Class # 10

The last Things

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For God formed man to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he made him. But by the
envy of the devil, death entered the world, and they who are in his possession experience it.
-Wisdom 2:23-24
For it is appointed for men to die once; then after this, the judgment.
-Hebrews 9:27
Death
Death is a reality in human life. All men are confronted with the reality of their own death,
which can come at any time in any way and cut them off forever from the land of the living. Man
lives his days under this inevitable shadow. Rich or poor, of whatever nation or race, death levels
all people in the end. For our allotted time is the passing of a shadow, and there is no return
from our death, because it is sealed up and no one turns back (Wis. 2:5).
Despite pleasant sounding platitudes about death being part of life and death being natural, the
Catholic Church teaches that death is not natural; i.e., it was not part of Gods original creation.
Death came as punishment for sin. Man was originally created with an immortal soul and a body
that was meant to live immortally as well; through the sin of our first parents through the envy of
the devil, death entered the world (Wis. 2:23-24). St. Paul reaffirms this in the New Testament,
where he says sin came into the world through one man and death through sin (Rom. 5:12) and
a little later says, the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23). In the case of those justified by grace,
death loses its penal character and becomes a mere consequence of sin.
Death consists of the separation of the soul from the body. Different medical definitions
notwithstanding, true death does not occur until the soul is separated from the body, a condition
which cannot be monitored by scientific method.
Particular Judgment
After death comes the judgment (Heb. 9:27). There is a strong tradition that after death the soul
of the departed is ushered into Gods presence by their guardian angel, but this is a matter of
speculation.
Immediately after the death, the possibility of a soul meriting ends, as does its chance to repent of
sin. After death, a soul is immediately judged to either heaven or hell. Pope Benedict XII in the
dogmatic consitution Benedictus Deus (1336) taught that the souls of the just go immediately to
heaven where they enjoy the beatific vision and the souls of those in mortal sin go right to hell
and are subject to its torments. This immediate judgment is called the particular judgment.1
1

The General Judgment will be treated later with the Second Coming.

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Catholic teaching thus opposes several other theories: the theory that the souls of the departed
sleep until the Resurrection (the soulsleep theory), that disembodied souls can remain about the
earth lingering in the form of ghosts or spirits, that souls are reincarnated into new bodies, and
that people who die in mortal sin can nevertheless have a chance to repent after death.
Those who are in need of intermediate purification before entry into heaven enter the state of
purgatory.
Fixity of Will
When death occurs, the will of the soul is fixed in whatever state it was in when it passed from its
body; thus, those who died rejecting God have their wills fixed against God. Therefore,
repentance after death is not possible because the souls of the damned have no desire to repent
after death. They have their wills turned towards evil and it will be so for all eternity.
Heaven
Those souls who, at the moment of death, are free from all guilt of sin and punishment for sin,
enter immediately into the bliss of heaven. The bliss of heaven consists primarily in the vision of
God. This is called the beatific vision. This vision is of a supernatural nature and requires a
supernaturally elevated intellect. It is not a corporeal vision (though it is uncertain what we will
see with our corporeal eyes) but a vision of pure intellectual knowledge, in which God is known.
Here on earth God is perceived through faith; in heaven, faith comes to an end and we arrive at
knowledge.
The vision of God is not passive, as when we look at something with our physical eyes. Rather, it
is dynamic and active. The vision of God is an exchange of divine love and divine joy. This joy
in the presence and vision of God is the primary bliss of heaven. There is a secondary bliss of
heaven that consists in perfect union in love with all the members of the Church, the saints and
angels, in addition to the bliss derived from reunification with family and friends and the joy of
receiving a resurrected body (see below). As the catechism says, Heaven is the ultimate end and
fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness (CCC
1024).
There is inequality in the beatific vision; some see God clearer than others and thus receive more
joy and glory. The Council of Trent taught that a justified person merits an increase of the
heavenly glory by good works. Nevertheless, there will be no envy on account of the unequal
glory, since the unity of love will reign in all (St. Augustine, In Ioan. Tr. 67, 2).
Hell
Those who die in a state of mortal sin are judged immediately to hell. Hell, like purgatory and
heaven, is better thought of as a state of being than a physical place (though there is no reason it
cannot be physical as well). It is a state of eternal separation from God.

