By DON FIER
The end of human history as we know it, as we saw in last week’s column, will be marked with the Final Judgment. It is also at that time that Purgatory, God’s merciful provision for purification of sin after death, will cease to exist. Only the two ultimate eternal destinies for mankind — Heaven and Hell — will remain.
“The final or universal judgment,” teaches the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “consists in a sentence of happiness or eternal condemnation, which the Lord Jesus will issue to the ‘just and the unjust’ (Acts 24:15) when he returns as the Judge of the living and the dead” (n. 214).
The hour and the day, however, are known only by God. All three synoptic Gospels, in particular the Gospel of St. Matthew, describe proximate and immediate signs of the Second Coming of Jesus that all should be able to recognize.
But Sacred Scripture does not reveal the exact time when this celestial event will take place. Rather, “the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night” (1 Thess. 5:2), suddenly and unexpectedly. It is at that time that “the whole human race will witness the public manifestation of each person’s good and evil actions, and their consequences,” explains Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ. “The Last Judgment will be a cosmic revelation of God’s mercy and justice on the family of mankind” (The Faith, p. 100).
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) closes its instruction on article 12 of the Creed, “I believe in . . . life everlasting,” by expounding on “the transformation of humanity and of the physical universe that God will produce after the general judgment” (ibid.). As expressed by the fathers of the Second Vatican Council: “The Church . . . will attain its full perfection only in the glory of heaven, when there will come the time of the restoration of all things. At that time the human race as well as the entire world, which is intimately related to man and attains to its end through him, will be perfectly re-established in Christ” (Lumen Gentium, n. 48).
“Sacred Scripture calls this mysterious renewal, which will transform humanity and the world, ‘new heavens and a new earth’ (2 Peter 3:13)” (CCC, n. 1043).
The phrase “new heavens and a new earth,” which appears three times in Scripture, can be seen to be borrowed in the Second Letter of St. Peter from the Old Testament prophet Isaiah: “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind” (Isaiah 45:17).
According to the Ignatius Study Bible — Letters of St. Peter, “Isaiah used this language to promise a new beginning of peace and blessedness for Israel and the world….Like Peter, the Book of Revelation makes use of these prophetic oracles in its description of the glorified heaven and earth that awaits the saints” (p. 51).
It is in his apocalyptic book that St. John proclaims, “I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more” (Rev. 21:1).
In his general audience of January 31, 2001, Pope St. John Paul II connects these three verses with St. Paul’s description of creation as “groaning under the burden of evil, but destined ‘to be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God’ (Romans 8:21).”
In beautiful language, the Holy Father goes on to say: “Thus Sacred Scripture weaves a golden thread, as it were, through the weaknesses, miseries, violence, and injustices of human history and leads to a messianic goal of liberation and peace.”
The “new heavens and a new earth,” explains the Catechism, “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’ (Eph. 1:10). In this new universe, the heavenly Jerusalem, God will have his dwelling among men” (CCC, n. 1043, 1044).
As St. John attests in the Book of Revelation, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away” (Rev. 21:4). Those who are united with Christ through grace at death “will not be wounded any longer by sin, stains, self-love, that destroy or wound the earthly community” (CCC, n. 1045).
Earlier in this series when we discussed the resurrection of the body (see volume 148, nn. 14-16; April 9-23, 2015), we saw that the physical bodies of the righteous will be raised and transformed into glorified bodies. But even more wonders, surpassing our wildest imaginings, are in store for the blessed at the end of time, for “the visible universe . . . is itself destined to be transformed, ‘so that the world itself, restored to its original state, facing no further obstacles, should be at the service of the just’ (St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres. 5, 32, 1), sharing their glorification in the risen Jesus Christ” (CCC, n. 1047). As the triumphant Christ proclaims, “Behold, I make all things new” (Rev. 21:5).
Turning again to the Vatican II fathers, we see what the Church teaches with regard to the transformation of humanity and the material universe: “As deformed by sin, the shape of this world will pass away; but we are taught that God is preparing a new dwelling place and a new earth where justice will abide, and whose blessedness will answer and surpass all the longings for peace which spring up in the human heart. Then, with death overcome, the sons of God will be raised up in Christ, and what was sown in weakness and corruption will be invested with incorruptibility. Enduring with charity and its fruits, all that creation which God made on man’s account will be unchained from the bondage of vanity” (Gaudium et Spes [GS], n. 39 § 1).
What should our response be in the present age in anticipation of the coming transformation? In his book entitled Catholic Christianity, Dr. Peter Kreeft eloquently suggests that “the consequences of our hope for ‘new heavens and a new earth’ are a greater love and care and appreciation and proper use of this earth. The universe is like a pregnant woman; she is more precious, not less, because another is to be born from her” (p. 145).
As stated in a different way by Dr. Alan Schreck in The Essential Catholic Catechism, “This belief in the transformation of the earth affirms the value of our efforts to promote justice and other gospel values in this world” (p. 398).
This has practical consequences for how members of the People of God should live out their vocation in day-to-day life: “Christians have to distinguish between the growth of the Reign of God and the progress of the culture and society in which they are involved. . . . Man’s vocation to eternal life does not suppress, but actually reinforces, his duty to put into action in this world the energies and means received from the Creator to serve justice and peace” (CCC, n. 2820).
As stated by Vatican II, “The expectation of a new earth must not weaken but rather stimulate our concern for cultivating this one. For here grows the body of a new human family, a body which even now is able to give some kind of foreshadowing of the new age” (GS, n. 39 § 2).
Lived-out Christian spirituality, then, as expressed by St. John Paul II in his general audience of December 2, 1998, should not be “a spirituality of flight from or rejection of the world, nor can it be reduced to mere temporal activity. Imbued by the Spirit with the life poured out by the Redeemer, it is a spirituality of the transfiguration of the world and of hope in the coming of God’s kingdom.”
One must always keep in mind the Gospel admonition: “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses or forfeits himself?” (Luke 9:25).
Fight The Good Fight
As we conclude our consideration of the teaching of the Catechism on the Four Last Things — Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell — it would be good to remember that the possibility of the Lord’s return is imminent for each of us. Although it is unlikely that the Final Coming of Christ in glory will come during our lifetime, the day and hour of own death and personal judgment may come suddenly, so we must always be prepared.
In a society where so many have lost all sense of sin and the need for repentance, we should often reflect on the shortness of life and that one of two destinies — eternal happiness or unending despair and torment — hangs in the balance.
Let our fervent prayer be that at the end of our days we can say with St. Paul: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Tim. 4:7), and that our Lord will welcome us into eternal life with the words: “Well done, good and faithful servant…enter into the joy of your master” (Matt. 25:21, 23).
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(Don Fier serves on the board of directors for The Catholic Servant, a Minneapolis-based monthly publication. He and his wife are the parents of seven children. Fier is a 2009 graduate of Ave Maria University’s Institute for Pastoral Theology. He is doing research for writing a definitive biography of Fr. John A. Hardon, SJ.)
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