The Journey Beyond: Understanding Judgment in the Afterlife
Introduction to Judgment After Death
Okay. So the conference yesterday was about that. So now we go on to the next step. What happens to us after death? Well, we know from scripture, from Catholic doctrine, from every possible source of the faith. We know that immediately after death, we will be confronted with what is referred to as the particular judgment. So when we talk about judgment, the judgment of God over our soul, we divide him and we divide that into two. There are two judgments that we will all go through.
Particular Judgment: Individual Accountability
One is particular judgment for each and every one of us. Each person will have to confront God, and they will be judged according to the merits of, if you will, their case, their situation, their actions. And that is what the particular judgment is from their their their their final destination, as it were, will be determined. They will go to heaven or hell, sometimes via purgatory, if it's in the case of heaven. But they will be judged in that sense.
Misconceptions About Judgment
The final judgment is when everybody all together is judged simultaneously. So let's first talk about a couple of the let's talk about the particular judgment first and let's talk about some of the errors that we tend to draw when we think about the error, the final judgment, the first of all, we tend to think of the final judgment as a or the the particular judgment excuse me.
The Reality of Self-Revelation
We tend to think of it as a sort of courtroom drama where we have our lawyers and we have the the prosecuting attorney who's the devil trying to drag our soul into hell. We have the witnesses on our side, which are our lady, our guardian angel and others. That's not quite it at all. If you want to if you want to put it this way, it's more of a revelation. It's more of a stripping away of the fabrications that we whined around ourselves.
The Human Tendency for Self-Justification
One thing that human beings are very good at is self-justification. Excusing ourselves for whatever failures, whatever sins, whatever problems, whatever anything. We're actually very good at that is probably our greatest talent. And somehow we make ourselves into the good guys. Despite creating or causing horrible atrocities. We can justify ourselves for this for the common good. Mao insisted that killing 50 million people was for the common good. Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, any number of other people that you want to put up as an example of just horrible people justified themselves to themselves or to the world or to whomever in such a way so that they will be able to be considered to be saints of their own personal cult.
The Unvarnished Truth
And of course, that is not the case. And let's make sure that we understand this from our own perspective. We are not free of this particular issue ourselves. We also like to justify our own actions quite a lot, actually. We like to feel like we're the good guys. We're on the side of the angels, which is one of the reasons that oftentimes we get involved in we get involved in cults. We get involved in Gnostic sects. We get involved in. Any sort of any sort of group or organization or movement or anything else that tends to separate us from the rest of the pack.
The Nature of the Particular Judgment
There is something very noble in that sense of I am set apart because it is easy, easier for us to convince ourselves that we're actually really something special while we are cut out from the rest of the herd, as it were. That somehow we are elevated above others. That is quite. That is quite an easy thing to do. We are also very good at justifying ourselves about creating a mess. We go to a family reunion, just for example, and we know that. Half. The family does not agree with the other half on politics. And so, of course, we launch a bomb into the middle of the family and watch all the fireworks go off.
God's Unyielding Truth
And we say something along the lines of. It's important that we discuss this. Well, no, actually, it's not. Not in that context, because all it does is promote separation between the family. It causes division and separation. It causes all sorts of issues. There's moments where it's essential to confront certain truths and to confront certain difficulties. But it's not necessary at that moment. But we justify it to ourselves.
The Image of Judgment in Theology
As such are people who like to be very uncharitable in their observations, but they always frame it in the way of it would be uncharitable of me not to say something. That's about 95% of the time. Not true. Most of the time when we justify ourselves to that extent, we are committing a sin against charity. We are being offensive to somebody. And being offensive is not always in and of itself a sin. But when it's unnecessary or it's not our place to do something like that, then it can be.
Human Failings and Divine Judgment
And very easily more likely than not, it is. So when we consider that, we also justify ourselves in this way. Now let's consider what our particular judgment is going to be like. If you will. It's there's a there's a beautiful image of it, actually, from the Chronicles of Narnia, the third book, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Eustace manages to turn himself into a dragon by getting greedy. And so when he finally repents...
The Stripping of Pretense: Divine Revelation
and he finally is willing to sacrifice himself to help the everyone else leave himself behind and he repents of what he has done then Aslan, the Christ figure, appears to him and tells him that he can strip off all of his dragon. This to become a good boy again, now of his own. He can't do that. He can only get a couple of layers under his scales, and that's it. So Aslan has to grab him in his claws being a lion and tear the dragon part of him off.