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Jesus warned people more about hell than any other thing (see Mt. 3:12, 5:22,29, 8:12,
22:13,10:28, 23:15, Mk. 9:43-47, Lk. 13:28) and the Fathers are unanimous in its reality; St.
Ignatius of Antioch (c. 115 AD) wrote that any one who corrupts the faith of God, for which
Jesus Christ was crucified, by evil teaching, will go into the unquenchable fire; and so will the
person who listens to him (Ep. Ad Eph. 16).
The pain of hell is of two types: the primary pain of hell is called the pain of loss, by which is
meant several things: first, the pain of being excluded from Gods presence for all eternity;
second, the knowledge that its duration will continue forever without possibility of respite;
third, the knowledge that it could have been otherwise, and fourth, the understanding that it is
entirely ones own fault.
The secondary pain of hell is called the pain of sense. It is unknown what this pain is; the Bible
uses words like fire, worm and brimstone to describe the pains of hell. Theologians are
uncertain as to what these refer to; some Church Fathers took them to refer to literal fire, others
simply posited some kind of external agent that caused pain to the souls of the damned. What
causes this pain has never been dogmatically clarified, but it is Catholic doctrine that such a pain
exists.
It is of faith (de fide) that Hell, like Heaven, is eternal in its duration.
Because the doctrine of hell is so often attacked by those that deny the Catholic faith and is often
disbelieved by many, it bears some delving into. The objections to Hell can be reduced to a few
arguments:
God is pure love. A loving God would not send anybody to Hell.
First, God is indeed pure love, but He is also perfectly just and infinitely holy; furthermore, all of
these attributes are one because God is also completely simple. His holiness and justice are not
opposed to His love but are part of it. Therefore, he does not act out of love sometimes and then
out of justice at other times. All His actions are loving and just.
Second, no person is condemned to hell that did not merit it during their life. God has done
everything to warn people about hell and induce them to avoid it; it is people, by their own
obstinate will, who persist in sin and send themselves to hell despite God. If the wicked are not
punished, then the rewards of the righteous become unjust. God is infinitely just and will reward
everybody according to what they have earned; those who die in mortal sin without Gods grace
cannot enter Gods presence and thus have nowhere else to go but to hell.
Nobody is really bad enough to go to Hell.
This assertion misunderstands the gravity of sin. A single mortal sin committed once is enough
to damn a soul if that person were to die in that sin, because mortal sin deprives us of Gods
grace, which is the prerequisite for entering heaven. No sanctifying grace, no heaven.
Furthermore, none of us are really that good; except for some of the saints, most of us will
commit at least one mortal sin sometime in our lives. It is presumptuous to think that you are too

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good to be sent to hell. But for the grace of God, every one of us is capable of committing any
sin.
We must also remember that those who die in mortal sin have their wills irrevocably fixed on
evil; even if God offered them repentance, they would not choose it. In choosing sin they have
preferred something before God and would stubbornly cling to their sin even if it took them to
hell. The damned are miserable in hell, but they would be miserable in heaven, too.
Second Coming
In the Nicene Creed we profess, He shall come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.
This coming of Christ at the end of time was foretold repeatedly by Jesus Himself: The Son of
Man shall come in the glory of His Father, and all the holy angels with Him; and then will render
to every man according to his work (Lk. 9:26. See also: Mt. 24:20, Lk. 21:27, Jn. 6:39). This
coming again is referred to as the Second Coming of Christ.
As to the nature of the Second Coming, this is beyond the realm of speculation, but Jesus says
that as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so shall be the coming of
the Son of Man (Matt. 24:27). It is certain that the Second Coming will be an event of cosmic
significance and will be witnessed by all men (Didache 16:8). This is opposed to the doctrines of
the Jehovahs Witnesses and the adherents of the Protestant Rapture doctrine, both of which
affirm a secret coming known only to the elect.
Though theoretically the Second Coming of Christ could happen at any moment, Sacred
Scripture and Sacred Tradition list several things that are signs that the Second Coming is near;
signs of the times as Christ calls them (Mt. 16:3).
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)

