No One Goes to Hell by Accident

A Homily That Still Haunts Me

On Sunday I sat in Mass, and though the Nigerian priest who preached that day has now left the pulpit, his words have not left me. They cling to me. They burn in me like a brand. He spoke of Jeremiah - of truth that divides, of fire that purifies, of a prophet whose tears drowned him long before exile did.

Jeremiah, the weeping prophet. Hated, beaten, mocked, cast into a pit of mud and left to die. He warned Israel: if you will not turn, you will burn. He told kings that their thrones would fall, priests that their sacrifices were hollow, people that their sin would ruin them. And they laughed at him. They scorned him. They wanted him gone.

And then it happened. The Babylonians came. The city was torn open. Children starved. Mothers wailed. The Temple burned. Jeremiah walked through the ruins and cried until his bones ached. His lament still bleeds through the pages of Scripture:

“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow” (Lamentations 1:12) [^1].

Jeremiah’s sorrow is not a museum relic. It is our own.

Fire That Divides

The priest said plainly: truth divides. Christ Himself said it:

“Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division” (Luke 12:51) [^2].

Truth is a sword. It cuts families apart. It severs friendships. It costs jobs. It burns through reputations. And it hurts.

But Christ said that fire purifies. Gold must burn before it shines. And so must souls. Fire either cleanses - or destroys.

History Ignored, History Repeated

Whenever prophets are ignored, ruin follows.

• Noah’s day mocked him for building the ark - until the flood drowned them (Genesis 7) [^3]. No one drowned by accident.

• Jerusalem mocked Jeremiah and crucified Christ. Within a generation, in AD 70, starvation grew so dire mothers ate their children, and the Temple was torn down stone by stone [^4].

• France mocked the altar before the Revolution. Soon priests were guillotined, nuns marched to death, and Notre Dame was desecrated [^5].

• Fatima (1917): three shepherd children begged the world to repent, warned of war and communism. The world laughed. Within a generation, tens of millions lay in graves [^6].

Prophets are always mocked. And history always shows what happens next.

Christ Weeps Still

Israel had kings, priests, and prophets. All failed. Only Christ fulfilled all three. Prophet, Priest, King. And yet even He wept.

He stood before Jerusalem and cried: “Would that you had known the things that make for peace!” (Luke 19:42) [^7].

And He weeps still.

• He weeps over 73 million abortions every year worldwide - 200,000 every single day [^8].

• He weeps as pornography earns over $100 billion annually [^9], destroying marriages and hollowing souls.

• He weeps as weekly Mass attendance in Europe falls below 20%, and in some countries under 10% [^10].

• He weeps as youth suicide rates rise, now the second leading cause of death among ages 15–29 [^11].

This is not politics. It is prophecy fulfilled in real time.

Hell Is a Choice

The Catechism is blunt:

“To die in mortal sin without repenting… is to remain separated from Him forever by our own free choice. This state… is called hell” (CCC 1033) [^12].

Hell is not an accident. It is the final ratification of what a soul insisted on throughout life. A man does not stumble into damnation like tripping over a stone. He walks there. He walks there in small steps - when he excuses “harmless” sins, when he laughs at blasphemy, when he sneers at confession, when he tells himself God will understand even while spitting in His face.

Sin has momentum. Each unrepented sin hardens the heart. Every refusal to confess makes the next refusal easier. Each “later” whispered to God becomes another “never.” Hell is not God slamming the door. Hell is man locking it from the inside.

“The road is broad that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many” (Matthew 7:13) [^13].

Christ Himself told us: damnation is not rare. And if the road is broad, it is because millions march it willingly.

Voices From the Saints

The saints saw it and screamed the warning.

• St. Faustina Kowalska: “I, Sister Faustina Kowalska, by the order of God, have visited the abysses of hell… I write this so no soul may excuse itself by saying that there is no hell.” (Diary, 741) [^14].