Unadulterated Truth Before God
That is kind of, if you will, what the final judgment or the particular judgment looks like. It is our Lord Jesus Christ stripping us bare of all pretense, of all fabrication, of all justification, of all anything that we have sheltering ourselves from the crude reality of who we are and what we have done and revealing ourselves to us. That is a terrifying concept if we think about it.
Facing the Reality of Human Nature
There is there are few things that are more destructive, more damaging, more terrifying than the unadulterated truth. And that's why the human mind, among other things, is constructed to be able to see the truth through different perspectives and not in its unvarnished state, because it's not something we can tolerate very easily. When we look upon ourselves, we hide. We hide behind masks, shadows, corners, subterfuge, lies, whatever it is we can because we don't want to see the reality. And sometimes we go too far.
Balancing Humility and Self-Perception
Sometimes we try so hard to find true humility that we actually end up excoriating ourselves constantly as being an absolute abject failure, that we are never going to grow in virtue, that we are the worst possible creature, that we are lower than the Beatles and the Earth, whatever else. That's also not true. Because God created us very differently and God has blessed us very differently.
Divine Mercy and Judgment
And while we can say without the grace of God, I am this. The fact of the matter is, God has given us the opportunity of grace. People have helped us. One for us actual graces. We have been given chances and opportunities to grow in virtue and even coldhearted people. Even people who are used to a life of absolute terrible sin are very capable of one act of goodwill. And that changes the perspective of who we are. Only God can show that to us.
The Particular Judgment Experience
There are moments of compassion. There are different strengths and weaknesses in our character, which means that how we interacted with certain people and circumstances will be different than for other people. We have certain. Changes of humor, certain hormonal imbalances, whatever else, things that are going to affect our behavior. That's not a justification. But at the very least, it is something that any judge would take into account. And of course, our Lord Jesus Christ is the judge.
Human Limits and Divine Judgment
So if we are in a bad mood and we're very sick and we have low blood sugar and we lose our temper with somebody, does that make losing our temper okay? Of course not. But does it mitigate the capability of what we did? Well, that's for God to judge, because that's the other thing. We also spend a lot of our time judging, if not others, than ourselves. Our past lives, our past sins, our mistakes, our virtues. I would make a lot of judgment calls that aren't ours to make at the end of the day.
The Divine Perspective on Judgment
There's one judge and only one judgment, and that is our Lord Jesus Christ. And it is his judgment. So at the particular judgment, what is it we are going to see? Well, again, it's easy for us to think about certain scenarios. Other people seem to think it's like a television show. God pops us in front of the TV and shows us as we really are, but in a long sequence of events in linear time like we have here and now. So essentially watching our life from outside of ourselves, that's not it either, because that doesn't show intention.
A Revelation of the Soul
That doesn't show all the mitigating factors that change our decisions. So what is it going to be like? Well, the best way that's been described by the fathers of the church is actually essentially just a brilliant, instantaneous revelation, the moment that our soul is separated from the body. We are given an absolute, perfect, unadulterated vision of the sum total of what our life is. We look upon our soul. And while we may not be able to see. Everything perfectly like God sees it.
Seeing Through the Eye of God
We will see it in this clear detail of how we got to this point, why our soul is this way. We'll be able to see the path that we took through every decision, and we'll be able to see all of the lies and subterfuges, all the things we put up to protect ourselves all that time stripped away It'll be a simple revelation. St Thomas says that it will be looking in the eye of God and seen our own soul. Because God, of course, sees the very truth of things. He is truth.
The Divine Judgment
And so when we look upon the face of God, what we will see is ourselves. And that can be a glorious and beautiful thing. We will be able to see how the love of God and His mercy has shaped us and protected us, has formed us and guided us. Or it will be something that is truly frightening and terrible. It will be something that is. Disturbing and disgusting. Something which will produce either eternal joy. Which will open up to us the venue of the possibility of seeing God perfectly for all eternity in heaven, or it will be something that will destroy us for all eternity, where we will do what we will want.
