After D EATH 
 
 -What ? 
 
 HEAVEN, PURGATORY, HELL 
 
 (With discussion Club Outline) 
 
 <By 
 
 Rev. Gerald C. Treacy, S.J. 
 
 THE PAULIST PRESS 
 401 West 59th Street 
 New York 19, N. Y. 
 
 A 
 
AFTER DEATH-WHAT? 
 
 By Rev. Gerald C. Treacy, SJ. 
 
 HEAVEN 
 
 TT’EAVEN, Hell and Purgatory make up the Othei 
 World. They are real. An infallible Church teaches 
 us this. We Catholics for that reason believe it. We can¬ 
 not be Catholics and believe otherwise. Sometimes we 
 hear a person say: “God is too merciful. There cannot 
 be a Hell." But no one ever says: “God is too just. 
 There cannot be a Heaven. No one could possibly de¬ 
 serve it." Yet it is as reasonable to say there cannot be a 
 Heaven as that there cannot be a Hell. It is unrea¬ 
 sonable to make either statement for God has assured 
 us that there is everlasting happiness for those who die 
 in His friendship, and everlasting suffering for those 
 who die at enmity with Him. We may not like the idea. 
 But that has nothing to do with the fact that the Other 
 World has two eternal divisions, and one temporary that 
 will cease when time ceases. God has said so. His Church 
 repeats His statement and calls it a dogma of Faith, and 
 we either accept these facts or cease to be Catholics. 
 
 When we speak about Heaven we mean a state and a 
 place; the state of eternal blessedness and the place where 
 God dwells with His angels and His saints. For everyone 
 who reaches Heaven is a saint. 
 
 In Holy Scripture our Lord speaks of the Kingdom 
 of Heaven. Time and time again He tells us what it is 
 like. He urges His followers to keep it in mind when dif¬ 
 ficulties and disappointments come into their lives. He 
 makes it clear that there is the abiding city as Saint Paul 
 called it, and everything in this life leads thereto. Any 
 careful reader of the Gospel narrative, no matter what his 
 belief, will conclude that there is a sequel to the Kingdom 
 
 1 
 
2 
 
 AFTER DEATH—WHAT? 
 
 Christ preached upon earth, and that is His Kingdom in 
 Heaven. 
 
 Not only Catholics but all sensible people who believe 
 in the immortality of the soul believe in Heaven. They 
 believe in it because it is reasonable to believe in it. They 
 know for example that God made all things for His honor 
 and glory. Every creature is to contribute to that honor 
 and glory by reflecting God’s perfections as far as each 
 creature is capable of doing so. Man is capable of glorify¬ 
 ing God in a most perfect manner by knowing, loving, and 
 imitating God’s infinite perfections. He is created for 
 this. To know and love God always is the greatest thing 
 that the human mind can do. Moreover this is its su¬ 
 preme happiness. Man is created for this eternal happi¬ 
 ness. And that is what Heaven means. 
 
 Heaven moreover is the reward of a good life on earth. 
 Our Lord says that it is. One day in the long ago He was 
 speaking on charity, and He told His listeners that they 
 must show practical love for their fellow-men not because 
 they were men but because they were children of God. 
 For when you help a man who is down because he is a 
 man you are a humanitarian, but when you help a man be¬ 
 cause he is a brother oif Christ and a son of the Eternal 
 Father you are charitable. In that instance you really 
 help Christ, strange as it may seem. At the end of the 
 world, Christ said, many people will be puzzled by this 
 for they will ask: *‘Lord when did we see You hungry, 
 and thirsty, sick and in prison?” And they will get for 
 their answer: “You did not see Me in need of help but 
 you did see men in need and you helped them for My 
 sake; so your reward will be everlasting.” Heaven is the 
 reward for good done on earth according to Christ’s teach¬ 
 ing. As we are His creatures and have nothing but what 
 
HEAVEN 
 
 3 
 
 He gave us we have no claim.on Heaven. But in His 
 infinite love and mercy He gives us a claim. This is what 
 He says and so we believe Him whose Word cannot fail. 
 
 Where Is Heaven? 
 
 There are many opinions to answer this question yet 
 the truest answer is that we do not know where Heaven 
 is. Holy Scripture tells us little about it, our Lord never 
 said where it was, and the Churc'h has given no decision 
 in the matter. The chief thing to remember is that 
 Heaven is happiness, a condition of soul, and its location 
 could be anywhere God chose. God being everywhere is 
 present to all souls. He is the object of the contempla¬ 
 tion of the souls now in Heaven and the possession of 
 their love. They are without their bodies. After the 
 General Judgment, souls and bodies will be united and so 
 the Blessed will be with God in some place. 
 
 Saint John wrote of Heaven in this way: “I saw a new 
 heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the 
 first earth were gone, and the sea is no more. And I saw 
 the holy city, the new Jerusalem coming down out of 
 heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her 
 husband. And I heard a great voice from the throne say¬ 
 ing, ‘Behold the tabernacle of God with men, and He 
 will dwell with them; and they shall be His people, and 
 God Himself with them shall be their God’ ” (Apoc. 21, 
 1-3). ITie passing of the Blessed from their present state 
 of happiness to perfect Glory will begin on the Last Day. 
 After the body has received its share of eternal reward 
 the whole man will be completely happy. It would seem 
 from Saint John’s vision that the earth will be the place 
 where the Church Triumphant will reign. It will be a 
 “new earth.’’ It will be the place where those enjoying the 
 
4 
 
 AFTER DEATH—WHAT' 
 
 Beatific Vision will dwell., Otir present earth will be re¬ 
 newed, purified, not destroyed by fire. The Fathers of 
 the Church refer to Holy Scripture in supporting their 
 belief in the renewal of this world. 
 
 Saint Cyril of Jerusalem says that God will “remove 
 the heavens not to destroy them but to restore them in 
 more beautiful form.” Saint Gregory Nazianzen when 
 preaching on the occasion of his brother’s death declared: 
 “I await the archangel’s call, the last trumpet blast, the 
 transformation of heaven and earth, the dissolution of 
 the elements and the renewal of the whole world.” The 
 transformation will take place by means of fire. With fire 
 the Lord will come to judge the world; “Behold the Lord 
 will come with fire” (Isaias 66, 15). “His throne like 
 flames of fire” (Daniel 7, 9). “The Lord Jesus shall be 
 revealed from heaven with the angels of his power in a 
 flame of fire” (2 Thess. 1, 7). “The day of the Lord 
 shall declare it because it shall be revealed in fire” (1 Cor. 
 3, 13). In regard to the transformation of the world 
 Saint Peter in his second letter is quite clear. 
 
 He was warning his followers against “deceitful scof¬ 
 fers, walking after their own lusts, saying: 'Where is 
 His promise of His coming? For since the time that the 
 fathers slept, all things continue as they were from the 
 beginning of the creation.’ ” Heretics who denied the 
 second coming of Christ because nature remained un¬ 
 changing were reminded by Saint Peter of the deluge in 
 the time of Noe: “This they are wilfully ignorant of, that 
 the heavens were before, and the earth out of water and 
 through water, consisting by the word of God whereby 
 the world that then was, being overflowed with water 
 perished.” The outward form of the earth was destroyed 
 at the Deluge. So will the fire at the end of the world 
 
HEAVEN 
 
 5 
 
 change its present condition and not destroy it utterly: 
 “But the heavens and the earth which are now, by the 
 same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against 
 the day of judgment and perdition of the ungodly men." 
 And continuing: “But the day of the Lord shall come as a 
 thief, in which the heavens shall pass away with great 
 violence, and the elements shall be melted with heat and 
 the earth and the works w'hich are in it shall be burned 
 up. Seeing then all these things are to be dissolved, what 
 manner of people ought you to be in holy conversation 
 and godliness? Looking for and hasting unto the coming 
 of the day of the Lord by which the heavens being on 
 fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with 
 the burning heat? But we look for new heavens and a 
 new earth according to His promise in which justice 
 dwelleth” (2 Peter 3, 10-13). 
 
