Patristic Wisdom: Looking to the Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost

But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched—where

“Their worm does not die
And the fire is not quenched.”

And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than having two feet, to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched—where

“Their worm does not die
And the fire is not quenched.”

And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire—where

“Their worm does not die
And the fire is not quenched.”

For everyone will be seasoned with fire, and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt. Salt is good, but if the salt loses its flavor, how will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace with one another. (Mark 9:38–50)

If today a man is thrown out of the assembly of this church because of some wicked deed, in how much grief and tribulation will his soul be? If it causes unbearable pain to be thrown out of this church, where the one who is rejected can eat and drink and speak with men and has the hope of deserving to be called back again to the church, how much pain do we think there will be if, because of his sins, a man is separated from that Church which is in heaven, segregated from the assembly of the angels and the company of all the saints? For such a man it will not be enough punishment for him to be cast outside, but in addition he will be shut out into the night, to be consumed by an eternal fire. The man who has merited to be shut out of that heavenly Jerusalem will not only have for punishment the fact that he will not be able to eat or drink, but he will also suffer the flames of hell, “where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.” There will be the wailing of lamentation and repentance without any remedy, that worm too which does not die, and the fire which is not extinguished; there death is sought as an end to torment, and it is not found. Why is death sought and not found in hell? Because those who are unwilling to accept life in this world when it is offered to them will seek death in hell and will not be able to find it. There will be night without the light of day, bitterness without pleasure, darkness without light. There neither riches nor parents nor spouses nor children nor neighbors will be able to help a man.

Caesarius of Arles, On the Feast of a Church [Sermon 227.4]