Instantaneous Divine Judgment
Nothing more than to flee from the very face of God, in which case it is hell. Which one is it? There will also be a certain comparison. I believe those same Bonaventure who said that God will give before us the vision of what our soul should be. If we had made all the right choices and if we had followed all the right paths. And then he'll show us what we really are. Now there's a bit of a problem with that because there are indulgences. There are prayers. There are merits. There are people in the Prius who can give the the final apostolic blessing on your deathbed.
Exploring the Final Judgment
You can have a sudden change of heart and a perfect act of contrition. All of those things happened right at the last minute can happen or at the last minute, and they will have an impact on how we really are. But that doesn't change the fact that how we really are is still going to have to be compared to a God. God called us to be. Of course, he calls us to be perfect. Knowing full well that will not be so. But he calls us to that.
The Humility in Final Judgment
So try to imagine how absolutely terrifying our particular judgment is going to be to actually have to look God in the eye and see ourselves, to actually have to confront the reality of our lives every wasted opportunity. Every absurdity. We chased down a rabbit hole. Every crime and sin that we committed. Every missed opportunity to practice just a little bit of charity, every bit of patience that we let ourselves slip on everything. Try to contemplate that for just a minute. And what that means.
The Beauty and Terror of Judgment
Imagine the comparison of what a soul in grace is like. Or Saint Catherine of Siena said that after seeing a soul confirmed in grace, it is so beautiful that we could suffer the very fires of hell gladly, just to have another glimpse of it. Something so magnificently beautiful, a soul confirmed and grace. And then compare that to what a soul confirmed Ensign must look like. The mangled and rotting corpse of the potential of the life of God. Imagine for a second just how frightening that would be to see ourselves in that light.
The Majesty of Christ the Judge
How truly inspiring it must be to see the judge on his throne. Imagine how terrifying it must be in this area. We refer to Chris as Rex Tremaine. They might start this. A king for whose majesty of whose majesty is to be trembled at is to be. We are awestruck by it. By His Majesty. That is the king of judgment. We have absolutely beautiful iconography of what Christ the King looks like. I'll try to imagine him as a judge. There can be few things more terrifying.
The Immediate Outcome of Judgment
That doesn't mean that you'd be ugly. That doesn't mean that he would be evil in any way. But he's got. On inspiring. Truly majestic, powerful. That is what we will see. That is what our particular judgment will be. And in the same instant, as seen our particular judgment, we will know what that judgment is. We will know whether we are saved or whether we are condemned. That same instant. If we have to pass through purgatory, we will know how much time and we will know how badly we will suffer.
Instinctual Revelation of Fate
We will know instantaneously because again. Or poor souls at that moment. There is no time. We'll be outside of time. So that is what the particular judgment will look like. The final judgment will be. There's a lot a lot more drama around it, shall we say, because among other things, we have lots of prophecies about the end of the world, what it's going to look like, where it's going to happen, the valley of Armageddon, the like.
Purpose of the Final Judgment
The fact of the matter is, all that doesn't matter. None of that matters. The circumstances of the how and the when and and everything does not matter. It doesn't matter when the final judgment is. What matters is that it will happen.
Unveiling God's Providential Plan
Why is it necessary? Why is it necessary if we already had a particular judgment? Well, it's necessary because this is not an individual judgment for each and every soul. This is an unraveling of the plan of God. It is a production, if you will. So everybody can see what role they played in the will of God. His providence is this magnificent, a beautiful tapestry, and each and every one of us is just a little piece in it, a little thread.
Humiliation and Revelation
That affects other threads in a very specific way. And even people who fought against God, who overthrew his kingdom, who tried everything they could to defy him or to live their own life, wrest control of their lives away from him. Even they are thwarted in all of their actions. Because, look, here is what you here's the part you played in my magnificent plan. That is what the final judgment is for. It's a very different thing.
The Plan of God Made Visible
But it is also a very humiliating reproduction to the entire world of the very most of the inmost workings of our souls All those sins we have tried so hard to hide from everybody, all those little problems and peccadilloes that we have within all those dark intentions that we have secreted away into the very depths of our consciousness, are there for everybody to see. For the Saints, it will be to their glory. And for the condemned, it will be to their everlasting shame.
Understanding the Role of Souls
More than that. More than that they will have. Excuse me. More than that. We will also have the ability to understand and appreciate how God has worked in our lives. That is a beautiful thing. Should be a beautiful thing. But again, four souls who tried to accomplish their own will throughout their own life.