 This is the Apostle’s account of the coming of the 
 Lord by fire. As to the meaning of “heaven” in this 
 passage commentators are divided. Saint Ambrose and 
 Saint Jerome think that all the stars will be affected by the 
 general catastrophe but Saint Augustine and Saint Thomas 
 limit it to our planet. Of course the “elements” men¬ 
 tioned by Saint Peter are not those which modern chemis¬ 
 try knows by that name, but those knpwn to the ancients 
 namely air, fire, earth, water. Air is mentioned as the 
 heavens, fire as the consuming agent, so earth and water 
 are the “elements.” When the fire of the Last Day comes 
 our earth will be a shapeless, glowing mass, out of which 
 God will call forth the new heaven and the new earth. 
 
 It is of interest to remember that the ancient pagan na¬ 
 tions believed that the world would be renewed by fire. 
 This belief was undoubtedly a survival of primitive revela¬ 
 tion which filtered into paganism. The great last fire is 
 
6 
 
 AFTER DEATH—WHAT? 
 
 deemed necessary before the coming of the Golden Age 
 and is connected with the advent of the Great King. 
 Legends on this point are found among the Egyptians, 
 Chaldeans, Persians, Indians, Chinese, Greeks and Ro¬ 
 mans. 
 
 Though varying greatly they bear a marked resem¬ 
 blance to Christian tradition. The great fire is sometimes 
 described as recurring at the end of each world-epoch, but 
 all agree in connecting it with the General Judgment which 
 is to mark the victory of good gods over evil spirits. The 
 Sibylline Books, a collection of legends and prophecies, 
 contain the story of the destruction and renewal of the 
 world. The same idea is found in the Orphic poems. The 
 Greek sages too, Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Socrates, as well 
 as the Stoics, discussed the future fire when speculating 
 about the end of the world. 
 
 What will the new earth be like when this world ends ? 
 We do not know. It is to be the home of the Blessed and 
 surely for that reason exceedingly beautiful. As the body 
 will share in the glory of the soul so will this earth partake 
 in the glory of the risen body. It will be spiritualized and 
 refined. The vision of Isaias was: “The light of the moon 
 shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun 
 shall be sevenfold,.as the light of seven days” (Isaias, 30, 
 26). And Saint John speaking of the “new heaven and 
 the new earth” declared: “And there came one of the 
 seven angels . . . And he took me up in spirit to a great 
 and high mountain and he showed me the holy city Jeru¬ 
 salem coming down out of heaven from God. Having 
 the glory of God, and the light thereof was like to a 
 precious stone, as to the jasper stone, even as crystal. . . . 
 And the city hath no need of the sun nor of the moon to 
 shine in k. For the glory of God hath enlightened it and 
 
HEAVEN 
 
 7 
 
 the Lamb is the lamp thereof. And the nations shall walk 
 in the light of it. . . . There shall not enter into it anything 
 defiled or that worketh abomination or maketh a lie but 
 they that are written in the book of life of the Lamb” 
 (Apoc. 21, 10-27). 
 
 The Beatific Vision 
 
 When Saint Paul wished to make clear the happiness 
 of Heaven he spoke about seeing God “face to face.” 
 “Now we see in a mirror obscurely but then (we shall 
 see) face to face. Now I know in part, then shall I know 
 fully even as I have been fully known (by God)” (1 Cor. 
 13, 12). This is the happiness of Heaven. It is called 
 the Beatific Vision. God penetrates the soul and the soul 
 sees God and is happy eternally. Here in this life we get 
 our knowledge of God indirectly through creatures. By 
 reason we rise from the creature to the Creator. In 
 Heaven, however, we shall see God directly. There will 
 be no creature between God and the soul for by immediate 
 intuition the soul will see God. This is a dogma of our 
 Faith defined by Pope Benedict the Twelfth: 
 
 “We define that the souls of all the saints in Heaven 
 have seen and do see the Divine Essence by direct in¬ 
 tuition and face to face in such wise that nothing created 
 intervenes as an object of Vision, but the Divine Essence 
 presents itself to their immediate gaze, unveiled, clearly, 
 and openly; moreover that in this vision and this enjoy¬ 
 ment they are truly blessed and possess eternal life and 
 eternal rest.” 
 
 It is of Faith also that the Beatific Vision is super¬ 
 natural and transcends the powers of created natures. It 
 is not difficult to understand why this should be if we re¬ 
 member the supernatural character of sanctifying grace. 
 
8 
 
 AFTER DEATH—WHAT? 
 
 This grace we know is the preparation for the vision of 
 God. If the preparation for that vision is supernatural, 
 it is clear that the vision itself must be supernatural. 
 
 The immediate knowledge of God is a free gift of Di¬ 
 vine bounty. Now to see God in this way the soul needs 
 some permanent supernatural strength. This is called the 
 “light of glory.” It is called the light of glory for it en¬ 
 ables the blessed to see God with their intellects just as 
 light here on earth enables our eyes to see objects. 
 Through the light of glory the blessed see God as He is, 
 and then they see everything else that interests them. 
 Theologians call God the primary object of the Beatific 
 Vision and everything else secondary objects. The Coun¬ 
 cil of Vienne in 1311 defined the light of glory. 
 
 God gives Himself entirely to the blessed. As Saint 
 Thomas explains it: **Electi Dominum vident totum sed 
 not totaliter” The soul is finite. In seeing God it pos¬ 
 sesses an infinite good, but in a finite manner and propor¬ 
 tionate to its merits. No two souls in Heaven see God 
 in the same way. The Blessed Mother for example enjoys 
 the sight of God in a much higher way than the last soul 
 entering there having received the grace of final repentance 
 after a long life of sin. Yet both are supremely happy. 
 
