1.1 Life on earth is limited
Psalm 90 sings:
5 Thou dost sweep men away; they are like a dream,
like grass which is renewed in the morning:
6 in the morning it flourishes and is renewed;
in the evening it fades and withers.
9 For all our days pass away under thy wrath,
our years come to an end like a sigh.
10 The years of our life are threescore and ten,
or even by reason of strength fourscore;
yet their span is but toil and trouble;
they are soon gone, and we fly away.
12 So teach us to number our days
that we may get a heart of wisdom.
The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCCC no 205; cf CCC 992-1004, 1016-1018) asks, "What happens to our body and our soul after death?"
It replies:
After death, which is the separation of the body and the soul, the body becomes corrupt while the soul, which is immortal, goes to meet the judgement of God and awaits its reunion with the body when it will rise transformed at the time of the return of the Lord. How the resurrection of the body will come about exceeds the possibilities of our imagination and understanding.
1.2 But there is life after death, life that lasts forever
The CCCC (207; cf CCC 1020,1051) teaches
Eternal life is that life which begins immediately after death. It will have no end. It will be preceded for each person by a particular judgement at the hands of Christ who is the Judge of the living and the dead. This particular judgement will be confirmed in the final judgement.
1.3 Meaning of Christian Death
The CCC (no 1013) teaches us how we ought to regard death.
Death is the end of man's earthly pilgrimage, of the time of grace and mercy which God offers him so as to work out his earthly life in keeping with the divine plan, and to decide his ultimate destiny. When "the single course of our earthly life" is completed [Lumen Gentium, 48, 3], we shall not return to other earthly lives: "It is appointed for men to die once" [Hebrews 9:27]. There is no "reincarnation" after death.
1.4 The value of the present moment, the emptiness of worldly things, and God's will
1.4.1 Now is the time for grace
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 1007) thus teaches us as well that
remembering our mortality helps us realize that we have only a limited time in which to bring our lives to fulfillment.
Since we do not know the time of death, we need to make good use of each and every PRESENT MOMENT--we should treasure each one and not waste it. Note that when we pray the Lord's Prayer (Our Father), we say, "Give us THIS DAY our DAILY BREAD." We don't ask for tomorrow's bread, or for the next week's bread, but today's. The grace that God gives us is always for the present moment. God will judge us by the way we have made use of that grace. In the Hail Mary, we ask the Blessed Virgin to "pray for us sinners NOW and AT THE HOUR OF OUR DEATH." These are the two most important moments in our life, and at some point, those two moments will coincide. Some people live in the triumphs and failures of the past, others dwell too much in the future--that is unwise. The past is gone, and the future is not yet here. The only moment we have is NOW.
Our Lord told his disciples (Matthew 6:34):
34 "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day."
1.4.2 The emptiness of power, pleasure, and possessions
Moreover, the fact that one day we shall all leave behind riches, fame, honour, and pleasure makes us realise how foolish it is to place our ambitions in perishable things. Material things have an expiry date. In the long run they are vain and empty (cf Ecclesiastes 1:2). The thought of death helps us to develop a SPIRIT OF DETACHMENT from all creatures. In chapter 6 of Saint Matthew's Gospel, our Lord advises his apostles:
19 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
1.4.3 Everything in God's hands
Moreover, by knowing that one day we shall die, we will learn how not to be self-sufficient, how to ENTRUST OUR AFFAIRS TO GOD, how to SEEK HIS WILL in everything. Saint James, in the fourth chapter of his letter, admonishes us:
13 Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and get gain"; 14 whereas you do not know about tomorrow. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and we shall do this or that."
Immediately after the soul separates from the body, it faces the Judge. The CCCC (208; cf CCC 1021-1022,1051) explains what the particular judgement is.
It is the judgement of immediate retribution which each one after death will receive from God in his immortal soul in accord with his faith and his works. This retribution consists in entrance into the happiness of heaven, immediately or after an appropriate purification, or entry into the eternal damnation of hell.
Saint Paul affirms this fact in the Second Letter to the Corinthians (II Corinthians 5:10):
10 For we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body.
Chapter 9 of the Letter to the Hebrews states clearly that there is judgement AFTER death.
27 And just as it is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment.
Saint Luke, in chapter 16 of his Gospel, records for us Jesus' parable about the rich man and Lazarus, where each receives the corresponding reward or punishment due to him IMMEDIATELY after death.
19 "There was a rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. 20* And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, full of sores, 21 who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table; moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. 22* The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried; 23 and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes, and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus in his bosom.
In our Lord's conversation with the Good Thief (cf Luke 23:42-43), Jesus promises him the reward of heaven on the SAME DAY OF HIS DEATH.
42 And he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." 43 And he said to him, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise."
Salvador Canals (cf Jesus as Friend) says that while we live on earth, we are writing the book of our life. When we die, that book is read to us in the particular judgement. In the General Judgement (see below), the book is published for everyone to read.
3.1 What is Heaven?
CCC (1024) says:
Heaven is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness.