Embarrassing Human Ineffectiveness
It will be a source of so much shame that they were working for God and all their efforts didn't change a thing. That as much as they may have wanted to be independent from God or believed that they were working for God, they were actually working against God, and he was still using them to accomplish His will. Frighteningly and embarrassingly. Ineffective.
The Role of the Physical Within Judgment
Also, it's important because again, we are composite beings. We are body and soul. Our soul was judged. Our body was not. So now heaven and hell will be real physical places. Having already is because there are two bodies there. But hell is not yet. Hell is only a spiritual place. At that moment, it will be a physical place. And there's lots of rumors about where it will be, lots of stories, doesn't really matter, doesn't enter into the conversation, but it will be a physical place because our bodies will reside there.
Heaven and Hell After Final Judgment
Heaven or hell, purgatory will become obsolete. There'll be no longer any purpose in purgatory because we do not need any temporal punishment any longer. We will be directly in heaven or directly in hell. And that is that. Those are the results of the final judgment.
The Defining of the Final Judgment
But what is it going to be like? Again, we tend to think of it as a. A massive valley where every person and human history is is piled upon each other. And then, if you will, God brings out this gigantic movie screen for everybody to watch the whole history of the world. Well, obviously not quite that Technicolor. What it will be is it'll be a demonstration of, if you will, a history having been woven.
Seeing Reality as a Tapestry
A history having been told or given or lived or presented. A reality. We will see everything with blinding clearness all at once. All the way back from the creation of the universe, by God. We all know exactly every detail of how things came about. We all know exactly what God's intentions were in the creation of the world and the heavens and the earth. We will see God in all of His Majesty, and He will reveal to us in Himself the providential plan of creation and why we had its existence.
The Glorious Mystery of Final Judgment
We will see reality not as a series of events, but as one glorious and magnificent, as I said, tapestry. Whose design was planned from all eternity. Taking into account the capricious free will. Of its main actors, namely humans. Taking full into account the decisions that we will make, how he wove all of those decisions together into one glorious plan which reveals his essence to all of us. He will show us how even our failures and our sins played a role in this.
Particular and General Judgment Reflections
He will show us. How nothing that was done. Changed his will even an instant. These are things that we will probably have some understanding of or some grasp of from the previous judgment and from our current circumstances of being in heaven or hell. But the fact of the matter is, we will never have a more perfect or more complete display of the power and the autonomy and the absolute nature of God than there at that final judgment until we achieve our perfect joy in heaven.
Living a Life of Trust and Surrender
That is the only way we're going to be able to to match, shall we say, our understanding of the providential will of God. It is going to be something so enormous and magnificent that it is impossible for us to even describe or contemplate clearly. But at the same time, what we should try to understand and contemplate is what it means for us. One of the reasons that we recommend doing an examination of conscious general examination of conscience every once in a while, even if you don't do a general confession, is because it is important for us to see how the finger of God has guided our lives through us, through our entire life.
Trust in Divine Providence
How does He has guided us even using our sins and problems in the past, to be able to help us to get to where we are today? And so therefore we can have greater trust in him and we can accomplish perfect peace and absolute confidence in his will. Now take that and magnify it infinitely because we will get to see that same effect. But through all human history and without the the the intervening, problematic means, which is our own imagination and memory.
Magnifying Divine Providence
We'll be able to see things through the filter of God himself. We will be able to see the vision of God from the beginning of time till the end. We will be able to understand and appreciate how absolutely perfectly detailed his plan was. We'll be able to appreciate our role in it. We'll be able to appreciate how wonderfully providential everything was and how he maneuvered everything, even with the free will of human beings to accomplish this great good.
Understanding Providence in History
We'll be able to finally understand that beautiful phrase we've seen August in which we have during during holy week o felix culpa Oh, happy sin. Or we can actually be joyful that God allowed a sin into the world. If it means that so great a redeemer as Christ could come into the world, we could have such a beautiful ministry as the incarnation, as the result of sin. It didn't change the plan of God even a little bit, but somehow it got better because of it.
Embracing the Final Revelation
That is the glorious mystery of the final judgment, where we'll be able to see all of those details, but with perfect exactitude and absolute comprehension. Now. Again, for those in grace, it'll be something that's so extraordinarily beautiful, the appreciation of every little sacrifice, every little opportunity of grace, the appreciation of how God in all of his goodness, somehow took our lives and made it voluntarily useful to this extraordinary and glorious plan.
