He saw not only Them; he saw Him. This animal, this thing begotten in a bed, could look on Him. What is blinding, suffocating fire to you, is now cool light to him, is clarity itself, and wears the form of a Man. You would like, if you could, to interpret the patient’s prostration in the Presence, his self-abhorrence and utter knowledge of his sins (yes, Wormwood, a clearer knowledge even than yours) on the analogy of your own choking and paralysing sensations when you encounter the deadly air that breathes from the heart of Heaven. But it’s all nonsense. Pains he may still have to encounter, but they embrace those pains. They would not barter them for any earthly pleasure.
CS Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
The I Got You Babe (1965) time loop sequence from Groundhog Day (1993). I can imagine this being done for eternity in one of the less fashionable pits in Hell.
I apologize for this, but I couldn’t resist:
The concept of a time loop where we keep repeating a day until we have learned something very important I find oddly appealing. Dante thought that in Purgatory we would penitentially relive our sins, at least the seven deadly ones that we have committed. The damned in Hell have nothing to learn and the Blessed in Heaven have perfect knowledge through the Beatific Vision. It is in Purgatory that we repent of our sins which involves both knowledge of our sins and sorrow for them. What we failed to do in life in regard to our sins, we do in Purgatory. Not a bad thing to recall on Groundhog Day, and every day.