Pope Benedict XVI, in the Encyclical Spe Salvi, no 12, describes heaven as
something more like the SUPREME MOMENT OF SATISFACTION, ... like plunging into the ocean of infinite love, a moment in which time--the before and after--no longer exists ... in which we are simply overwhelmed with joy. This is how Jesus expresses it in Saint John's Gospel: 'I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.' (16:22).
Heaven is beyond all imagining; there is simply nothing like it here on earth. Saint Thomas Aquinas says it exceeds all human desire, goes beyond all human expectations. In heaven, we shall go from one discovery to another, one surprise to another. To be in heaven is to be with God, our Father, and since He is the source of all fatherhood (cf Ephesians 3:15 Novo-vulgata), He is infinitely generous and imaginative in his gifts--infinitely much more than all the fathers and mothers put together. He has prepared delights which will keep us awed for all eternity that there will be no time for boredom (cf Peter Kreeft, Everything You Wanted to Know About Heaven). The CCC (1024) says
This mystery of blessed communion with God and all who are in Christ is beyond all understanding and description. Scripture speaks of it in images: life, light, peace, wedding feast, wine of the kingdom, the Father's house, the heavenly Jerusalem, paradise: "no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him" [I Corinthians 2:9].
For children, heaven will be infinite fun. And mom will no longer say, "It's time to go home."
We can only form an idea of how heaven is like indirectly, for example, by considering how much the saints were willing to sacrifice just to attain it. It seemed that no price was too high, no cost too great, to attain heaven. Saint Paul is an example. In the Letter to the Romans (8:18), he says:
18 I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
When we think of heaven this way, no Mass will be too early, no prayer will be too long, no Rosary too boring, no sacrifice too difficult.
Sacred Scripture also uses a negative definition of heaven. The book of Isaiah (25:8), and the book of Revelation (21:4-5) both speak in similar terms:
8 He will swallow up death for ever, and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth; for the LORD has spoken.
4 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. 5 And he who sat upon the throne said, 'Behold, I make all things new.'
Tears are disappointments, frustrations, pains, aches, sorrows .... All that will be a thing of the distant past.
3.2 How does one qualify for Heaven?
The CCC (1023) gives a very simple requirement:
Those who die in God's grace and friendship and are perfectly purified live for ever with Christ.
There are two aspects in this requirement.
3.3 Beatific Vision
The CCC (1028) affirms that
Because of his transcendence, God cannot be seen as he is, unless he himself opens up his mystery to man's immediate contemplation and gives him the capacity for it. The Church calls this contemplation of God in his heavenly glory "the beatific vision".
We can actually distinguish four levels in knowing God:
3.4 Is it good to think about heaven all the time?
Saint Josemaría Escrivá says in The Way (nos 753, 139 & 668)
All that this earth can offer us is continually passing away: hardly has pleasure begun than it is already ended.
At the time of temptation think of the Love that awaits you in heaven: foster the virtue of hope--this is not a lack of generosity.
Foster the glorious hope of heaven.
It is good to think about heaven all the time because it is good to think about the Person we love all the time. An additional reason why we have to think about heaven is that provides us the reason to struggle every single day. St Paul says in the First Letter to the Corinthians (9:24-27)
24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 Well, I do not run aimlessly, I do not box as one beating the air; 27 but I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
Aside from all these arguments, we should always remember that God is so eager to see us back home!
4.1 What is Purgatory? Does the Bible speak about it?
The CCCC (210; cf CCC 1030-1031, 1054) teaches us:
Purgatory is the state of those who die in God’s friendship, assured of their eternal salvation, but who still have need of purification to enter into the happiness of heaven.
The Bible does not directly mention the word "Purgatory" (just like it doesn't mention other important Catholic terms like "Blessed Trinity"), but speaks about this reality.
In the Encyclical Spe Salvi (no 46), Pope Benedict makes use of Saint Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians to explain Purgatory.
Paul begins by saying that Christian life is built upon a common foundation: Jesus Christ. This foundation endures. If we have stood firm on this foundation and built our life upon it, we know that it cannot be taken away from us even in death. Then Paul continues: 'Now if any one builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw—each man's work will become manifest; for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work which any man has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If any man's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire' (I Corinthians 3:12-15). In this text, it is in any case evident that our salvation can take different forms, that some of what is built may be burned down, that in order to be saved we personally have to pass through 'fire' so as to become fully open to receiving God and able to take our place at the table of the eternal marriage-feast.
Some people think that those in Purgatory may still be condemned to hell. Such is not the case. Souls in Purgatory are just waiting to enter heaven. In fact, the great difference between Purgatory and hell is that suffering in Purgatory is a hope-filled suffering. The CCC (1031) teaches:
The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned [cf Council of Florence (1439): DS 1304; Council of Trent (1563): DS 1820; (1547): 1580; see also Benedict XII, Benedictus Deus (1336): DS 1000]. The Church formulated her doctrine of faith on Purgatory especially at the Councils of Florence and Trent. The tradition of the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire [cf I Corinthians 3:15; I Peter 1:7]: As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment, there is a purifying fire. He who is truth says that whoever utters blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to come. From this sentence we understand that certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come [St Gregory the Great, Dial. 4, 39: PL 77, 396; cf Matthew 12:31].