 God cannot be comprehended by a finite mind, but God 
 can be reached by a finite mind. As Saint Thomas says: 
 
 “Comprehension is twofold; in one sense it is taken 
 strictly and properly as when a being is entirely included in 
 the one that comprehends it. In this sense God cannot be 
 comprehended by any created intellect, whether angelic or 
 human, for the simple reason that an infinite being cannot 
 be comprised in a finite one. In another sense compre¬ 
 hension is taken more largely and it means that the object 
 aimed at is actually reached or attained. In this sense God 
 
HEAVEN 
 
 9 
 
 is comprehended by the Blessed and comprehension be¬ 
 comes for them the full realization of their hopes” (The 
 Summa Theologica, Part 1, Question 12, Article 7). The 
 Beatific Vision is a mystery, that is it transcends reason, 
 and if the Church did not tell us about it we would not 
 know it of ourselves. This Vision of God is Heaven. 
 How to understand this! In “The City of God” Saint 
 Augustine reminds us that “we are incapable of speaking 
 in a befitting manner of this vision, yet we cannot be al¬ 
 together silent about it.” It means seeing God’s infinite 
 perfections. The Blessed through this vision see in God 
 all the mysteries of their Faith, the wonders of creation 
 and all the events of the human race from its beginning 
 to its end. This knowledge Saint Thomas holds will be 
 more profound than any knowledge acquired by the most 
 learned men upon earth. This knowledge means knowing 
 God not only in Himself but in relation to all existing 
 and possible creatures. For God is the cause of His 
 creatures in three ways. He is their Exemplar or the 
 model according to which they are made. He is their 
 Maker giving them everything both in nature and in grace, 
 and He is their End towards which they all tend. In all 
 these relations the Blessed understand God for in under¬ 
 standing the Divine Essence they understand the Divine 
 Ideas. In Heaven the souls of the Blessed increase their 
 admiration, love and praise in proportion to the increase 
 of their knowledge. That is, the external glory of God 
 goes on apace through eternity. 
 
 Theologians in speaking of the happiness of Heaven 
 mention the '*dotes heatorum,’* the dowry of the Blessed. 
 By this is meant the supernatural endowments of the soul 
 in the beatific state. Remembering the allegorical mean¬ 
 ing of the mystic marriage of the soul with Christ it is not 
 
10 
 
 AFTER DEATH—WHAT? 
 
 difficult to understand the dowry of the Blessed. A dowry 
 is a gift that precedes marriage. So the dowry given by 
 Christ to His mystic spouse is a habit which precedes the 
 Beatific Vision and makes it more enjoyable. This dowry 
 consists of gifts of soul and body. The dowry of the soul 
 consists of the three gifts of contemplation, possession and 
 enjoyment. Contemplation corresponds to faith, posses¬ 
 sion to hope, enjoyment to charity. All blend in the light 
 of glory which banishes the darkness of Faith, makes sure 
 of the possession of God and guarantees the enjoyment 
 of His love. The Latin words used to name these gifts 
 are *'visxo” ''comprehension "fruitio.” 
 
 The bodily gifts that belong to the dowry of the 
 Blessed are impassibility, brightness, agility and subtility. 
 Discomfort, pain and death are banned by the gift of im¬ 
 passibility. “This mortal body,” says Saint Paul, “must 
 needs put on incorruption” (1 Cor. 15, 53). And Saint 
 John assures us: “God will wipe away every tear from 
 their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall mourn¬ 
 ing nor crying nor pain be any more, because the first 
 things are passed away” (Apoc. 21, 4). 
 
 The gift of brightness as our Lord tells us will make 
 the Blessed “shine as the sun.” And Saint Paul speaks 
 of this gift in telling us that God, our Saviour, will “trans¬ 
 form the body of our lowliness, that it may be one with 
 the body of His glory, by the force of that power whereby 
 He is able to subject all things to Himself” (Phil. 3, 21). 
 And in his first letter to th^ Corinthians he says: “The 
 glory of the heavenly is different from that of the earthly. 
 There is the glory of the sun and the glory of the moon and 
 the glory of the stars; for star differeth from star in glory. 
 And so it is with the resurrection of the dead” (1 Cor. 15, 
 40-42). And Saint Thomas declares that “the glory of 
 
HEAVEN 
 
 11 
 
 the soul shall be perceptible in the glorified body, as the 
 color of a body enclosed in a glass receptacle is visible 
 through the glass.” (Supplement of the Summa, Ques¬ 
 tion 82, Article 1, ad 5.) 
 
 The Body of our Lord after His resurrection was not 
 bound by space. This gift which the bodies of the Blessed 
 will enjoy is called agility, enabling them to move from 
 place to place speedily and with ease. Subtility which is 
 the last bodily gift belonging to the soul’s dowry, enables 
 the body to enjoy the higher life of the soul. For the soul 
 is so filled with grace that it raises the body to its own 
 level. The body becomes completely subject to the soul, 
 conflict is at an end and the body may really be said to be 
 almost spiritualized. 
 
 Freedom From Sin 
 
 Another source of Heaven’s happiness is freedom from 
 sin. The Blessed not only do not sin but they cannot. 
 And strange as it may seem this grace is compatible with 
 perfect liberty. For liberty means freedom to do w^hat 
 is befitting the nature of the doer. To be free to do evil 
 here on earth is only noteworthy because the soul is at the 
 same time free to avoid evil. As sin is an evil it is against 
 the soul’s best interests. But nothing in Heaven can be 
 against the soul’s best interests. So the soul cannot sin 
 in Heaven. Moreover sin is the abuse of liberty. It is a 
 defect, an imperfection. Now divine grace improves 
 nature to the extent of removing any imperfections. So 
 the presence of grace in the souls of the Elect makes sin 
 impossible. Their souls are confirmed in grace. 
 
 Grace as we know affects the intellect and the will. It 
 enlightens the intellect. That is it makes it understand 
 things so well that error is impossible for the soul in 
 
12 
 
 AFTER DEATH—WHAT? 
 
 Heaven. Sin of course is error. It is mixing things up. 
 It is mistaking black for white, darkness for light. But 
 the soul confirmed in grace cannot make such a mistake. 
 It cannot say of evil: “This is good.” It can do this in 
 mortal life but not in life immortal. In fact it always 
 does this on earth. No soul grasps after evil because it 
 is evil. It thinks it sees some good in it. And it rushes 
 for the good. But in Heaven this cannot be so. For the 
 soul is all-knowing there. It has Truth as it has God, 
 and all little truths fit in with the Big Truth. So it really 
 knows, and the soul that really knows cannot sin. 
 
 The True and the Good satisfy the intellect and the 
 will. For these faculties of the soul were made to be so 
 satisfied. Now in Heaven God is Truth and Good and 
 the soul rests in God. Sin then is impossible for it. It 
 is so truly free that it cannot choose evil. 
 
 Everlasting Happiness 
 
 “The just shall go into everlasting bliss” (Matthew 25, 
 46), said our Lord making it very clear that the happiness 
 of Heaven is everlasting. Moreover the Church has re¬ 
 peatedly defined it, and Catholics profess this belief every 
 time they say the Apostles’ Creed. As a plain matter 
 of common sense it is difficult to imagine a temporary 
 Heaven, for if the souls in Heaven knew that their bliss 
 would end, this knowledge alone would prevent their hap¬ 
 piness from being perfect. Inject the temporal or tempor¬ 
 ary and you destroy the idea of complete happiness. The 
 Psalmist exclaims: “Blessed are they that dwell in Thy 
 house O Lord; they shall praise Thee forever and ever” 
 (Psalm 83, 5). And the author of the Book of Wisdom 
 declares: “The Just shall live for everymore: and their 
 reward with the Lord” ("Wisdom 5. 16). 
 
HEAVEN 
 
 13 
 
 The eternity of Heaven is an article of Faith definea 
 by Pope Benedict the Twelfth, in 1336. He was speaking 
 of the Vision of God in the Bull “Benedictus 
 
 “This same vision and fruition . . . continues and will 
 continue tiU the final judgment, and thenceforward for¬ 
 ever.” 
 
