Say Two Words and You'll Never Go to Hell

A priest, questioning the First Communion class prior to their first confession, asked, "What's the first thing you must do to get your sins forgiven?" Little Tommy blurted out his answer with enthusiastic but naive conviction: "The first thing ya gotta do is go out and commit some sins!"

When the laughter died down, the little girl in the desk behind him, with equal conviction, added her corrective observation: "Committing sin is the easy. The first thing you have to do is say to God, I'm sorry!' If you just say that, you won't go to hell."

No theologian could compose a more succinctly crafted theology of salvation (theologians call it soteriology). The simple sentence of that little girl applies to every sinner in the world—that's all of us! Absolutely anyone can be assured of salvation and thus be certain of never going to hell, by sincerely uttering two simple words—"I'm sorry!"

I'm sure you understand that we are not referring here to social amenity. If you accidentally bump against someone in a crowded elevator, you normally would have the courtesy to say "I'm sorry." That's not the sorrow that arises from offending God—the sorrow of repentance that we are dealing with in this disquisition.

Even in very hurtful social situations, the same applies. For instance, if while driving, you unintentionally hit a pedestrian or a child running into the street, you may anguish over the event emotionally, and visiting the victim in the hospital, you may utter the deeply heartfelt words, "I'm sorry!" That is certainly a more intense utterance than your polite apology in the elevator encounter, but it is equally a social and non-moral situation, since in neither situation was there any malice that would characterize the encounters as sinful. Thus there is no need for repentance in either case. The pedestrian injury may cause you to experience guilt feelings (false guilt), but there is no "real" guilt to be sorry for, since there is, in neither case, any offense against God. Hence "godly sorrow" is not required in these non-moral situations.

To say that you're sorry means that you're repentant, that you have "sorrow" for offending God by not fulfilling his will— at least by serious matters (like abortion, adultery, hatred of anyone—even terrorists, etc). Essentially that is repentance. "Repent... for the forgiveness of your sins," said the very first pope, Peter, in his very first sermon (Acts 2:38), urging the very first of all spiritual norms.

Of course those two simple words, "I'm sorry!"—even if "spoken" wordlessly as a simple interior intent of the will—must embody certain qualifications or conditions.

Whenever this "contrition" or "sorrow" is expressed for at least all serious (mortal) sins, its intent must be sustained up to the moment of one's death—or renewed before death in case of relapse into serious sin. As the Catholic Catechism states (1021), "Death puts an end to human life as a time open to either accepting or rejecting divine grace.” (See 2 Tim. 1.9-10.) Neglecting or postponing repentance contrition would be to risk damnation—analmost unthinkable risk if one's death is sudden or unexpected.

“Godly sorrow, as opposed to “worldly sorrow,” is supernatural—not just a kind of sorrow originating from a natural motive, like health defects, financial loss, etc. Paul explains this: "Your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended... See what this godly sorrow has produced in you…earnestness...eagerness to clear yourselves…Godly sorrow brings repentance, which opens one to the overwhelming Mercy of God, which if accepted leads to salvation (2 Cor.7: 9-10).

So, essentially, if this "godly sorrow" brings about repentance, it is sorrow for an 'ungodly act"—commonly referred to as sin—is an act that ruptures the integrity of the soul's relationship to God, and thus engenders moral guilt.  It is not simply a mistake unrelated to our godliness, such as misspelling or misreading a word or making a wrong turn while driving, etc. Such accidental mistakes may cause frustration, but they don't cause moral guilt in the eyes of God, and hence are not "ungodly." Accidentally giving a patient the wrong medicine may cause one to have guilt feelings (an emotion), but not moral guilt (a spiritual state of evil in the soul)—a proper response to a deliberate "trespassing" of God's moral law.

This "smudge of evil” on the human soul is called sin; it can be erased by availing oneself of the immeasurable gift of God's mercy, which is always available to us during the soul-testing period of our earthly existence. By sincere repentance (contrition) we accept God's mercy, and the "smudge" is wiped clean. Peter's first sermon phrased it succinctly: “Repent and turn to God that your sins may be wiped out" (Acts 3:19).

No One Goes to Hell for Sinning Too Much

In one simple but startling remark St. John Vianney, the holy "Cure of Ars," said, "There is not one single soul in hell who is there because of committing too many sins. But there are many souls in hell for even one serious (mortal) sin not repented of before death."

That single sentence spotlights the truth that for any sinner repentance is essential to open the floodgates of God's loving mercy to remove all guilt of sin, though not necessarily curing “virtue weakness” which may require purgatorial purging).  Moreover, by Church law, not divine law, any mortal sin that caused "soul death" (1 John 5: 16-17), even though the guilt is forgiven by repentance, must be confessed sacramentally before receiving Communion.

