The enemies of progress

The enemies of progress, of light and of truth work in the shadows; they are preparing a crusade against our manifestations; do not concern yourselves with this. You are powerfully sustained; let them stir about in their impotence. Meanwhile, by every means at your disposal, devote yourselves to combating, to annihilating the idea of the eternity of punishments, a thought blasphemous against the justice and the goodness of God, the most fertile source of the incredulity, the materialism and the indifference that have invaded the masses ever since their intelligence began to develop. On the point of becoming enlightened, though soon brutalized again, the spirit understood the monstrous injustice; its reason repels it, and then it rarely fails to confound, in the same ostracism, the punishment that revolts it and the God to whom it is attributed. Hence the countless evils that have descended upon you, and for which we have come to bring the remedy. The task we assign you will be all the easier in that the authorities upon which the defenders of this belief rely have, all of them, evaded any formal pronouncement. Neither the Councils nor the Fathers of the Church resolved this grave question. If, according to the Evangelists themselves, and taking the emblematic words of the Christ literally, he threatened the guilty with a fire that is not extinguished, an eternal fire, there is nothing in his words that proves he condemned the guilty eternally. Poor strayed sheep, learn to see the Good Shepherd who, far from wishing to banish you forever from his presence, comes himself to meet you, to lead you back to the fold. Prodigal children, leave your voluntary exile; direct your steps toward the paternal home: the father stretches out his arms to you and is always ready to celebrate your return to the family.

Lamennais. n [1]

[v. Lamennais.]