“And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Mt. 25:46)
You, and all of your loved ones, will die. All of your material belongings and creations will one day pass away. Memento mori, the Church whispers, while the world shouts, “This life, and all you see in it, is all there is. Act accordingly.” During November, following Allhallowtide, the Church asks us specially to pray for the faithful departed, and to contemplate our own departure from this world, undergirded by Her teaching of judgement and the afterlife.
Judgement presupposes a judge, who or what is judged, a standard of judgement, and a verdict. Our judge is Jesus Christ, who we profess “will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.” He judges us, His creatures endowed with individual immortal souls united with human bodies, made in God’s image and likeness (cf. Gen 1:26), and called to relationship with Him. Love of God, and that this great command entails, is the standard. Our verdict is our eternal dwelling place.
The Church professes two judgements: the Last Judgement, and the particular judgement. Scripture primarily and abundantly speaks of the Last Judgement. It will be preceded by “the resurrection of the dead,” and occur “[w]hen the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne” (Mt. 25:31). Through it, “We shall know the ultimate meaning of the whole work of creation and of the entire economy of salvation and understand the marvelous ways by which his Providence led everything towards its final end” (CCC 1040).
Even as we await this fulfillment of creation, uncertain of its timing (cf. Mt. 24:36) while certain of its coming, we know we will die in the relatively not too distant future. “Each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death, in a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ” (CCC 1022). Our entire life – our devotional practices, our work, our relationships, our use of time – will provide our Judge, in His justice and mercy, with our case.
The Judge’s verdict yields one of two options: eternal life, either immediately or following further purification, or eternal damnation. Immediate eternal life is heaven, or the Beatific Vision. It is “the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness” (CCC 1024). For this we are all called, and in this it means to be a saint. This is our end, and all else is mere means.
Further purification occurs in purgatory. Justified souls with unrepented venial sins, or further retribution to pay for their sins, require cleansing as these, while they do not destroy one’s charity, are barriers to full unity with God in heaven. All souls in purgatory will eventually reach heaven; their salvation is assured. This purification is painful and true punishment. St. Augustine, as quoted in the Summa Theologiae: Supplement to the Third Part, writes, “This fire of purgatory will be more severe than any pain that can be felt, seen or conceived in this world.” For these souls the Church asks us to pray, during November and throughout the year.
Hell is “the state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed” (CCC 1033). The Church teaches its reality, and the real possibility of our choosing it by rejecting God via mortal sin. We are all called by God to heaven (cf. 1 Tim 2:4), and no one is predestined to hell. Although those in hell are there through God’s judgement, they freely chose the verdict themselves. The Church teaches, “By rejecting grace in this life, one already judges oneself, receives according to one’s works, and can even condemn oneself for all eternity by rejecting the Spirit of love” (CCC 679). The denial of judgement and hell, and, with it, the denial of sin itself, is one of the world’s loudest shouts, and the cause of our downfall: “But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not die.’” (Gen. 3:4).
Moving from November, the month dedicated to the Holy Souls in Purgatory, to December, the month of Advent and Christmas day, we are called to “Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths” (Mk. 1:3). We are called to this preparation through the entirety of our life. All we do leads to our death, and our hopeful unity with God through justification as attained by Christ.
Featured image courtesy of Myrabella via Wikimedia Commons
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