It is both unsurprising and unattractive that theologians who fill hell with a massa damnata of sinners are confident of their own salvation . . .
We are to be hard on ourselves, working out our salvation with fear and trembling, while being generous toward others. Our only hope lies in the mercy of God, and therefore, as Jesus admonishes again and again, we must be merciful to others. The mercy we give shall be the mercy we receive. - Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, Death on a Friday Afternoon
A key question for us must be: are there degrees of undeservingness, such that I can presume to withhold - or to hope that God will withhold - grace from someone else, while embracing it for myself? If I say yes, am I not asserting that I have received God's generosity because I somehow deserve it, or at least deserve it more than the damned?
There seems so much more to say about this, but already I find this presumption too ungainly to stand.
That said, let me temper Fr. Neuhaus' first phrase in the second quotation with the acknowledgment that there are those of us who must learn to cut ourselves some slack while we somehow already manage to be merciful to others.
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