in
natural position the highest of the
four elements, fire, air. water, and
earth, out of which all bodies we're
composed. So then the fire of hell,
if it really was fire, they thought
must be a substance too. So it we'll
may be, but we must speak cautiously.
Modern science presents us with
heat, fire, light, and electricity, and
tells us that they are all so many,
not substances or elements, but
modes of motion affecting substance,
whatever substance may be- They
are most abundant things in nature:
the fixed stars are all on fire; cleo
tricity is suspected of being a primary
constituent of matter. We know
much more about these things than
our ancestors did, still we are i'll
great perpleXity over them, indeed
our perplexities grow with our knowl.
edge. Such is our ignorance of the
fire of this world, matter though it
be of our daily experience. Of a fire
such as that in which angels and dis
embodied souls burn; happily we
have no experience. And beyond
teaching us that there is such a fire,
real fire, Christian revelation does
not go.
1t would therefore be extremely
rash, beyond the existence IAN sit) of
such a fire, to pretend to lay down
with certainty it's nature, qualities,
| composition and mode of action
(quid siD. The Church does not do
so. Her theologians echo st. Angus
tines words: "As to which fire, of
what sort, and in what part of the
world or universe it is to be, / am of
| opinion that no man knows, unless
happily some one to whom the Spirit
of God has shown it." Ode Civ. Del.
Xxx. 16). There is, however, a general
consent of the faithful to regard it
as material fire." and though this
be net absolutely of faith, still it can
| not be denied without mourning the
theological note of "rashness.' In ac-
cordanca with this general consent
have described it as "a material Ell
vironment." A further speculation:
Is this material environment itself
on fire, or is it such that the soul
chatting and struggling against that
| constraint-"the great net of slavery, .
to borrow a phrase of AeschyIus- and
as st. Teresa says, continually tear
ing herself in pieces" thereby sets
herself on fire. The question is beyond
our knowledge to answer. We are
accustomed to pictures of flames,
with souls in bodily shapes writing
in them, and in such sensible repre-.
sensations we must fain acquiesce as
being the best way to bring home to
imagination the reality of hell-fire.
God knows His own justice, which in
hell at any rate works so as by fire.
Over and above this material en-
yironment l have been myself led to
argue the probability of the spiritual
substance of the soul. or evil angel,
itself coming truly to burn under two
opposing constraints. the natural con-
straint, or effort, of the spirit, seek
ing to go out to God, in whom alone,
as it finds out too late, its essential
happiness lies, and to the contrary,
the constraining hand of God, driving
that spirit back upon ITSELF (By by
the constraining hand of Cod I do
not mean the mater al environment"
/ mean simply Gods will to carry out
the sentence, Depart from me.)