The Preaching of the Gospel to the whole world (Mt. 24:14, Mk. 13:10)
The Conversion of the Jews (Rom. 11:25-32)
The Great Apostasy (Mt. 24:4, 2 Thess. 2:3)
The Appearance of the Antichrist (2 Thess. 2:3,9-11, 2 John 2:7, Didache 16:4)
Severe Tribulations (Mt. 24:9,29, Is. 13:10, 34:4)

Despite these signs, the time of the Second Coming is unknown to men. St. Paul teaches that the
day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night (1 Thess. 5:1-2). Some Catholic theologians
also place a Reign of Peace between the tribulations of last days and the Second Coming.

Resurrection of the Dead

The bodily resurrection at the end of time was implicit in pre-Christian Judaism (see Hos. 6:3,
Ezk. 37:1-14) though by no means explicit, and many Jews did not accept the doctrine of the
resurrection (like the Sadducees). Jesus Himself corrects their error and teaches not only the
resurrection of the just, but also of the wicked (Lk. 14:14, Mt. 5:29, 10:28). The General
Resurrection is intimately linked with the Resurrection of Christ Himself:

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But now Christ is risen from the dead, the first fruits of them that sleepas in Adam all die, so
in Christ all shall be made alive. But every one in his own order: the first fruits, Christ: then they
that are of Christ, who have believed in His coming.
-I Cor. 15:20, 22-23
In His Resurrection, Christ unites humanity to Himself and links faith in the resurrection of
believers to His own person: I am the Resurrection and the Life (John 11:25). It is Jesus
Himself who on the last day will raise up those who have believed in Him, who have eaten His
body and drunk His blood (CCC 994). Belief in the Resurrection of the dead is an essential
element of the Christian faith from the earliest times.
"Let us consider, beloved, how the Master is continually proving to us that there will be a future
resurrection, of which he has made the Lord Jesus Christ the firstling, by raising him from the
dead. Let us look, beloved, at the resurrection which is taking place seasonally. Day and night
make known the resurrection to us. The night sleeps, the day arises. Consider the plants that
grow. How and in what manner does the sowing take place? The sower went forth and cast each
of the seeds onto the ground; and they fall to the ground, parched and bare, where they decay.
Then from their decay the greatness of the masters providence raises them up, and from the one
grain more grow and bring forth fruit"
-Pope St. Clement I, Letter to the Corinthians 24:16 [A.D. 80]
Aside from being taught by all of the Fathers and codified in all of the Creeds, the Resurrection
was infallibly proclaimed by the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), which taught, that at the second
coming Jesus "will judge the living and the dead, to render to every person according to his
works, both to the reprobate and to the elect. All of them will rise with their own bodies, which
they now wear, so as to receive according to their deserts, whether these be good or bad [Rom.
2:611]" (Lateran IV, Constitution 1).
What is rising?
God, in His almighty power, will definitively grant incorruptible life to our bodies by reuniting
them with our souls, through the power of Jesus Resurrection (CCC 997). The resurrected body
is the same body which we now possess. I Cor. 15:53 says, This corruptible must put on
incorruption; and this mortal must put on immortality.
Who will rise?
CCC 998: All the dead will rise: those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and
those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.
How will they be raised?
According to Tradition, the body will rise again in complete integrity, free from distortions,
malformations and defects. St. Thomas teaches, Man will rise again in the greatest natural
perfection, therefore in the state of mature age.