Joy in the Final Judgment
But those who are not. Those who are in sin. The shame, the anger, the hatred. And again, one of the things that differentiates between the souls in hell and us here on Earth, souls in hell have no illusions to hide behind. They can't point the finger and say, Well, I didn't know better, or I didn't do this because of whatever mitigating factor. They will no longer have that ability to hide behind it.
Understanding God's Justice
They will have to confront the absolute truth that they failed and God still use them to His glory, that he invited them to participate voluntarily in this providential plan. They refused, and they were still a part of it. The humiliation that that entails is infinite. And the anger and frustration, though they may want to direct against God. They won't be able to, so they will hate everybody else around them and themselves, above all things.
The Role of Saints in Judgment
And the glory that is given to the souls in heaven as a result will only be magnified all the more everybody else gets to see the great good they did. Saint Thomas Aquinas when he's now that he's in heaven, knows that he did good for the church. That's not really his career consideration. But he knows that. Once. The whole world, the history of the world, every soul in the history of the world can get a glimpse of the immense good that he did for the church and for so many souls that he helped through his teachings and example and his sanctity and his prayers and intercessions. His glory will be magnified all the greater as a result. Never taking away from God's glory.
Demonstrating God's Glory Through Saints
On the contrary, it reflected all the more the fact that God could take such a humble servant and make Him into such a powerful tool for the betterment and for the at his service. In his service for the purpose of saving so many souls. Well, just increase it extraordinarily. Everybody will appreciate the point of God all the more to see how Saint Thomas was such a beautiful, willing instrument of that will. That's an example. Nothing else.
The Condemned and Their Rebellion
But it's one of millions. And on the contrary, we look at people who are responsible for responsible for teaching errors and for causing more problems and confusion in the history of the church or in the history of the salvation of souls. And more shame, confusion, anger, hatred will be poured upon them as a result of the demonstration of what they did to thwart the will of God. Their role in everything will be revealed openly and clearly.
The Importance of Contemplating Judgment
It's important that we contemplate the judgments, particular judgment, because we all need to confront the fact that we are supposed to live according to a certain code. We are supposed to surrender our lives to our Lord Jesus Christ, and we are supposed to obey His commandments perfectly, because we are called to love Him above all things. That particular judgment is to remind us, to set that right now, to purify our intentions, to stop trying for just material perfection, but to actually let God take control and command of our lives.
Finding Peace in Judgment
The general judgment is a reminder to us that nothing we do is useless. Nothing we do it neutral, nothing we do is simply self-serving. Everything we do has perfect resonance in all of human history, even the most private thoughts. That we have. Have their impact and echo throughout all of the eternal providential plan of God. It's also a way for us to put all of our trust in God as being the one true judge and let him take care of that.
Conclusion: Surrendering to Divine Will
So during this recollection, let's move for that. Let's let God take over what we've got in charge of everything. Let's let him be the judge of everybody around us and of ourselves. Let's stop trying to put up. Excuses and justifications for our actions. Let's stop trying to look at everything as being so very isolated and start seeing an understanding that we are part of something that is so extraordinarily enormous that only the final judgment could clarify exactly what the purpose of all human action is. And let us put all of our trust in God surrendering ourselves completely to Him so that we may be able to find true peace in what he is calling us to do. Because that is that is the reason for all of the judgments. For both judgments is to find true peace in the confidence of our Lord Jesus Christ, because he is the one in charge and he is the only one who can put us where we need to be. And he is the only one who can reveal to us the stark and naked truth of what it is we are and how we have behaved. So let's put all of our trust in him.
Summary
In this exploration of Catholic teachings regarding life after death, we delve into the distinct concepts of particular and final judgments. The journey begins by understanding the immediate personal judgment faced by each soul, where self-justification and human tendencies are stripped away, revealing an unvarnished truth before God. The particular judgment lays bare the intentions and realities of one's life, confronting individuals with the divine perspective of their actions and choices.
Furthermore, the text discusses the final judgment, highlighting its necessity beyond individual accountability. This ultimate revelation unveils God's providential plan, displaying how every soul, willingly or unwillingly, contributes to divine will. Through illustrations of both grace and shame, this reflection emphasizes the profound impact of surrendering to Christ's guidance, urging a life of trust and obedience to find peace and fulfillment in God's eternal plan.