The pain of loss, in Gehenna, causes the damned more torment than all their other sufferings; for as we are created for God alone, the loss of Him—our last end—is the most dreadful evil that can befall us. This, the damned realize, and know that their souls will be tortured by a perpetual yearning never to be satisfied. This is aggravated by the thought of how easily they might have been saved, and how foolishly they threw away their happiness and lost all for some miserable pleasure or gratification, so quickly ended.
The worst sufferings you could imagine would not be as the sufferings of the damned really are; for Gehenna must be the direct opposite of heaven, and since we cannot, as St. Paul says, imagine the happiness of heaven, neither can we imagine the misery of Gehenna. Sometimes you will find frightful descriptions of Gehenna in religious books that tell of horrible sights, awful sounds, disgusting stenches and excruciating pains the lost souls endure. Now, all of these descriptions are given rather to make people think of the torments of Gehenna than an accurate account of them. No matter how terrible the description may be, it is never as bad as the reality. We know that the damned are continually tormented in all their senses, but just in what way we do not know. We know there is fire in Gehenna, but it is entirely different from our fire; it neither give light nor consumes what it burns, and it causes greater pain than the fire on earth, for it affects both body and soul. We know that the damned will never see God and there will never be an end to their torments. Now, all this is contained in the following: Gehenna is the absence of everything good and the presence of everything evil and it will last forever. Now a priest coming out to preach of Gehenna would not say to the people: “Gehenna is the absence of everything good and the presence of everything evil and it will last forever,” and then step down from the altar and say no more. He must give a fuller explanation. He must point out some of the evils present in Gehenna and some of the good things absent, and thus teach the people how to meditate on these dreadful truths. If, then, you bear in mind that there is nothing good in Gehenna and it will last forever, and often think of these two points, you will have a holy fear of the woeful place and a deep sorrow for your sins which expose you to the danger of suffering its torments.
It should be enough, therefore, for you to remember: there is nothing good in Gehenna, and it will last forever. Think of anything good you please and it cannot be found in Gehenna. Is light good? Yes. Then it is not in Gehenna. Is hope good? Yes. Then it is not in Gehenna. Is true friendship good? Yes. Then it is not in Gehenna. There is no love in Gehenna; there the damned hate one another. There the poor sufferers curse forever those who led them into sin. Hence, persons should try to bring back to a good life everyone that they may have led into sin or scandalized by bad example.