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How will the Resurrected bodies differ from our earthly bodies?
The essence of understanding the Resurrected body is that it all its properties come from the
transfiguration and conformity of the soul to Christ and the perfect subjection of the body to the
transfigured soul. Following the teaching of St. Paul and the Apostles, the Scholastic theologians
distinguished four gifts of the Resurrected bodies of the just:
1) Impassibility: refers to the incapability of suffering, that is, inaccessibility to physical evils of
all kinds, such as sorrow, hunger, sickness or death. The reason for this is the perfect
subjection of the body to the soul.
2) Subtility: a spiritualized nature, not to be conceived as a transformation of the physical body
into an ethereal substance. The model of the spiritual body is that of the risen Christ, who
possessed, among other things, the ability to move through closed doors and had mastery over
the laws of physics and nature.
3) Agility: the capability of the body to obey the soul with the greatest ease and speed of
movement. This agility was manifested by the risen Body of Christ, which was suddenly
present in the midst of His apostles, and which disappeared just as quickly (Lk. 24:31, Jn.
20:19-26). The intrinsic reason of agility lies in the perfect dominion over the body of the
transfigured soul, to the extent that it moves the body.
4) Clarity: being free from everything deformed and being filled with beauty and radiance.
Jesus assures us: The just shall shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father (Mt. 13:43).
The archetype of this clarity is the Transfiguration of Christ on Mount Tabor. The reason for
this claritas is the overflowing of the beauty of the transfigured soul onto the body. The grade
of the transfiguration of the body will vary according to the degree of clarity of the soul,
which is in proportion to the measure of the merits.

When will the Resurrection occur?

The Resurrection will definitively on the last day, at the end of the world. The Resurrection is
closely linked with Christs Second Coming; some Fathers believed that the Resurrection and the
Second Coming would happen simultaneously.
General Judgment & End of the World
Though every person is judged either to heaven or hell at the moment of death, after the
Resurrection there will be a second judgment called the General Judgment. At this judgment, all
men are judged together and every secret and desire of the heart is made manifest. The General
Judgment serves the glorification of God and of the God-Man Jesus Christ by revealing the
wisdom of God in the government of the world, His goodness and patience towards sinners and
above all His rewarding justice.

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While in the particular judgment the human being is judged as an individual person, in the
General Judgment he will be judged as a member of the human society, before the whole of
humanity. The punishment or reward will be completed by its extension to the re-awakened
bodies (Ott, Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, 494). At the General Judgment not only persons
but also families, organizations, communities and nations will be judged collectively. The angels
will participate in this judgment. By extension, all the just participate in the General Judgment as
well. In consequence of their intimate association with Christ they pronounce with Him the
sentence of rejection on the godless by appropriating to themselves Christs judgment.
Though not much is known about it, it is the common consensus of Tradition that the present
world will be destroyed on the Last Day. As to the manner of the destruction of the world,
nothing can be said with certainty. After this destruction, the world will be renewed. The nature
of this new world is uncertain, but like our resurrected bodies, it is a spiritualized nature. The
relation between the new heavens and the new earth and the state of being in heaven (the
beatific vision) is still open to debate.
When God will be All in All
The end of the world and its renewal brings to a conclusion the work of Christ. As all enemies
of the Kingdom of God are conquered, He surrenders overlordship to God the Father (1 Cor.
15:24), without however divesting Himself of the lordship and royal power founded in the
Hypostatic Union. With the end of the world there begins the perfected lordship of God which is
the ultimate object of the whole Creation and the final meaning of all human history.
-Ott, pp. 496

For Further Reading: Ezk. 37:1-14; Wisdom 2:1-24; Matt. 24; Rom. 5:12-14; 6:20-23; 1 Cor. 15;
Pope St. Clement I, Letter to the Corinthians [A.D. 80]; Constitution 1 of the Fourth Lateran
Council (1215); Benedict XII, Benedictus Deus (1336); Catechism of the Catholic Church 9881014; 1020-1060; C.S. Lewis, The Great Divorce; Dr. Ludwig Ott, Fundamentals of Catholic
Dogma, pp. 473-496;