Will I Go To Hell For Committing Suicide?

As someone who was suicidal in the past, and with some alcohol for the courage needed to go through with it on two occasions, I can somewhat relate to anyone suffering despair.

I once had a local woman contact me, asking me if her brother was in Hell because he committed suicide. She had so much hope for him that he was in heaven, but her siblings told her she was wasting her time, as he is in Hell.

The answer is, we don’t know. We have no idea where a soul goes. Only God is judge, and knows a persons heart. There’s no easy answer to this, but if the person doing it, done so in the right frame of mind, knowing full well that such a sin would merit Hell, then we could assume, from what the Church advises, that it’s probable that such a soul will be Hell bound.

But if the person is not in the right frame of mind. If, for instance he does not really take into account the actions he is performing. If the soul has a mental illness that directly affects his free will and ability to choose between right and wrong, then the Church assumes a great reduction in culpability if culpability is even at all present. For this reason the Church assumes that such a person is saved by the mercy of God.

If you think about it, very few people in this world would take their own lives having their full wits about them. Very few, indeed, would choose suicide if not for the mental illness that greatly influenced the decision, an illness of the mind not within their remit to vanquish.

Therefore, if you have a loved one who died by Suicide, try to keep that comforting thought in mind. The letter of the law is one thing, but the heart of it is quite the other, and God is not bound by such things, saving whom he pleases. Lets believe and trust in Gods mercy for those who fall into despair or continue to suffer from such tendencies. Lets also pray for those who act as self styled judges, telling us where souls go when they die. Let’s pray they focus on their own souls and sins instead.

God bless