 Holy Scripture again and again uses figurative lan¬ 
 guage of rare beauty to express the eternity of Heaven. 
 For Heaven is compared to “a treasure which fails not, 
 which no thief approaches, nor moth corrupts.” It is a 
 series of “everlasting dwellings.” It is “a never fading 
 crown of glory,” an “everlasting kingdom,” “eternal life.” 
 The Fathers of the Church teach the doctrine of everlast¬ 
 ing glory. Saint Augustine appositely remarks that 
 Heaven must be everlasting as no happiness would be 
 perfect if it were overshadowed by the fear of possible 
 loss. And Saint Thomas says that Heaven would not be 
 Heaven if it did not last forever. 
 
 Degrees of Happiness 
 
 Are all the souls of the Blessed happy in the same de¬ 
 gree? They are not. It is an article of Faith that there 
 are various degrees of happiness. In the Decretum 
 Unionis of Florence the Church has declared: “One is 
 more perfect than the other according to the different 
 merits of each.” Our blessed Saviour infers the varying 
 degrees of happiness when He tells us: “In My Father’s 
 House there are many mansions.” And Saint Paul as¬ 
 sures us: “Each shall receive his own reward according to 
 his own toil.” . . . “He who soweth sparingly shall also 
 reap sparingly and he who soweth in blessings shall also 
 reap blessings.” The Fathers are as one in insisting that 
 there are degrees of happiness. Saint Jerome for ex- 
 
14 
 
 AFTER DEATH—WHAT? 
 
 ample argues on the justice of the diversity of reward 
 against Jovinian: “If the easier works of piety are equally 
 meritorious with the constancy of the martyrs it is vain 
 
 to strive for perfection” (Contra Jovinium 2, 34). And 
 Saint Augustine meets the objection that jealousy would 
 eventuate because of the inequality of reward by declar¬ 
 ing: “There will be no envy on account of unequal glory 
 because one love will govern all.” Saint Thomas explains 
 the inequality by the difference in intensity of each soul’s 
 love for God: “That intellect which has more of the light 
 of glory will see God the more perfectly; and he will have 
 a fuller participation of the light of glory who has more 
 of charity, because where there is greater charity there is 
 a more ardent desire; . . . hence he who possesses the 
 greater charity will see God the more perfectly” (Summa 
 Theologica, la, Question 12, Article 6). 
 
 From the inequality of heavenly glory the Scholas¬ 
 tics have developed the doctrine of the “aureolae,” that is 
 special marks of distinction in the souls of those who 
 have achieved victory over the world, the flesh and the 
 devil. These marks are real and are special joys for spe¬ 
 cial victories during life on earth. The victory of the 
 virgin is a special triumph over the flesh, the victory of the 
 martyr is a special conquest of the world, the victory of 
 the doctor is a special victory over Satan who is the father 
 of lies. 
 
 Saint John in his Apocalypse in struggling to express 
 the happiness of Heaven said: “And God shall wipe away 
 all tears from their eyes and death shall be no more. 
 
 Nor mourning, nor crying, nor sorrow shall be any more; 
 for the former things are passed away” (Apoc. 21, 4). 
 The former things are human limitations, earth’s draw¬ 
 backs. For instance we lead lives of mind and sense. 
 
HEAVEN 
 
 15 
 
 And mind and sense are constantly coming into conflict. 
 In Heaven the senses will be glorified and the mind erv 
 lightened. All human knowledge is limited. The knowl¬ 
 edge enjoyed in Heaven will be a full knowledge. The 
 mind will receive all it can hold and that means complete 
 satisfaction. The will loving God and everything in God 
 will have the perfection of love that on earth was impos¬ 
 sible of attainment. 
 
 When Saint John and Saint Paul try to outline Heaven 
 for us words fail them. When the saints who have been 
 given special favors by God attempt to describe Heaven 
 they speak like halting children. About the best descrip¬ 
 tion ever written is the statement of Saint Paul that 
 Heaven defies description: “Eye hath not seen, nor ear 
 heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to con¬ 
 ceive” the happiness that God has prepared for those who 
 love Him and die in His love. There is one little scene 
 in the life of our Lord that makes a bit clear what it 
 means to see God in Glory. It is the vision on Tabor. 
 When our blessed Saviour flashed out His divinity for 
 one instant the Apostles were so beside themselves with 
 happiness that Saint Peter wanted to stay on the mountain 
 always. It was the cry of a soul for the happiness of 
 Heaven after experiencing the slightest foretaste and 
 faintest vision of what God has in store for His elect. 
 
HELL 
 
 S the hope of Heaven is a good supernatural motive 
 
 ^ ^ that inspires us to live practical Catholic lives, so is 
 the fear of Hell a worthy supernatural motive to deter us 
 from sin. Indeed our Lord in explaining everlasting 
 suffering told His listeners to fear it. It is about the only 
 thing He mentioned that was worth fearing. His con¬ 
 stant appeal was to love. He was ceaseless in urging 
 the love of the. Father. His entire doctrine was an 
 appeal to love for He came to introduce the Law of 
 Love after the world had lived for centuries under the 
 Law of Fear. 
 
 Nevertheless He insisted that we should be fearful of 
 incurring God’s wrath that finds its full expression in 
 eternal punishment. One day he was predicting the ter¬ 
 rible sufferings that would fall to the lot of His followers. 
 They would be persecuted and tortured and many of them 
 put to death. Their very own would turn against them. 
 Yet He said these things were not to be feared but rather 
 He was to be feared who in His eternal justice could send 
 body and soul into the flames of Hell. Again when He 
 spoke of the sin of scandal He warned His followers that 
 it was better to go into eternity crippled and mutilated 
 than to go whole into Hell fire. “If your hand scandalizes 
 you, cut it off.” That is to say any pain or torture in this 
 life is better than the sufferings of eternity, and provided 
 we fear eternal torments we may well scout any pains 
 that this world knows of. 
 
 While He was ever the loving Saviour He ipoke most 
 
 i« 
 
HELL 
 
 17 
 
 clearly of God’s justice meting out eternal punishment to 
 those who died defying His law. His explanation of the 
 doctrine of eternal punishment is as clear as His statement 
 that He would give His Flesh and Blood to be the food 
 and drink of human souls. Anyone reading His account 
 of Dives and Lazarus cannot fail to grasp this very real 
 doctrine of eternal suffering. The circumstances sur¬ 
 rounding the parable of the rich man and the beggar are 
 of interest. Our Lord was striving to reach the hearts of 
 the scribes and pharisees. But they were closed to His 
 words for the very simple reason that they were hypo¬ 
 crites. Christ told them so. In stinging terms He ex¬ 
 posed their insincerity and then began to show what the 
 fate of the hypocrite would be. 
 
 In His parable He took a man of great wealth who 
 made gold his god. He had everything this world could 
 give and it so hardened his heart that he lost not only a 
 sense df the divine but even a sense of the human. He 
 was so utterly selfish that he could pass by a starving dis¬ 
 eased beggar on his doorstep day after day and not give 
 him a crumb of bread. Even the dogs of the street were 
 more humane for they sensed suffering in open sores and 
 relieved it in their brute way. They soothed the sores of 
 Lazarus with their tongues. But not Dives. He ignored 
 a fellow creature who asked for so little; just the crumbs 
 that might fall from his table and be swept off as waste. 
 Dives was the hardened criminal, the selfish hypocrite, the 
 unrepentant sinner, though because of his wealth he may 
 have enjoyed a very good reputation. But Christ gave 
 him his true reputation for Christ knew his character. 
 And when death came to him Christ said: “He was buried 
 in Hell.” 
 
