Later, Stephen's thoughts turn to Emma (the girl about whom he fantasizes), the "packet of pictures" he hid, and the "foul long letters" which he left in a place where he was certain that some unknown girl would find them and read them. He shamefully entreats the Blessed Virgin, who is less stern toward the sinner than God the Father, to understand his mistakes and have mercy on him — despite his terrible sins.
On the second day of the retreat, the sermon begins with these fearsome words from Isaiah 5:14: "Hell has enlarged its soul and opened its mouth without any limits." In other words, Hell has not yet gorged itself. Hell is still hungry — hungry for Stephen.
Stephen hears how God's once-beloved angel Lucifer, because of his pride, was hurled into the everlasting darkness of Hell by a vengeful God. Lucifer's sin was his refusal to serve God (non serviam). In order to fill the seats left vacant by Lucifer and his cohorts, God created Adam and Eve, but even they failed to obey His commands. Thus began the "inheritance" of mankind's sinful nature.
The retreat master reminds the boys that they were redeemed from Original Sin (their inherited sinful nature) by the death of Jesus Christ, who suffered crucifixion for the remission of the sins of the world. However, this reminder of God's supreme sacrifice of His son fails to comfort Stephen; instead, it causes him to grow increasingly remorseful as the speaker depicts ever more vividly the dark, burning punishments of Hell.
These graphic descriptions of Hell — its stench and its torments — are extremely painful for Stephen because the retreat master continually dwells on how the sinner will suffer through the senses — what the sinner will hear, what he will smell, what he will see, and the pain he will feel. Remember that despite Stephen's cold, rather contemptuous intellectuality, he has, since the beginning of this novel — ever since the moocow incident — perceived the world around him primarily in terms of his sensory awareness of it. Here, during Father Arnall's sermons, Stephen's deepest fears become frighteningly real. As he listens to the retreat master describe the crowded confinement of Hell, he can almost feel the bodies of the damned; as he imagines the smoky darkness of Hell, his eyes struggle to see; as he imagines the shrieking cacophony of Hell, his ears throb with pain; and as he imaginatively inhales the reeking inferno into which he will be cast for eternity because of his sins, the smell is overpowering.
