IV. HELL

1033 We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love him. But we cannot love
God if we sin gravely against him, against our neighbor or against ourselves: "He who does not
love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no
murderer has eternal life abiding in him."[610] Our Lord warns us that we shall be separated
from him if we fail to meet the serious needs of the poor and the little ones who are his
brethren.[611] To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God's merciful love means
remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. This state of definitive self-
exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called "hell."

1034 Jesus often speaks of "Gehenna" of "the unquenchable fire" reserved for those who to
the end of their lives refuse to believe and be converted, where both soul and body can be
lost.[612] Jesus solemnly proclaims that he "will send his angels, and they will gather . . . all evil
doers, and throw them into the furnace of fire,"[613] and that he will pronounce the
condemnation: "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire!"[614]

1035 The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately after
death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the
punishments of hell, "eternal fire."[615] The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from
God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for
which he longs.

1036 The affirmations of Sacred Scripture and the teachings of the Church on the subject of
hell are a call to the responsibility incumbent upon man to make use of his freedom in view of
his eternal destiny. They are at the same time an urgent call to conversion: "Enter by the narrow
gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by
it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it
are few."[616] Since we know neither the day nor the hour, we should follow the advice of the
Lord and watch constantly so that, when the single course of our earthly life is completed, we
may merit to enter with him into the marriage feast and be numbered among the blessed, and
not, like the wicked and slothful servants, be ordered to depart into the eternal fire, into the
outer darkness where "men will weep and gnash their teeth."[617]

1037 God predestines no one to go to hell;[618] for this, a willful turning away from God (a
mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end. In the Eucharistic liturgy and in the
daily prayers of her faithful, the Church implores the mercy of God, who does not want "any to
perish, but all to come to repentance":[619] Father, accept this offering from your whole
family. Grant us your peace in this life, save us from final damnation, and count us among those
you have chosen.[620]

V. THE LAST JUDGMENT

1038 The resurrection of all the dead, "of both the just and the unjust,"[621] will precede the
Last Judgment. This will be "the hour when all who are in the tombs will hear [the Son of
man's] voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those
who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment."[622] Then Christ will come "in his glory,
and all the angels with him .... Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate
them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the
sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left.... And they will go away into eternal
punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."[623]

1039 In the presence of Christ, who is Truth itself, the truth of each man's relationship with
God will be laid bare.[624] The Last Judgment will reveal even to its furthest consequences
the good each person has done or failed to do during his earthly life: All that the wicked do is
recorded, and they do not know. When "our God comes, he does not keep silence.". . . he
will turn towards those at his left hand: . . . "I placed my poor little ones on earth for you. I as
their head was seated in heaven at the right hand of my Father - but on earth my members
were suffering, my members on earth were in need. If you gave anything to my members, what
you gave would reach their Head. Would that you had known that my little ones were in need
when I placed them on earth for you and appointed them your stewards to bring your good
works into my treasury. But you have placed nothing in their hands; therefore you have found
nothing in my presence."[625]

1040 The Last Judgment will come when Christ returns in glory. Only the Father knows the
day and the hour; only he determines the moment of its coming. Then through his Son Jesus
Christ he will pronounce the final word on all history. We shall know the ultimate meaning of
the whole work of creation and of the entire economy of salvation and understand the
marvellous ways by which his Providence led everything towards its final end. The Last
Judgment will reveal that God's justice triumphs over all the injustices committed by his
creatures and that God's love is stronger than death.[626]

1041 The message of the Last Judgment calls men to conversion while God is still giving them
"the acceptable time, . . . the day of salvation."[627] It inspires a holy fear of God and commits
them to the justice of the Kingdom of God. It proclaims the "blessed hope" of the Lord's
return, when he will come "to be glorified in his saints, and to be marvelled at in all who have
believed."[628]