Without destroying our very human nature, God cannot force his loving mercy upon us by disabling the intrinsic freedom of the human will, so he must leave the choice up to us to accept his gift of merciful forgiveness or reject it.  Even if I could offer you a million dollars, I couldn't force you to accept it if you chose to remain destitute and starving. Jesus told St. Faustina in one of his apparitions, "If a sinner refuses to enter through the doorway of my mercy, he must pass through the doorway of my justice."

Mortal sin is a radical possibility of human free choice, for human freedom can knowingly make choices that are by their very nature eternally irreversible after our earthly life —the limited moral testing period of earthly existence. Mortal sin results in the loss of the state of grace, thus causing exclusion from God's kingdom, and causing eternal spiritual “death of the soul” in hell unless it is reversed by repentance before one’s physical death.

Refusing to repent of mortal sin is like refusing to take a dead rat out of your pocket—it's simply refusing to be rid of deep contamination, and hence refusing to be saved. Anyone refusing to be saved cannot be saved. Even implicitly refusing to be saved makes one unforgiven and unforgivable while in that state. That's why Jesus called such sin as “unforgivable.”

Every soul in hell has committed "the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit" by dying in the state of freely refusing to accept God's mercy by repentance of serious sinand hence refusing the grace of salvation proffered by the Holy Spirit. St. Augustine said “the God who created you without your consent will not save you without your consent.”

The only living persons on earth who are at this moment hell-bound are those who are presently freely choosing not to repent of mortal sin. (Venial sin wounds but doesn't kill the soul.) These millions of sinners "blaspheme the Holy Spirit" by even implicitly saying to God, "I don't want the Holy Spirit's grace of salvation if it requires that I humbly repent of serious sin, which leaves my soul at enmity with my very Creator."

That deliberate refusal is the "blasphemy against the HolySpirit." That terrible sin, says Jesus, is “not forgiven in this life or in the next"—presuming it is not reversed by repentance before death. No sin is unforgivable, since there are no limits to God's mercy; but anyone can refuse to accept that mercy when available. Refusal to receive a gift prevents its transmission. The very refusal of mercy, while it is operative, will make any sin intrinsically unforgivable, and maintain it in that state unless there is an act of repentance before it is locked into that state permanently at death. This truth is exposited scripturally in Ecclesiastes 11:2-3: "You do not know what disaster may come...whether a tree falls to the south or to the north, the place where it falls, there will it lie"

However, an act of sincere repentance before death, as in deathbed repentance, would reverse the soul's short-sighted refusal. A sudden, instant death would preclude this, and result ineternal disaster. Paul's words in Philippians 2:12 might obliquely remind us of the need for ongoing preparedness for death: “Continue work out your salvation in fear and trembling."

There are countless person now living on earth who are in the horrendous state of the "unforgivable sin" that Jesus spoke of (Matt. 12:31; Mark 3:29; Luke 12:10). To die in mortal sin without repenting, and thus not accepting God's merciful love, is an "unforgivable sin." Notice that it is by one's own free choice that anyone remains separated from that divine merciful love forever. This deliberate separation from God frustrates God's redemptive plan for our salvation. Keep in mind that everyone is redeemed, but not everyone is saved. Everyone is "invited to the wedding feast," but not all are admitted because of being not "properly dressed," as Jesus' parable explains (Matt. 22:1-14). God doesn't send anyone to hell; anyone who goes to hell sends himself there deliberately by refusing to be "properly dressed" with God's grace. That grace is God's Spirit-spawned forgiveness. God's only request is that we embrace him in his merciful love. That is the essence of repentance—acceptance of his offer of mercy."

The bottom line is this: No one will go to hell except those who die in the "unforgivable sin." Those who die in that state will remain eternally and irreversibly unforgiven. These are the only human souls in hell, where they join the devil and the fallen angels (demons) who have also rejected God (Matt. 25:41). The number of reprobate humans is beyond counting! Their eternal remorse in that state is beyond expression. Worldwide repentance is God’s constant plea.

"Repent, repent, repent"—warned the angel at Fatima, wielding the flaming sword. Pope Frances spoke of repentance in the vivid symbolism of weeping, that is urgently needed to reverse the many kinds of evil that are causing and sustaining war and countless other evils in today's crumbling society:

"Humanity needs to weep, and this is the time to weep" proclaimed Pope Francis. (September 13th, 2015). For that reason he established a Holy Year called a "Jubilee of Mercy' (2015- 2016), quoting Jesus' words to St. Faustina: (Diary): "Mankind will not have peace until it turns with trust to my mercy." That "turning to the Lord with trust in his mercy"—his great divine attribute—is accomplished by the simple but powerful act of repentance for sin. It is the God-designed trigger that will release a great outpouring of God's much needed mercy on this very sick world of ours—the only thing that can heal it!

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