 And looking up from his place of torment for the 
 
18 
 
 AFTER DEATH—WHAT? 
 
 first time he recognized Lazarus. He saw the beggar 
 man in glory. He had seen him in poverty and suffering 
 while they were both pilgrimaging through life. Dives 
 was walking the path of luxury, Lazarus treading the road 
 of pain. So the rich man never recognized the suffering 
 beggar. But in his place of torment he did. And recog¬ 
 nizing him he begged him for a favor. What was it? To 
 dip the end of his finger in water and place it upon the 
 rich man’s tongue, for he said: “I am tormented in this 
 flame.” 
 
 The suffering must have been extreme for the man’s 
 idea of relief was just enough water to place on the finger 
 tip, so little that it would evaporate almost instantly on a 
 summer day. Yet it spelled relief so great was the agony 
 endured in eternal flame. Whatever the nature of that 
 flame it is clear that it had all the terrible qualities of 
 earthly fire for it was consuming Dives with an agonizing 
 thirst. . • 
 
 in explaining the pains of Hell the Church teaches us 
 that the fire is real. It is not a figure of speech. It is not 
 an exaggeration. It is strict truth. Remember it was a 
 gentle Saviour who speaking of the condemnation of the 
 unrepentant on the Last Day said: “Depart from Me ye 
 cursed into everlasting fire which was prepared for the 
 devil and his angels.” As He was Eternal Truth it is rea¬ 
 sonable to suppose that He meant what He said. And 
 again when He spoke of removing the occasions of sin 
 even to the extent of losing eye or hand or foot. He de¬ 
 clared three separate times that this loss was better than 
 going to “hell into unquenchable fire where their worm 
 dieth not and the fire is not extinguished” (Mark 9, 42- 
 47). 
 
 The Catholic Church has followed the teaching of our 
 
HELL 
 
 19 
 
 Lord in defining the doctrine of eternal punishment. The 
 Fourth Lateran Council decreed: 
 
 The wicked with the devil will receive eternal pun¬ 
 ishment while the good with Christ will receive eternal 
 glory.” In fact not only our Lord’s sacred words warrant 
 the Church in her attitude but Scripture in many places 
 warns men of God’s retribution. To cite but a few pas¬ 
 sages in the New Testament, we hear Saint Jude talking 
 of “the punishment of eternal fire” (Jude 1, 7). Saint John 
 speaks of “a pool burning with fire and brimstone” (Apoc. 
 21, 8). Saint Paul mentions “eternal punishment in de¬ 
 struction” (2 Thess. 1, 9). 
 
 The Fathers of the Church from the days of Saint 
 Ignatius of Antioch have spoken plainly of Hell. When 
 this saintly bishop was writing to the Ephesians he de¬ 
 clared that “if a man by false teaching corrupt the faith of 
 God, for the sake of which Jesus Christ was crucified, 
 such a man shall go ... to the unquenchable fire as also 
 shall he who listens to hipi” (Ad Ephes. 16, 2). Saint 
 Justin, Martyr, appeals to God’s justice saying that if there 
 is no Hell, “either there is no God, or if there is He does 
 not concern Himself with men, virtue and vice mean 
 nothing, and they who transgress important laws are pun¬ 
 ished unjustly by the lawgivers” (Apoc. 2, 9). And 
 Saint John Chrysostom is even stronger in his assertion 
 that: “All of us, Greeks and Jews, heretics and Christians 
 acknowledge that God is just. Now many who sinned 
 passed away without being punished, while many others 
 who led virtuous lives did not die until they had suffered 
 innumerable tribulations. If God is just how will He 
 reward the latter and punish the former unless there 
 be a Hell and a Resurrection?” (Homily on Ep. ad 
 Phil. 6, 6.) 
 
20 
 
 AFTER DEATH—WHAT? 
 
 The Punishment of Hell 
 
 The nature of the punishment of Hell has never been 
 Hefined by the Qiurch. Theologians, however, have dis¬ 
 cussed it at some length. As we know from our cate¬ 
 chisms there is the pain of loss and the pain of sense. The 
 pain of loss is the more intense and the more terrible suf¬ 
 fering. In losing God the soul loses everything. Saint 
 Thomas very clearly explains the reason of this twofold 
 nain: 
 
 “Punishment is proportionate to sin. Now sin com- 
 nrises two things. First there is the turning away from 
 the immutable good, which is infinite. Secondly there is 
 the inordinate turning to mutable good. In this respect 
 sin is finite, both because the mutable good itself is finite 
 and because the movement of turning towards it is finite, 
 since the acts of a creature cannot be infinite. Accord¬ 
 ingly in so far as sin consists in turning away from God, 
 its corresponding punishment is the pain of loss, which 
 also is infinite because it is the loss of the infinite good, 
 that is God. But in so far as sin turns inordinately (to 
 the mutable good) its corresponding punishment is the 
 pain of sense which also is finite’* (Summa Theologica, la 
 Q. 87). 
 
 The pain of loss consists in realizing that through its 
 own fault the soul has lost the whole purpose of its be¬ 
 ing. It is a complete failure. In this life we talk of peo¬ 
 ple who are failures but we do not know what real failure 
 means. The loss of God by the damned soul is the only 
 real failure. For this can never be remedied. Every loss 
 in life can be remedied if by nothing else by a good death. 
 But the lost soul is a total loss, the failure to find God for 
 all eternity is complete failure. “Abandon hope all ye 
 who enter here!” 
 
HELL 
 
 21 
 
 When our blessed Saviour cried out to the lost souls, 
 “Depart from Me ye cursed!“ He meant what He said. 
 The soul that has lost God has indeed God’s curse upon it. 
 Again when He speaks of the unrepentant sinners He 
 tells them: “I know you not, whence you are; depart from 
 Me all ye workers of iniquity. There shall be weeping 
 and gnashing of teeth, when you shall see Abraham and 
 Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of 
 God and you yourselves thrust out” (Luke 13, 27). The 
 souls He created and for whom He shed His Precious 
 Blood, He no longer knows. They are as if they were 
 not. He has done His best to save them and they have 
 scorned His every act of love. They realize this as it 
 never can be realized on earth, and that realization makes 
 Hell. It is the pain of loss. 
 
 Saint John Chrysostom in pK)rtraying the pain of loss 
 does not minimize the pain of sense. But he shows how 
 trivial it is in comparison with the greater pain. In his 
 homily on the Gospel of Saint Matthew, 23, n. 8, he says: 
 “The fire of Hell is insupportable—who does not know 
 it ?—^and its torments are awful. But if you were to heap 
 a thousand hell-fires one on top of the other, it would be 
 as nothing compared to the punishment of being excluded 
 from the beatific glory of Heaven, hated by Christ and 
 compelled to hear Him say, T know you not.’ ” 
 
 Because of the realization of the loss that is theirs the 
 damned hate God, themselves, and every other creature. 
 Hell is the home of hate. Here in this life we often are 
 puzzled by meeting a good man who has apparently little 
 or no love for God. He is naturally good. He is a fond 
 parent, a devoted husband, fair and square in his dealings 
 with his fellows. Yet he will tell you he has no interest 
 in God. He will keep the Golden Rule and that will suf* 
 
22 
 
 AFTER DEATH—WHAT? 
 
 fice for his religion. When his time to die comes he may 
 get the grace to make an act of perfect contrition. But 
 the fact is he has not hated God, he has ignored Him. 
 And God has left the spark of natural goodness in his soul 
 in the hope that it may flame up toward the supernatural. 
 He is still on his way but when his journey is ended he 
 must either love or hate God. His natural will as a gift of 
 God is good, but it cannot will good in Hell. If it does, 
 it wills in the wrong way, if it does not, it wills bad. 
 Saint Thomas tells us why: 
 
 “The damned are absolutely turned away from the final 
 end of the rightly directed will. The will cannot be good 
 except it be ordered to that end, so that even if the damned 
 willed something good they would not will it in the right 
 way, that is so that their will might be called good” (Com¬ 
 ment. in Sent. 4, dist. 50, qu. 2., art. 1). 
 
