Alfred Gurney

Our Catholic Inheritance in the Larger Hope Alfred Gurney

The true penitent knows that judgment is salvation; for him punishment is transfigured into penance, and to such a one penance is ever welcome. The penitent robber did not ask or wish to be taken down from his cross; he endured it, and died on it, well content to be remembered by his Absolver and his King.
But if we look more fully and carefully into the matter, we shall, I think, come to the conclusion that sin is its own punishment,1 and in that case the punishment of necessity ceases when sin is abolished. When that blessed result is arrived at, the bitterness of any pains and penalties that may still remain will be immediately and effectually sweetened, for the sufferer will gladly acquiesce in them, and indeed will be ready to enforce them against himself.
The question before us therefore is, not will punishment endure for ever, but will sin? To that question the Scriptures, as interpreted by the Church, seem to me to give a negative answer. Are we not told that Christ was manifested to destroy the works of the devil? that He is the Saviour of all men ? and that it is the Father's good pleasure to sum up all things in Him, and reconcile them to Himself?

Alfred Gurney