Easy question; easy answer: Because they chose to go there.
According to the Catholic Church's teaching, there are souls in hell because they want to be there.
I don't know how exactly hell looks like, and I really don't want to know. Haha. I've always pictured hell as a place where souls are on fire but are not getting burned; but they do feel the scorching heat. Scary supernatural beings look the way they do because they've been distorted down there, I've read. :-P
Anyway, as years went by, I've come to realize that hell is more than just a place; it's a state. It's the state of being away from God or simply a total absence of God's grace. I mean, if you think about it, hell only started when Lucifer turned away from God-- when he rejected God's grace. Our journey to hell begins when we listen to the serpent who urges us to decide for ourselves what is good or evil without reference to God.
It is pretty easy to know who's on his or her way to eternal damnation; just look at Satan. Because of his pride and selfish intentions, he separated himself from God and did everything to oppose Him. With that, it is safe to say that whoever chooses to follow in the footsteps of Satan is on his way to that eternal place of rejection, hatred, and despair, where Satan resides.
Hell is not really that difficult to understand. We see previews of hell everyday. We see people who not only do evil; they love evil. God's transforming grace is always knocking on our hearts, but there are many who refuse to let it in.
Pope John Paul II wrote:
There's a quote that goes, "Everyone wants to go to Heaven, but nobody wants to die;" I say, many say they want to go to heaven, but their actions speak otherwise.
According to the Catholic Church's teaching, there are souls in hell because they want to be there.
I don't know how exactly hell looks like, and I really don't want to know. Haha. I've always pictured hell as a place where souls are on fire but are not getting burned; but they do feel the scorching heat. Scary supernatural beings look the way they do because they've been distorted down there, I've read. :-P
Anyway, as years went by, I've come to realize that hell is more than just a place; it's a state. It's the state of being away from God or simply a total absence of God's grace. I mean, if you think about it, hell only started when Lucifer turned away from God-- when he rejected God's grace. Our journey to hell begins when we listen to the serpent who urges us to decide for ourselves what is good or evil without reference to God.
It is pretty easy to know who's on his or her way to eternal damnation; just look at Satan. Because of his pride and selfish intentions, he separated himself from God and did everything to oppose Him. With that, it is safe to say that whoever chooses to follow in the footsteps of Satan is on his way to that eternal place of rejection, hatred, and despair, where Satan resides.
"Many people raise emotional difficulties here. They ask, how could a good God condemn souls to hell? They have an image of God as an almighty hanging judge. They do not understand that God condemns souls to hell in much the same way that he "condemns" bodies to destruction if they choose to jump from great heights, if they attempt to digest poison, or if they abuse their system with alcohol or drugs. We live in a cosmos, not a chaos. If we choose disorder, disorder we shall have."
-Know Your Faith
Hell is not really that difficult to understand. We see previews of hell everyday. We see people who not only do evil; they love evil. God's transforming grace is always knocking on our hearts, but there are many who refuse to let it in.
"They go around 'looking for trouble' as if rage, violence, and hatred are the atmosphere they must exist in. The evil we refuse to repent begins to destroy us deep within. This is the 'hell' we refuse to come out of, no matter what grace or light God may send."
-Know Your Faith
Pope John Paul II wrote:
"The moral law, like the law of gravity, does not come from our consensus. It does not come from earth but from heaven. We are free to accept or reject it but we are not free to accept or reject the consequences. If we leave this world locked into ego, our choice of self apart from God becomes final, irrevocable, and complete. This is known as hell."
-The Splendor of Truth (Veritatis Splendor)
There's a quote that goes, "Everyone wants to go to Heaven, but nobody wants to die;" I say, many say they want to go to heaven, but their actions speak otherwise.
