examination of the heart 560 3. You should consider the length of time of the punishments of hell. They will have no end. As long as God shall live, so long will the damned be dying but never die! As long as the saints shall enjoy the fullness of the delights in Heaven, so long will the damned be afflicted by torments in hell. But when will this “as long as” come to an end? Never. Let us imagine a mountain as high, wide, and great as a thousand worlds. However, by the order of God after a million years or more, some bird would take one grain of earth from this mountain and transfer it to another place of equal space. Let this favor be granted to the damned: that they would be set free from their punishments, when the above-said mountain would be thus transferred by the said one bird to the other place; indeed, those miserable souls would be overflowing with incredible joy, because at last, at some point, there would be an end to their suffering. But alas! Their suffering will have no end! There will never, ever, ever be an end to the punishments of hell. Oh, who would not then exclaim with Augustine, would not ask: “Lord burn here, cut here, if only spare in eternity!”287 13. SUNDAY MORNING On Christ’s descent into limbo, on His resurrection, and His apparition to the Blessed Virgin Mary. 1. Consider how the Most Divine Soul of Christ the Lord, having left the Most Holy Body, went surrounded by so many angelic hosts to the prisons of limbo.288 It is difficult to grasp with one’s mind the great joy of those holy Fathers, the great emotion and exultation with which they greeted Christ’s soul there. In fact, 287 A reference for this quote could not found in the works of St. Augustine themselves, however, this saying has been attributed to Augustine by a number of authors. For example: cf. Hieremias Drexelius, Liber Primus: Considerationes de Aeternitate, in: Opera omnia, vol. I, Ioannis Cnobbari, Antverpiae 1643, p. 16 (Consideratio V, § III). 288 CCC, 631-633.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjI2Mw==