 The pain of sense according to Catholic teaching is the 
 pain caused by a sensible medium. This medium is called 
 in Scripture fire. The Church has never said in a dog¬ 
 matic definition anything about the nature of this fire. 
 The Church has said that it is real, and not a metaphor. 
 It is something created by God to punish as adequately as 
 unrepented sin can be punished. As fire is the most in¬ 
 tense form of human punishment this word as employed 
 by the sacred writers and by our Lord Himself gives us 
 as complete an idea as we are capable of getting of the in¬ 
 tensity of eternal punishment. When we think on the 
 scriptural expressions “furnace of fire,” “pool of fire and 
 brimstone,” “external darkness where there is howling and 
 gnashing of teeth,” “eternal fire,” our imaginations en¬ 
 vision the idea of terrific punishment. Had our blessed 
 Saviour told us the nature of this fire, or put its meaning 
 on the lips of the inspired writers, we would not have 
 
HELL 
 
 2S 
 
 understood it. We could no more fully understand the 
 nature of eternal punishment than we can understand the 
 Beatific Vision. We can fully understand, however, the 
 need of avoiding Hell as we can understand the wisdom 
 of gaining Heaven. This is the practical understanding 
 that God asks of us. 
 
 Besides the pain of loss and the pain of sense there are 
 other sufferings endured by the lost soul. Remorse for 
 instance which Scripture compares to a worm that will 
 never die. So the poet expressed the pangs of natural sor¬ 
 row. The recollection of happier days. Fancy then the 
 soul recalling the graces myriad in number that marked 
 its progress through life. Baptism, Confirmation, First 
 Communion, the Sacrament of Penance, the prayers, the 
 devotions of the Church, all sting now like scorpions in 
 the bitter recollection of abused graces. “We fools,” cry 
 the damned for the endless ages of eternity. Salvation 
 was so easy yet they would not take it. A little self-con¬ 
 trol, a little self-sacrifice, a little mortification and in re^ 
 ward everlasting happiness. But no. The human will 
 was so weak and human nature so strange that there was 
 time for every sacrifice but self-sacrifice. For reputation, 
 for self-interest in temporal affairs, for pleasing -false 
 friends, for gratifying the soul’s enemies there was always 
 time. For pleasure that ended in a few hours, for busi¬ 
 ness that occupied a few years, for money that served for 
 the moment there was time. But not time in life for God! 
 And now in the eternity of Hell there is neither time nor 
 God, neither pleasure nor amusement, nothing but suffer¬ 
 ing, sorrow, disappointment. The remembrance of how 
 easy salvation could have been! This is a bitter sorrow. 
 And yet it is the least of the sorrows of the damned 1 
 
24 
 
 AFTER DEATH—WHAT? 
 
 The Eternity of Hell 
 
 It is an article of Faith that Hell is eternal. It was 
 defined in the Council of Constantinople in the year 543. 
 The Fifth General Council approved this definition ten 
 years later. This belief is contained in the Athanasian 
 Creed: “They that have done good shall go into everlast¬ 
 ing happiness, and they that have done evil into everlast¬ 
 ing fire.” The New Testament when it speaks of the fire 
 of Hell calls it everlasting. The Fathers of the Church 
 speak in the same vein. “You threaten me with fire,” 
 Saint Polycarp told his persecutors, “which burns but for 
 an hour and then is extinguished; for you do not know 
 the eternal fire of punishment reserved for the wicked.” 
 
 And from the standpoint of common sense there is no 
 more reason for Hell’s punishment ceasing than there is 
 for the happiness of Heaven ceasing. God’s justice gov¬ 
 erns both reward and punishment. If as we have seen 
 Heaven would not be Heaven unless happiness was ever¬ 
 lasting then surely there would be no Hell without eternity 
 characterizing its punishment. To many people the idea 
 of eternal punishment is abhorrent. It clashes they say 
 with the idea of God’s mercy. But they forget that God is 
 just and Hell is the vindication of His justice. He would 
 not be God if He were not just, and if He did not punish 
 as He rewards. His mercy is infinite and it struggles with 
 the rebellious soul up to the last breath of life. When 
 the last instant of reckoning comes God does not say: “I 
 condemn the soul I have created and loved and died for to 
 Hell.” No. But the soul says: “In spite of all God has 
 done for me I refuse to do the right and in my foolish 
 fury take the consequences of His v 'ath.” Against every 
 effort the soul plunges into Hell. 
 
HELL 
 
 25 
 
 Eternal Punishment in Sacred Scripture 
 
 And many of those that sleep in the dust of the earth 
 shall awake; some unto life everlasting and others unto 
 reproach to see it always. (Daniel 12, 2.) 
 
 Which of you can dwell with devouring fire? . . . 
 Which of you shall dwell with everlasting burnings? 
 (Isaias 33, 14.) 
 
 And they shall fall after this without honor, and be a 
 reproach among the dead forever. (Wisdom 4, 19.) 
 
 A land of misery and darkness where the shadow of 
 death and no order, but everlasting horror dwelleth. (Job 
 10 , 22 .) 
 
 The Lord Almighty will take revenge on them, in the 
 day of judgment He will visit them. For He will give 
 fire and worms into their flesh, that they may burn and 
 feel forever. (Judith 16, 20, 21.) 
 
 The chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire. (Luke 
 3, 17.) 
 
 And these shall go into everlasting punishment, but 
 the just into life everlasting. (Matthew 25, 46.) 
 
 And if thy hand scandalize thee cut it off; it is better 
 for thee to enter into life maimed than having two hands 
 to go into hell, into unquenchable fire, where their worm 
 dieth not and the fire is not extinguished. (Mark 9, 
 42, 43.) 
 
PURGATORY 
 
 '^HOSE who die in venial sin cannot see God at once. 
 
 This is reasonable. As they do not deserve eternal 
 punishment they pass into an intermediate state that we 
 call Purgatory. Here the last blemish left by sin is re¬ 
 moved and the soul then wings its flight into God’s pres¬ 
 ence. Again there are those who die and have not paid 
 the temporal punishment for mortal sin repented of in 
 this life. There was not time or there was not the gener¬ 
 osity requisite for performing the necessary penance. The 
 penalty for mortal and for venial sins not paid for in this 
 life is a debt on the soul. It must be paid for in all jus¬ 
 tice. As the soul has passed beyond the time of merit it 
 must suffer in Purgatory till the dross of sin is removed. 
 It can do nothing but suffer. This is the meaning of Pur¬ 
 gatory, a state of punishment and purification. 
 
