JESUS IS THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD
“I came into the world as light, so that everyone who believes in me might not remain in darkness…. I did not come to condemn the world but to save the world. John 12:46-47
Welcome to Catholic Eschatology- the theology concerned with end times, death, judgment, heaven, hell. the Second Coming of Christ, The Resurrection of the Dead, and the Final Judgment.
During the Eucharistic Prayer at Mass, after the consecration the people are invited to acclaim the Mystery of Faith. (Mysterium Fidei ) This simple acclamation proclaims the belief in the resurrection of the Lord. We acknowledge His death and we also proclaim our faith that He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
We proclaim your Death, O Lord,
and profess your Resurrection
until you come again.
This month of November when we remember the Saints in Heaven and the Holy Souls in Purgatory is a good time to reflect on our own end times. Life on earth will come to an end for all of us. We know not when, nor how, but God does. “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming. Matt. 25:13
We are reminded throughout Scriptures to be ready to welcome Jesus at all times. We know from Scripture there will be a final end time but our end time may come first. Our short lives on earth are a sowing time.
St. Paul writes “What is sown is perishable, but what is raised is imperishable; what is sown is contemptible but what is raised is glorious; what is sown is weak, but what is raised is powerful; what is sown is a natural body, and what is raised is a spiritual body” 1 Cor. 15:42
Let us not be like the foolish virgins who missed the bridegroom through lack of preparation and when they approached the wedding feast the door was shut as they cried out, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you. Matt.11
Let us not be the rich fool with a rich harvest either, I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. There I shall store all my grain and other goods and I shall say to myself, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry! But God said to him, ‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong then? Luke 12:18-20
After we die, according to Church teaching (Magisterium), each person faces a Particular Judgment before God. Death puts an end to either accepting or rejecting the divine grace manifested in Christ. 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: either immediate entrance into the blessedness of heaven or through a purification in purgatory or immediate and everlasting damnation. Catechism of the Catholic Church #1022.
THE PARTICULAR JUDGMENT
The New Testament speaks of judgment primarily in its aspect of the final encounter with Christ in his second coming, but also repeatedly affirms that each person will be rewarded immediately after death in accordance with his works and faith. i.e the words of Christ on the cross to the good thief, “Amen, I say today you will be with me in paradise.” Luke 23:42.
Those who die in the grace and friendship with God and who are perfectly purified from sin will see God face to face as He really is and live with Christ forever. This perfect life with the Blessed Trinity, Mary, and all the saints is called heaven, a state of supreme and definitive happiness forever.
To die in grave sin, without repenting and accepting God’s merciful love, means remaining separate from God for all eternity. This place is called hell. God respects our free will and will not force us into beatitude and life eternal.
RESURRECTION OF THE BODY
Jesus came to dress our perishable nature with imperishability and our mortal nature with immortality 1 Corinthians 15:53.
The resurrection of all the dead, the just and unjust, will occur just before the Last Judgment. This will be “the hour when all who are in the tombs will hear the Son of man’s voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.” CCC 1038
In the resurrection we will have spiritual bodies. Our natural bodies came from Adam, our spiritual bodies come from Christ. “as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man [Adam], so we shall bear the likeness of the heavenly one [Christ]” 1 Corinthians 15:49
LAST JUDGMENT
Christ will come “in his glory, and all the angels with him. . . . Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” CCC 1038
The Last Judgment will come when Christ returns in glory. Only the Father knows the day and the hour. In the presence of Christ, who is Truth itself, the truth of each man’s relationship with God will be laid bare. The Last Judgment will reveal even to its furthest consequences the good each person has done or failed to do during his earthly life.
Then, through his Son Jesus Christ, God will pronounce the final word on all history. We shall know the ultimate meaning of the whole work of creation and understand the marvelous ways by which his Providence led everything towards its final end. The Last Judgment will reveal that God’s justice triumphs over all the injustices committed by his creatures and that God’s love is stronger than death.
NEW CREATION NEW HEAVEN AND NEW EARTH
At the end of time, the Kingdom of God will come in its fullness. After the universal judgment, the righteous will reign forever with Christ, glorified in body and soul. The universe itself will be renewed: Sacred Scripture calls this mysterious renewal, which will transform humanity and the world, “new heavens and a new earth.”
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The former heaven and the former earth had passed away.” Revelation 21:1 “It will be the definitive realization of God’s plan to bring under a single head “all things in [Christ], things in heaven and things on earth.” CCC 1043
PRAYER
Heavenly Father, now we walk by faith and not by sight, but one day we hope to see you face to face, we pray our bodies will rise in glory on the last day through the merits of your only begotten Son, Jesus, who goes before us to prepare a place in His heavenly Mansion, who reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, now and forever. Amen