214. In what does the final judgment consist?
(Comp
214) The final or universal judgment consists in a sentence of happiness or
eternal condemnation, which the Lord Jesus will issue in regard to the “just
and the unjust” (Acts 24:15) when he returns as the Judge of the living and the
dead. After the last judgment, the resurrected body will share in the
retribution which the soul received at the particular judgment.
“In brief”
(CCC 1059) "The holy Roman Church firmly believes and
confesses that on the Day of Judgment all men will appear in their own bodies
before Christ's tribunal to render an account of their own deeds" (Council
of Lyons II [1274]: DS 859; cf. DS 1549).
To deepen and explain
(CCC 1038) The resurrection of all the dead, "of both
the just and the unjust" (Acts 24:15), will precede 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" (Jn
5:28-29). Then 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.... And they will
go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life" (Mt
25:31, 32, 46). (CCC 1039) In the
presence of Christ, who is Truth itself, the truth of each man's relationship
with God will be laid bare (Cf. Jn 12:49). The Last Judgment will reveal even
to its furthest consequences the good each person has done or failed to do
during his earthly life: All that the wicked do is recorded, and they do not
know. When "our God comes, he does not keep silence."… he will turn
towards those at his left hand:… "I placed my poor little ones on earth
for you. I as their head was seated in heaven at the right hand of my Father -
but on earth my members were suffering, my members on earth were in need. If
you gave anything to my members, what you gave would reach their Head. Would
that you had known that my little ones were in need when I placed them on earth
for you and appointed them your stewards to bring your good works into my treasury.
But you have placed nothing in their hands; therefore you have found nothing in
my presence" (St. Augustine, Sermo
18, 4: PL 38, 130-131; cf. Ps 50:3).
On reflection
(CCC 1040) The Last Judgment will come when Christ returns
in glory. Only the Father knows the day and the hour; only he determines the
moment of its coming. Then through his Son Jesus Christ he will pronounce the
final word on all history. We shall know the ultimate meaning of the whole work
of creation and of the entire economy of salvation and understand the
marvellous 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
(Cf. Song 8:6). (CCC 1041) The
message of the Last Judgment calls men to conversion while God is still giving
them "the acceptable time,… the day of salvation" (2 Cor 6:2). It
inspires a holy fear of God and commits them to the justice of the Kingdom of God.
It proclaims the "blessed hope" of the Lord's return, when he will
come "to be glorified in his saints, and to be marvelled at in all who
have believed" (Titus 2:13; 2 Thess 1:10).
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