• St. John Vianney: “The damned cry out eternally: ‘It is my fault, my fault, my grievous fault.’” [^15].

• St. Catherine of Siena: “The stench, the smoke, the hatred of the damned is beyond all telling. If you saw it for one instant, you would choose a thousand deaths rather than commit one sin.” [^16].

The Silence of Hell

The fire is not the worst of hell. The worst is the silence.

No laughter, no love, no sound of another soul speaking your name. You do not hear “I forgive you.” You do not hear “I love you.” You do not hear “You still matter.” The damned scream, but only their own voices echo back.

St. John Bosco, given visions of hell, described the damned as gnashing their teeth in eternal rage, clawing at each other but never finding relief [^17]. St. Faustina said the greatest torment was not the flames but “the constant company of Satan” and the suffocating hatred that fills the abyss [^18].

Imagine never again hearing a bird sing. Never again hearing a child laugh. Never again hearing your own mother’s voice. Nothing but endless wailing, endless regret, endless silence from heaven.

That is why hell is called “outer darkness” (Matthew 8:12) [^19]. It is not merely fire. It is the soundless suffocation of being cut off forever.

No One Goes to Hell by Accident

Jeremiah’s tears, Christ’s lament, the saints’ visions - all agree on this: no one goes to hell by accident.

Hell is always chosen. Slowly, quietly, step by step. The man who dies in mortal sin has practiced for hell his whole life. He practiced by refusing Mass. By excusing sin. By silencing conscience. By ignoring Christ knocking at the door of his heart.

“God predestines no one to go to hell” (CCC 1037) [^20]. It is not fate, not bad luck, not a cosmic lottery. It is always, always chosen.

St. Alphonsus Liguori wrote: “The greatest punishment of sin is sin itself. One mortal sin leads to another, and the soul, blind and hardened, rushes headlong into the abyss.” [^21]

Look at the world today. Do we think the porn addict wakes up one morning in hell by surprise? No. Every click, every refusal to repent, every act of presumption is a step downward. Do we think the politician who passes abortion laws falls into hell unknowing? No. He signed the bill in full light. Do we think the lukewarm Catholic who abandoned Mass thought he was safe? He was not.

No one is dragged there against their will. And on the last day, when Christ says, “Depart from me” (Matthew 25:41) [^22], the damned will know: this is what I chose.

Glory to God.

References

[^1]: Lamentations 1:12, RSVCE.

[^2]: Luke 12:51, RSVCE.

[^3]: Genesis 7, RSVCE.

[^4]: Flavius Josephus, The Jewish War, Book VI (account of the siege of Jerusalem, AD 70).

[^5]: William Doyle, The Oxford History of the French Revolution, Oxford University Press, 2002.

[^6]: Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, The Message of Fatima, 2000.

[^7]: Luke 19:42, RSVCE.

[^8]: World Health Organization (WHO), “Abortion,” fact sheet (2023).

[^9]: Covenant Eyes, Pornography Statistics Report (2022).

[^10]: Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), “Mass Attendance Trends in Europe” (2019).

[^11]: World Health Organization (WHO), “Suicide worldwide in 2019: global health estimates.”

[^12]: Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), 1033.

[^13]: Matthew 7:13, RSVCE.

[^14]: St. Faustina Kowalska, Divine Mercy in My Soul: Diary, §741.

[^15]: St. John Vianney, quoted in Abbé Francis Trochu, The Curé d’Ars: St. Jean-Marie-Baptiste Vianney, TAN Books.

[^16]: St. Catherine of Siena, The Dialogue, ch. 37.

[^17]: St. John Bosco, Memoirs of the Oratory: Dreams, Visions and Prophecies.

[^18]: St. Faustina Kowalska, Divine Mercy in My Soul: Diary, §741 (vision of hell).

[^19]: Matthew 8:12, RSVCE.

[^20]: Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), 1037.

[^21]: St. Alphonsus Liguori, Preparation for Death, ch. 8.

[^22]: Matthew 25:41, RSVCE.