"The far-reaching plans of God cannot be thwarted or suffer a definitive defeat. I believe in, and hope for, the universal salvation and ultimate reconciliation of all rational creatures with the Creator and among themselves."
--Fr. Wacław Hryniewicz, The Spirit: The Cry of the World (Washington D.C.: Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, 2014), p. 163.https://www.crvp.org/publications/Series-VIII/9-Hryniewicz_master.pdf
So the demonic beings are also embraced by the divine dispensation of compassion and mercy. If the devil and demons were created by God as good and sinless, but fell away from Him by their own free will, how can one suppose that the merciful Creator will eternally reconcile himself with this perdition? No wonder, Isaac (Isaac the Syria)* clearly opposes a dualistic conception of the coeternal existence of God and the devil, good and evil. Sin and Gehenna will be ultimately abolished, although their end is a mystery surpassing human understanding. The final outcome of the history of the created world must correspond to the beauty of the beginning and to the goodness of God. If we suppose the truly eternal punishment of sinners and demons, this would mean that the creation of the world was an enormous failure and mistake. God is able to overcome, by His goodness and beauty, every evil, even the opposition of the devil himself.
* parentheses mine
--Fr. Wacław Hryniewicz, The Challenge of Our Hope: Christian Faith in Dialogue (Washington, D.C.: Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, 2007), pp. 85-86. Full text available free at http://archive.org/details/challengeofourhop0000hryn — pages 84-86, borrow required
....those who favour the hope of universal salvation are by no means the advocates of forced amnesty. Everyone will have to suffer the consequences of his or her wicked deeds. Salvation is neither necessity or compulsion; it is God's gift which has to be accepted voluntarily, with inner conviction, great reverence and gratitude. Hope dares to trust that God will not remain completely helpless in the face of human freedom, that He will finally be able to draw it towards Himself, purify and transform it thanks to His patient and boundless love. This can be achieved through suffering and torment which in human language could be termed endless, aeonic, i.e. lasting for centuries, because of it's quality and intensity, as is suggested by the Greek word aionios. A great thinker of the Early Church, Origen (died in 254 or 255), one of the propagators of hope for universal salvation, was well aware of this. He pointed many times to the ambiguity of the term aionios, used in the Bible to denote either eternity or only long duration. He regarded the punishment, termed in the Bible as "eternal," as a the sign of God’s mercy, as a cure designed to bring about improvement and conversion. God will finally manage to soften any resistance and revolt of His creatures without violating their free will. There is room for such a hope in Origen’s theology. In the light of contemporary research the condemnation of Origen's views seems highly questionable ...Origen's rehabilitation appears to be a moral obligation owed to the man who has been treated so unfairly by history.
--Fr. Wacław Hryniewicz, The Challenge of Our Hope: Christian Faith in Dialogue (Polish Philosophical Studies, VII) by Fr. Waclaw Hryniewicz, pg. 56.
Hope and compassion go inseparably together. To deepen this conviction, I would like to refer to a truly ecumenical figure who cut across all the ecclesiastical boundaries. He has been read in the East, and is today more appreciated in the West for his experiential wisdom. His name is Isaac the Syrian...Isaac's wisdom finds it's best expression when he speaks about a merciful heart: And what is a merciful heart? "It is the heart burning for the sake of the entire creation, for men, for birds, for animals, for demons, and for every created thing...for his great compassion, his heart is humbled and he cannot bear to hear or see any injury or slight sorrow in creation...He even prays for the family of reptiles because of the great compassion that burns without measure in his heart in the likeness of God." Mercy and humility give access to true understanding and wisdom. We may be tempted today to dismiss such an attitude as an expression of sentimentalism. But let us be honest. History shows abundantly what happens to us and our churches when they are deprived of the ethos of compassion.
--Wacław Hryniewicz,The Challenge of Our Hope: Christian Faith in Dialogue (Polish Philosophical Studies, VII) by Fr. Waclaw Hryniewicz, pgs. 37-38.
The Eschatology of Biblical statements related to hell requires a thorough reinterpretation. Apart from many warnings, the scripture also conveys astonishing words of hope for everybody, including non-believers. Who fails to realize that there are two series of texts of soteriological and eschatological character will not understand the dramatic nature of the Biblical message. This relates chiefly to the terminology describing the state of being lost and the penal terminology connected with punishment and torment. Some etymological intuitions make it possible to better understand the therapeutic, pedagogical and correctional purpose of punishment as a chance of conversion for all lost or rebelling rational beings.
--Fr. Wacław Hryniewicz, The Challenge of Our Hope: Christian Faith in Dialogue (Polish Philosophical Studies, VII) by Fr. Waclaw Hryniewicz, pg. 38.
Let us consider for a moment the extremely important expression: eis kolasin aionion. The reality of kolasis is described as an "eternal" or aeonic torment. In fact the guilty people punish themselves. The word "eternal" does not indicate a state indeed ultimate and irreversible. "The cursed" people on the Judge's left (Mt. 25, 41: kateramenoi) have to become first purified in the fire of suffering, repentance and remorse for evil deeds...The etymological intuitions included in the word kolasis itself seem to point to this possibility. The Greek Fathers, especially those who favored the hope of universal salvation and could sense well the spirit of language, understood punishment in it's therapeutic meaning. The word kolasis is derived from horticulture...It denotes pruning...Now let us connect the word kolasis, understood in the way presented above, with the adjective aionios, just as Matthew does (Matthew 25:46). This might enable a better understanding of the message of Christ's warning. What does the adjective aionios mean? In Plato's writings it meant duration that would finally come to an end. Generally, the word aionios in the Greek is not synonymous with endlessness. The meaning of this adjective has to be found in the Semitic languages. Its counterpart is the Hebrew olam, but this word has also many meanings because it is derived from the act of hiding. It may mean either eternity or simply long duration.--The Challenge of Our Hope: Christian Faith in Dialogue (Polish Philosophical Studies, VII) by Fr. Waclaw Hryniewicz, pgs. 39-40.Universal hope is the duty of every Christian. Traditional eschatology perceives only two ultimate possibilities: heaven or hell. It does not take into account the great synthesis of the history of the world in God. It also excludes all thoughts about the universal reconciliation of the lost creatures with God. It does not hear the voice of hope resounding in numerous biblical statements, nor does it heed the patient cry of hope which has not vanished from Christianity throughout the ages.
--Fr. Wacław Hryniewicz OMI, The Challenge of Our Hope: Christian Faith in Dialogue (Polish Philosophical Studies, VII) by Fr. Waclaw Hryniewicz, p. 61.
"Thanks to this hope, I can trust that freedom is incapable of rejecting God irrevocably, definitively, and once for all."
--Fr. Waclaw Hryniewicz, The Challenge of Our Hope: Christian Faith in Dialogue (Polish Philosophical Studies, VII), p. 62."One who speaks of hope for universal salvation awaits with confidence the universal reconciliation, definitive victory of goodness, and ultimate harmony of the world."
--Fr. Waclaw Hryniewicz, The Challenge of Our Hope: Christian Faith in Dialogue (Polish Philosophical Studies, VII), p. 12.