“I can tell you truly that, wicked as I am, I have never feared the torments of hell, for they seem nothing by comparison with the thought of the wrath which the damned will see in the Lord’s eyes–those eyes so lovely and tender and benign. I do not think my heart could bear to see that; and I have felt like this all my life.”

—The Interior Castle

If that leaves you confused, it might help to think of those children–we’ve all known them–who desire so strongly to please their parents that the worst punishment they can imagine is Mom saying, “We’re very disappointed in you.” …I also think it’s important to the passage that Christ’s eyes are in fact “tender and benign,” but are viewed by the damned as wrathful–they can’t see the love they rejected.