A while back I was worked up about some gross wrong which got me thinking about whether it was legitimate to rejoice in the thought of wrongdoers suffering in Hell. Not specific individuals, to be sure, but classes of individuals, say, Islamic terrorists. Of course we are asked to pray for our enemies, and Jesus wills that all men be saved, and forgiveness is essential to Christianity. There is a sense in which we (or, at least, I) get so fixated on the mercy and lovingkindness of God that I feel guilty to get angry with the wicked. But let's face it, those condemned to Hell are justly condemned. Scripture says not to take vengeance not because vengeance is not merited but because God is the only one who can mete it out justly, so when all is said and done and the mercy is exhausted and the graces are spurned, if God does it, can we not rejoice in it? We see the martyrs in Revelation crying out for vengeance, after all.
What I didn't know until more recently is that some saints claim by private revelation (if I am not mistaken) that the angels and saints actually do rejoice when a soul goes to Hell on account of the justice being done. I had never heard this before but I find it intriguing. Naturally being private revelation we can't put too much stock in it but maybe I shouldn't feel quite so guilty when my sense of indignation and justice overflows and I want God to execute vengeance if the persons do not repent (which of course is my first prayer).
This reminds me of the classic question, can we be happy in heaven if our loved ones are not there? I know I have loved ones who have died I was very close to but who seem to have a doubtful destiny. One answer I've come up with is that we will have such a clear appreciation for the true nature of sin and what these people have done (however trifling it seemed while we were on earth) that our affection will turn to repugnance and we will actually want them to be condemned and we will agree with the judgment. (Of course, wanting someone to be condemned then, with perfect knowledge and pure intentions, is very different from wanting on earth someone to be condemned. We should not cultivate here on earth a desire for individuals to be condemned.)
Perhaps it's OK to rejoice in the condemnation of the wicked as long as it remains in the abstract and not in singling out individuals. Any thoughts?
I was listening to a sermon by Fulton Sheen today and he made the joke: When we get to heaven, three things will surprise us. First, there will be people there we did not expect to be. Second, there will be people missing that we expected to be there. And third, WE will be there.
On a more serious note, it would seem the saints are intoxicated with adoration of God, to such a great extent that they love His justice without reference to individuals. They adore it for its own sake, and they would willing go to Hell, in order for it to remain perfect.
In a more limited and hazy way in this life, we can desire justice to be done and take comfort in the fact that it WILL be done. Many of the Psalms are basically cries for justice. And Our Lord said "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness - they will be filled."
However, we shouldn't desire anyone to be damned. If only because it would inculcate a sense of confidence and pride in us - a hideous vice. Rather, take Paul's advice in Romans 11, "be not haughty but fear". St.Francis de Sales refused to judge even the worst of public sinners - he would say instead, "Poor wretch! If not for God's grace, I would be even worse."
Christ died for all, including and especially Islamic terrorists, child molesters and the like. I believe if we preached more on and fully believed Hell to be REAL and, well, hellacious, then the one would never think along these lines.
Coming from an evangelical background, I can tell you that ones witness is only as good as one's belief not in heaven but the consequence of sin and hell.
You may grin when a democratic mud sling against your candidate fails and the truth is found out, but you may not wish all liberals to rot in hell because of their pro-abortion or pro-gay stances.
I think there's a difference between rejoicing in God's justice and rejoicing in the consequences of God's justice. If the saints rejoice at the condemnation of those who refuse God's mercy, it is not the condemnation that gives them joy, I think, but the justice of God. Likewise, when the elect cry out for vengeance to God in Revelation, I am not so sure that they are necessarily requesting that God condemn to perdition those who persecuted them, but certainly part of it is that they want God to interfere with those who are persecuting the Church on earth now. And the reply is that they must wait longer for God's motion, which (at least in terms of the happenings that motivated Revelation) did come a couple of centuries later.
Well, there is Scriptural precedent for it.
Do you think God rejoices when he sentences people to hell?
That's what you imply when you say we earth-bound folks rejoice at God's judgment. I would like to think he weeps when people are condemned to hell by their choosing not to call on the name of Jesus Christ.
There's a difference between rejoicing in God's justice and in his particular judgments.
Caleb,
I think it is possible for Jesus both to rejoice that the wicked are punished and to be sad that they rejected salvation. Think of a completely just judge being happy to put a convicted murderer behind bars but being sad that the murder was committed in the first place. But as Jack pointed out, for our part, we should not rejoice in the particular condemnation of an individual, while at the same time I think it might be legitimate to rejoice in a theoretical class of people getting their just deserts.
One other hawkish comment.
The general philosophy that most of the comments above and many discussions on this subject in general indicate that God is somehow grief stricken by levying justice against one of his beloved creatures. That is not quite true. He is levying justice against a creature but not the same creature he created and so loved.
The sinners/creatures God committs to Hell are no longer the same people that he created. They have fully (though not irrevocably) perverted themselves and though God loves them in the unconditional sense he does not have the "touchy-feely" type of love or sympathy for them that he had when he created them. He is not sad in the sense of having to see an innocent man or woman suffer. I'm sure he is sad to see the glory of his handiwork so wasted and vitiated, but he grins to see the villian who did it (the sinner) justly punished and knows that the person who he is condemning has little to do with the person whom he created. I'm sure he feels satisfaction more than anything else.
There is always salvation and we hope that all are saved, but happy are we when justice is served to those who violently bring it down upon themselves. As much as God is executing justice upon a sinner, the sinner brings down justice upon themselves. It's a cooperative process not an A acting on passive B to bring about C. It is A and B acting very cooperatively and actively to bring about C. Too much emphasis is put on God damning sinners as if He is the active party. To a large extent He is an observer and contentedly watches the sinner damn themselves like the rest of us. Read Psalms, Wisdom, and Sirach.
Vitiated -- good word. I'm familiar with it but not enough to avoid having to look it up again. :-)