 The Church in teaching the doctrine of Purgatory re¬ 
 fers her children to many passages in Holy Writ. The 
 best known scriptural foundation for the doctrine is found 
 in the Second Book of Machabees. It tells of the deeds 
 of Judas Machabeus and mentions his devotion to the 
 dead. And we must remember that this devotion was the 
 common practice of his people as it is of the Catholic 
 Church today. After battle it is stated that the leader of 
 the hosts of Israel collected alms. “And making a gath¬ 
 ering he sent twelve thousand drachms of silver to Jeru¬ 
 salem for sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the dead, 
 thinking well and religiously concerning the resurrection. 
 (For if he had not hoped that they that were slain should 
 rise again it would have seemed superfluous and vain to 
 pray for the dead.) And because he considered that they 
 
 26 
 
PURGATORY 
 
 27 
 
 who had fallen asleep with godliness had great grace laid 
 up for them. It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought 
 to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from sins" 
 (2 Mach. 12, 43-46). 
 
 It is plain that the belief of the leader of the Jews 
 and of his people recorded with approbation by the sa¬ 
 cred writer was that there was punishment for sin in the 
 next world and that this punishment could be mitigated 
 by the prayers of the living. This is what the Church 
 teaches on Purgatory. 
 
 There is also a text in Saint Paul’s first letter to the 
 Corinthians that Saint Augustine appeals to in explaining 
 the doctrine of Purgatory. The Apostle was writing of 
 the solid foundation of the doctrine of Christ: “For other 
 foundation no man can lay but that which is laid; which is 
 Christ Jesus. Now if any man build upon this founda¬ 
 tion gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble. 
 Every man’s work shall be manifest; for the day of the 
 Lord shall declare it because it shall be revealed in fire; 
 and the fire shall declare every man’s work what sort it is. 
 If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon 
 he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work burn he 
 shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved yet so as 
 by fire’’ (1 Cor. 3, 11-15). 
 
 Saint Augustine and other Fathers hold in explanation 
 of this passage that useless doctrines are not to be mingled 
 with the solid rock of Christ’s doctrine. They are wood, 
 hay, stubble. In the fire test the real foundation will re¬ 
 main and everything else, venial sins not mortal will be 
 consumed by fire. It is the Pauline doctrine that a soul 
 may be saved and yet suffer temporal punishment in the 
 hereafter. What Saint Paul taught has been consistently 
 held as Catholic doctrine from earliest times. 
 
28 
 
 AFTER DEATH—WHAT? 
 
 The Sufferings of Purgatory 
 
 * 
 
 The souls in Purgatory suffer a twofold pain, the pain 
 of loss and the pain of sense. The pain of loss consists in 
 being deprived of the vision of God which is the essential 
 happiness of Heaven. For a brief instant at the particular 
 judgment the soul has seen God. That vision has filled 
 it with longing. Nothing else matters. Life and its dis¬ 
 tractions are passed. It is now God or nothing. As the 
 possession of God is the great happiness of Heaven, the 
 loss of God the great pain of Hell, so is the loss of God 
 even though the soul knows it is but for a time, the all¬ 
 piercing pain of Purgatory. There is too the other suffer¬ 
 ing called the pain of sense. Saint Thomas teaches the 
 twofold pain as follows: 
 
 “In Purgatory the suffering is twofold; that of loss 
 inasmuch as the soul is kept back from the vision of God; 
 and that of sense since they shall be punished by fire. 
 Now in both respects the least pain in Purgatory exceeds 
 the greatest pain in this life.” 
 
 This is the common teaching of the Church. The na¬ 
 ture of the pain of sense has never been defined. Its real¬ 
 ity has never been doubted. Most theologians hold that it 
 is the pain of fire. What is said of the fire of Hell is true 
 of the fire of Purgatory, duration alone making them dif¬ 
 ferent. It is real. And while we cannot tell its constitu¬ 
 ents as we can the constituents of earthly fire, it has all the 
 fearful effects that make earthly fire the all-terrible pain. 
 Its duration of course is limited by time. The Last Day 
 will see only Heaven and Hell. From the practice of the 
 Church in encouraging prayers for the dead without ceas¬ 
 ing we may conclude that the punishment in Purgatory 
 lasts a long time. Or it may be that God crowds into a 
 
PURGATORY 
 
 29 
 
 * brief space of earthly time centuries of purg’atorial suf¬ 
 fering. No one can say for no one knows. But what is 
 clear from the tradition of the Church is that souls suf¬ 
 fer in Purgatory till the last debt of the temporal pun¬ 
 ishment due for sin is paid. Till then the soul cannot 
 see God and enjoy the happiness of Heaven. 
 
 As the Church teaches the doctrine of Purgatory so 
 does she point the way to relief for the Suffering Souls. 
 The prayers and good works of the members of the King¬ 
 dom of God on earth bring relief to Christ’s suffering 
 members in Purgatory. As their time of merit is over 
 they must rely on their friends to assist them. “Have pity 
 on me at least you my friends for the hand of the Lord 
 hath afflicted me.” This is their prayer. And it is one of 
 the consolations of our religion to know that our least 
 good work, our shortest prayer, our slightest mortifica¬ 
 tion, and above all the Holy Sacrifice and Holy Commun¬ 
 ion, can reach across the barriers of time, and render help 
 to the Suffering Souls. 
 
 The indulgenced prayers of the Church are especially 
 intended for the relief of the Souls in Purgatory. An in¬ 
 dulgenced prayer is one whose value is written in terms 
 of remission of temporal punishment due for sin. The 
 Church by drawing on the superabundant merits of Christ, 
 the merits of our Blessed Mother and the saints gives spe¬ 
 cial efficacy to an indulgenced prayer. This prayer she 
 tells us to apply to the Souls in Purgatory and not only 
 for all the souls lingering there but for the particular soul 
 we have in mind. The Church in so doing draws on her 
 treasury of good works accumulated during the ages. 
 With this great wealth at her disposal the Church enhances 
 the value of our poor prayers. 
 
 “Lay this body anywhere, my son, but wherever you 
 
30 
 
 AFTER DEATH—WHAT? 
 
 may be, pray for my soul at God’s AJtar,” was Monica’s 
 last request of Augustine. In the grief of his great soul 
 Augustine never forgot his mother’s wish. That is the 
 Catholic spirit. We love our dead for we know they live. 
 We wish to speed their living close to God and in the offi¬ 
 cial prayer of the Church or in our own simple words we 
 ask God to be mindful of those “who have gone before us 
 with the sign of Faith, and sleep in the sleep of peace. O 
 most merciful Lord Jesus give unto them eternal rest.’’ 
 
 DISCUSSION CLUB OUTLINE 
 
 Prepared by Rev. Gerald C. Treacy, S.J. 
 
 I 
 
 We know the other world is real because the Infallible Church 
 teaches us this. The other world has two eternal divisions, Heaven 
 and Hell, and one temporary. This is God’s revelation. Frequently 
 our Lord spoke of Heaven. It is a state of unending happiness and 
 the place where God dwells with His angels and saints (1). 
 
