The sheer power of God makes the threat of Hell all the more dreadful
3 min • Digitized on April 10, 2024
From The Sinner’s Guide, page 109
By Venerable Louis of Granada
Let us first reflect on the almighty power of God, Whose justice will chastise the sinner. God’s greatness is apparent in all His works. He is God, not only in Heaven, earth, and sea, but in hell and in every other place. He is God in His wrath and in the justice with which He avenges the outrages offered to His divine majesty.
Therefore, He Himself exclaims by the mouth of His prophet: “Will you not, then, fear Me, and will you not repent at My presence? I have set the sand a bound for the sea, an everlasting ordinance, which it shall not pass over; and the waves thereof shall toss themselves, and shall not prevail; they shall swell, and shall not pass over it.”
In other words, will you not fear the almighty power of that Arm which controls the elements, which sustains the universe, and which no power can resist? If the works of His mercy excite us to love and praise Him, we have no less reason to fear the greatness of His justice.
Hence the prophet Jeremias, though innocent, and even sanctified in his mother’s womb, was deeply penetrated with this salutary fear. “Who,” he cries out, “shall not fear Thee, O King of nations?”And again; “I sat alone, because Thou hast filled me with threats.” Doubtless the prophet knew that these threats were not uttered against him; yet they filled him with terror.
The pillars of heaven, we are told, tremble before the majesty of God, and the powers and principalities prostrate themselves in awe before His throne. If these pure spirits, confirmed in bliss, and in no manner doubting of their happiness, but only through admiration of the Divine Perfections, tremble before His power, what should be the terror of the sinner who has made himself the object of His wrath? It is the power of our Sovereign Judge which is most appalling in the punishment of sin.
Speaking of God’s punishments, St. John says: “Babylon’s plagues shall come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine, and she shall be burnt with fire, because God is strong, Who shall judge her.”
The great Apostle, filled with awe of this power, exclaims; “It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
We have not such reason to fear the hands of men, from whom we can escape, and who at least cannot thrust the soul into hell. Hence our Saviour tells His disciples; “And fear ye not them that kill the body and are not able to kill the soul. But rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body into hell.”
The author of Ecclesiasticus, impressed with the might of this power, thus warns us; “Unless we do penance we shall fall into the hands of the Lord, and not into the hands of men.” This united testimony proves, as we have said, that as God is great in His mercy and rewards, so will He be great in His justice and punishments.