n,
twenty, or more years; if that judgment came today, on which side should
I be? Probably on the side of the wicked. If then I spend the rest of my
life as I have lived in the past, on the last day I shall surely be with
the wicked. If my good deeds and bad deeds were counted today, which
would be more numerous? What, then, must I do? It will not be enough for
me simply to be better for the future--I must try also to make amends
for the past. If a man wishing to complete a journey on a certain time,
by walking a fixed number of miles each day, falls behind a great deal
on one day, he must not only walk the usual number of miles the next,
but must make up for the distance lost on the previous day. So in our
journey through this life we must do our duty each day for the future,
and, as far as we can, make up for what we have neglected in the past.

*411 Q. Why does Christ judge men immediately after death?
A. Christ judges men immediately after death to reward or punish them
according to their deeds.

412 Q. What are the rewards or punishments appointed for men's souls
after the Particular Judgment?
A. The rewards or punishments appointed for men's souls after the
Particular Judgment are Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell.

413 Q. What is Hell?
A. Hell is a state to which the wicked are condemned, and in which they
are deprived of the sight of God for all eternity, and are in dreadful
torments.

"Deprived of the sight of God." This is called the pain of loss, while
the other sufferings the damned endure are called the pain of
sense--that is, of the senses. The pain of loss causes the unfortunate
souls 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.

Besides this remorse, they suffer most frightful torments in all their
senses. The worst sufferings you could imagine would not be as bad as
the sufferings of the damned really are; for Hell must be the opposite
of Heaven, and since we cannot, as St. Paul says, imagine the happiness
of Heaven, neither can we imagine the misery of Hell. Sometimes you will