Gather up first the cockle, and bind it into bundles to burn.- (gospel of sunday. Matt. Xiii. 24, 30)

Behold the final doom of sinners who abuse the Divine Mercy, — to burn in the fire of hell! God threatens hell, not that He may send us there, but in order that He may deliver us from that place of torments. Oh, how ardently would the damned desire a day or an hour of the time granted to me!

I. In committing sin the sinner does two evils. He abandons God, the Sovereign Good, and turns to creatures. For my people have done two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and have digged to themselves cisterns — broken cisterns — that can hold no water (Jer. ii. 13). Since, then, by turning to creatures the sinner offends God, he will be justly tortured in hell by the same creatures, by fire and by devils. In this punishment consists the pain of sense. But because his greatest guilt and the malice of his sin consists in turning his back on God, his principal torment, his hell, will be the pain of loss, or the pain arising from having lost God.

It is of Faith, that there is a hell — a prison reserved for the chastisement of rebels against God. What is this hell? It is what the glutton who was damned called a place of torments (Luke xvi. 28). A place of torments where all the senses and powers of the damned will have their own particular torment, and where, the more a person has offended God by any sense, the more he will be tortured in that sense. By what things a man sinneth, by the same also he is tormented (Wis. xi. 17). As much as she hath glorified herself and lived in delicacies, so much torments and sorrow give ye to her (Apoc. xviii. 7). The sight will be tormented with darkness. A land, says Job, that is dark, and covered with the mist of death (Job x. 21). How pitiable is the condition of a man shut up in a dark pit for forty or fifty years, or during his whole life! Hell is a dungeon closed up on every side, into which a ray of sun, or of any other light, shall never enter. He shall never see the light (Ps. xlviii. 20). The fire of this world sends forth light, but the fire of hell is utterly dark. The voice of the Lord divided the fire (Ps. xxviii. 7). In explaining these words, St. Basil says, that the Lord will separate the light from the fire, so that this fire will burn, but will not illuminate. Albert the Great expounds them more briefly, and says that God "will divide the flame from the heat." The very smoke that issues from that fire shall form a storm of darkness which, according to St. Jude, will blind the damned. To whom the storm of darkness is reserved forever (Jude 13). St. Thomas teaches that the damned have only the light which serves to increase their torments. In that glimmering light they will see the deformity of their associates, and of the devils who will assume horrible forms in order to increase the terrors of the damned.

Ah, my Lord, behold at Thy feet one who has so much despised Thy grace and Thy chastisements! Miserable should I be, O my Jesus, if Thou hadst not taken pity on me. How many years should I be in that fetid furnace, in which so many of my companions are now burning! Ah, my Redeemer, why does not this thought make me burn with Thy love? How can I ever again think of offending Thee? Ah, my Jesus, may I never more displease Thee! Strike me dead a thousand times rather than permit me ever again to insult Thee. Since Thou hast begun, complete the work. Thou hast taken me out of the abyss of so many sins, and hast so lovingly called me to love Thee.

II. The sense of smell will also be tormented. How painful to be confined in a close room along with a putrid corpse! Out of their carcasses, says the Prophet Isaias, shall rise a stink (Is. xxxiv. 3). The damned must remain in the midst of so many millions of the reprobate, who, though ever living and in pain, are called carcasses on account of the stench which they send forth. St. Bonaventure says that if the body of one of the damned were placed on this earth, it would, by its stench, be sufficient to cause the death of all men. And yet some will say: If I am damned I shall not be alone. Miserable fools! The greater the number of the damned in hell, the more insufferable will be their torments. "There," says St. Thomas, "the society of the reprobate will cause not a diminution, but an increase of misery." Their sufferings are more intolerable on account of the stench, on account of the shrieks of the damned, and on account of the narrowness of the place. In hell they will be one over the other, like sheep gathered together in the winter. They are, said David, laid in hell like sheep (Ps. xlviii. 15). They will be even like grapes pressed under the wine-press of God's wrath. And he treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness of the wrath of God the Almighty (Apoc. xix. 15). From this will arise the pain of immobility. Let them become immovable as a stone (Exod. xv. 16). Thus, in whatsoever position the damned will fall into hell after the Last Day, in that position they must remain, without ever changing and without ever being able to move hand or foot, as long as God shall be God.

The sense of hearing will be tormented by the ceaseless howling and wailing of those miserable beings who are sunk in an abyss of despair. The devils will torment the damned by continual noises. The sound of dread is always in his ears (Job xv. 21). How painful to a person longing for sleep to hear the groans of a sick man, the barking of a dog, or the screams of an infant! But, oh, how miserable the condition of the damned who must listen incessantly for all eternity to the clamour and cries of the companions of their torments! The damned will be tormented by a ravenous hunger. They shall suffer hunger like dogs (Ps. lviii. 15). But they never shall have a morsel of bread. Their thirst will be so great that all the waters of the ocean would not be able to quench it; but they shall never be allowed a single drop. The rich glutton asked for a drop of water but he has not yet had it, and he never, never shall.

Ah, grant, my Jesus, that I may give to Thee all the time Thou now givest to me. How ardently would the damned desire a day or an hour of the time granted to me! And shall I continue to spend it in offending Thee? No, my Jesus, through the merits of that Blood which has hitherto delivered me from hell, do not permit it. I love Thee, O Sovereign Good, and because I love Thee I am sorry for having offended Thee. I wish never more to offend Thee, but to love Thee forever. Mary, my Queen and my Mother, pray to Jesus for me, and obtain for me the gift of perseverance and of His holy love.