 Not only Catholics but all sensible people who know that the 
 soul will last forever believe in Heaven. It is reasonable to believe 
 this because every one knows he cannot get complete happiness in 
 this life, yet he wants it with all his desires. God has given him 
 the desire, so He will fulfill it. The fulfillment of all desires is 
 Heaven. Heaven is also the reward of a good life on earth. Our 
 Lord teaches this in promising “a reward everlasting” for the act of 
 charity (2). 
 
 There are many opinions about Heaven’s location, but the truth 
 is we do not know where Heaven is. The real thing to know is 
 that Heaven is happiness. From St. John’s teaching it may be gath¬ 
 ered that after the Last Judgment this earth will be Heaven. It will 
 be “a new earth” (3). 
 
 From the statements of St. Peter and others this earth will be 
 renewed by fire at our Lord’s second coming, and then it will be 
 Heaven for the just. Not only Christian but pagan writers claimed 
 that the earth would be destroyed and then renewed by fire (4, 5). 
 
 If this earth renewed and purified is to be the home of the blessed 
 at the end of the world it will be wonderfully beautiful. The real 
 happiness of Heaven consists in seeing and enjoying God as He is 
 This is called the Beatific Vision and it is seen only because God 
 gives man the power to see through grace. No natural sight could 
 reach God (6, 7). 
 
DISCUSSION CLUB OUTLINE 
 
 31 
 
 Questions 
 
 Is the other world real? 
 
 What are its three divisions? 
 
 Do only Catholics believe in Heaven? 
 What is Heaven a reward for? 
 
 Where is Heaven? 
 
 What is the Beatific Vision ? 
 
 II 
 
 God cannot be comprehended by a human mind, but He can be 
 reached. St. Thomas explains that. This reaching of God by man is 
 a mystery, but we can learn something about it. The blessed in 
 Heaven see and know God in a way that is different from any sight 
 or knowledge on earth (8, 9). 
 
 The soul in Heaven receives special gifts. These constitute its 
 dowry. The body after the general resurrection will have its special 
 gifts too. Another source of Heaven’s happiness is freedom from 
 sin or even the inclination to sin. Still another is freedom from 
 ignorance (10, 11). 
 
 The happiness of Heaven lasts forever. This truth is an article 
 of faith. Moreover thene are different degrees of happiness for each 
 one and yet each is completely happy. The idea of completeness 
 is the nearest approach we can make to understanding the happi¬ 
 ness of Heaven (12, IS). 
 
 Questions 
 
 What does the soul need in order to see God? 
 
 May God be comprehended? 
 
 How may comprehension be understood? 
 
 What is the dowry of the blessed? 
 
 Is this dowry in the body and the soul? 
 
 Can the blessed in Heaven sin? 
 
 Does Heaven’s happiness ever end? 
 
 Are all equally happy or are there degrees in happiness? 
 
 If there is inequality in happiness is their discontent? 
 
 Ill 
 
 Our Lord Who spoke of the happiness of Heaven also spoke 
 of the sufferings of Hell. There b nothing clearer in all Hb teach¬ 
 ing. The parable of Dives and Lazarus, the words of our Lord on 
 the punbhment for the sin of scandal show that there b real fire 
 of torment whatever the nature of the fire. The supreme torment 
 b the loss of God. That makes Hell. Besides the pain of loss and 
 sense, there are other sufferings endured by the lost. Remorse for 
 opportunities lost, remembrance of happier times. Hell, like Heaven, 
 b eternal (16, 25). 
 
32 
 
 AFTER DEATH—WHAT? 
 
 Questions 
 
 What did our Lord teach about Hell? 
 
 Should we fear it? 
 
 What does the parable of Dives and Lazarus prove? 
 
 Is the fire of Hell real? 
 
 Is it like the fire on earth? 
 
 What have the Fathers of the Church taught about everlasting 
 punishment ? 
 
 What does the Church teach regarding its nature? 
 
 What is the pain of loss, of sense? 
 
 Are there other sufferings? 
 
 Does the Bible mention Hell? 
 
 IV 
 
 Those who have not atoned for sins committed in life and yet 
 die In God’s grace cannot enter Heaven at once. They dwell in 
 Purgatory. The Church teaches this as an article of Faith. Its 
 proof is found in many parts of the Bible, and in the writings of the 
 Fathers of the Church. The souls in Purgatory suffer the pain of 
 loss and of sense; they cannot help themselves, but we can help them 
 by prayer. The indulgenced prayers of the Church are especially 
 intended for their relief (26, 30). 
 
 Questions 
 
 What is the meaning of Purgatory? 
 
 What does the Church teach about it? 
 
 Are its sufferings real? 
 
 May the suffering souls help themselves? 
 
 How do we help them? 
 
 What are the prayers especially intended for their benefit? 
 
 Imprimi potest: 
 
 Nihil obstat: 
 
 Imprimatur: 
 
 New York, March 30, 1927. 
 
 Edwaso C. Phillips, S.J., 
 Provincial Maryland-New York. 
 
 Apthub J. Scanlan, S.T.D., 
 
 Censor Librorum. 
 
 i3E( Patrick Cardinal Hayks, 
 Archiepiscopus Neo-Eb. 
 
 Copyright, 1927. 
 
 printed and published in tpb u. s. a. 
 
 BY THE PAULIiT PRESS, NEW YORK, N. Y. 
 
Popularized Editions of the 
 
 Great Social Encyclicals . . . 
 
 THE VOICE OF THE VICAR OF CHRIST 
 
 SERIES 
 
 Father Gerald C. Treacy, S.J., has specialized for years in the 
 teaching of the Papal Encyclicals. Realizing the need for simpli¬ 
 fied editions of these great documents so that their principles may 
 be taught in the grammar grades he has prepared these new pam¬ 
 phlets. He says “The Encyclical teachings are precious gems of 
 TRUTH encased in the long sentences and long paragraphs of the 
 Latin language. The simplified edition places these gems of God's 
 Truth, in the setting of another language. We appreciate the beauty 
 of the gem in a familiar setting, when the reader has appreciated 
 the teachings of the Encyclical in its simplified setting, he will be 
 ready to turn to the complete edition with interest and profit.” 
 
 PRAYING WITH CHRIST (Mediafor Dei) 
 
 Pope Pins XII 
 
 CHRISTIAN STATE OR PAGAN CHAOS (Immortale Dei) 
 
 Pope Leo XIII 
 
 LIBERTY—MAN'S GREATEST GIFT (Human Liberty) 
 
 Pope Leo XIII 
 
 HEAVEN'S BEGINNING (Mystici Corporis Christi) 
 
 Pope Pins XII 
 
 LABOR'S CHARTER OF LIBERTY (Rerum Novarum) 
 
 Pope Leo XIII 
 
 GOD AND LIBERTY AGAINST SATAN AND SLAVERY 
 
 (Divini Redemptoris) . 
 
 Pope Pius XI 
 
 REBUILDING SOCIETY'S SOCIAL ORDER (Quadragesimo Anno) 
 
 Pope Pius XI 
 
 LOVE UNDYING (Casti Connubii) 
 
 Pope Pins XI 
 
 EDUCATION: TRUE OR FALSE (Divini lllius Mogistri) 
 
 Pope Pius XI 
 
 'These piamphlets will be welcomed by the many who have long 
 sought a simplified presentation of the papal statements as well as 
 bv teachers who know that an elementary knowledge of these prin¬ 
 ciples should be taught in our schools. Questionnaires are appended. 
 
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