4.2 Why is there a need for Purgatory?
The Letter to the Hebrews (12:14) teaches:
14 Strive ... for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
In a similar vein, the book of Revelation (21:27) says:
27 But nothing unclean shall enter it ...
Full purification is absolutely essential for someone to enjoy heaven.
We know that confession forgives sins. In every sin, however, we have to distinguish two things: the GUILT itself, and the duty of justice to MAKE UP or REPAIR the damage done. Whenever we offend a friend, once we apologise, he may say, "It's all right, I forgive you." It doesn't mean, however, that we don't have to do anything else after that. We show our good will by making up for what we have done (or not done).
When we commit GRAVE or MORTAL sin, we incur not only the guilt, but also a debt of ETERNAL punishment. This eternal punishment is meted out in HELL. A good confession of that sin forgives the guilt and changes the debt to a temporal one.
Every VENIAL sin also brings about guilt, and a debt of TEMPORAL punishment. The temporal punishment can be paid for on earth or in purgatory.
Purification addresses the venial sins which we may have not been sorry for, and temporal punishment--the reparation that we owe God.
4.3 Is there a way of avoiding Purgatory?
As we saw earlier, purification can either be in THIS LIFE or in the AFTERLIFE. It can also be ACTIVE or PASSIVE.
4.4 Can those on earth help the souls in Purgatory?
Through the Communion of Saints, we can help lighten the burden of the souls in Purgatory. The CCC replies to this question as follows:
This teaching is also based on the practice of prayer for the dead, already mentioned in Sacred Scripture: "Therefore Judas Maccabeus] made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin" [II Macc 12:46]. From the beginning the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God [cf Council of Lyons II (1274): DS 856]. The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead: Let us help and commemorate them. If Job's sons were purified by their father's sacrifice, why would we doubt that our offerings for the dead bring them some consolation? Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and to offer our prayers for them [St John Chrysostom, Hom. in 1 Cor. 41, 5: PG 61, 361; cf Job 1:5].
5.1 When "No" becomes forever
Freedom is an awesome power. It is an awesome power to accept God's plan, to say "Yes" to Him. But it is also a terrible power. It is the terrible power of being able to say "No" to Him. Every grave or mortal sin is a complete turning away from God and turning towards creatures. It is a refusal of God's love, a closing of one's heart to him. What death does is to seal the heart forever. CS Lewis, writes in The Great Divorce:
There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God: 'Thy will be done;' and those to whom God says, in the end, 'THY will be done.'
Peter Kreeft (Catholic Christianity, p 149) adds:
Everyone who arrives in hell can sing: 'I did it my way.'
Or perhaps, we should not say "sing," but rather "mourn," about it. Hell is actually created by an abused freedom.
The CCC (1033) teaches us:
We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love him. But we cannot love God if we sin gravely against him, against our neighbor or against ourselves: 'He who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him' [I John 3:14-15]. Our Lord warns us that we shall be separated from him if we fail to meet the serious needs of the poor and the little ones who are his brethren [cf Matthew 25:31-46]. To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God's merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice. This STATE OF DEFINITIVE SELF-EXCLUSION from communion with God and the blessed is called 'hell.'
The CCCC (213; cf CCC 1036-1037) thus explains how one can reconcile the existence of hell with the infinite goodness of God:
God, while desiring 'all to come to repentance' (II Peter 3:9), nevertheless has created the human person to be free and responsible; and he respects our decisions. Therefore, it is the human person who freely excludes himself from communion with God if at the moment of death he persists in mortal sin and refuses the merciful love of God.
5.2 Jesus Spoke about Gehenna
Hell is not a fairy tale. Our Lord often warned about it. And the Church repeats His teaching (cf CCC 1035). The CCC (1034) tells us:
Jesus often speaks of 'Gehenna' of 'the unquenchable fire' reserved for those who to the end of their lives refuse to believe and be converted, where both soul and body can be lost [cf Matthew 5:22, 29; 10:28; 13:42, 50; Mark 9:43-48]. Jesus solemnly proclaims that he 'will send his angels, and they will gather . . . all evil doers, and throw them into the furnace of fire' [Matthew 13:41-42], and that he will pronounce the condemnation: 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire' [Matthew 25:41]!
5.3 Will it hurt really bad?
The CCC (1035) also teaches us:
The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs.
This explanation makes it sound as if hell is no big deal, but we ought to remember that everything that we feel attracted to, everything that satisfies us are all from God. Think of what gives pleasure to our external senses (sight, hearing, smell, touch, taste), or to our internal senses (memory, imagination). None of those will be available in hell, because only God can give satisfaction to our senses.
Think further of what gives satisfaction to our mind and to our will. Again, none of that can be obtained in hell, because they are only found in God. Our mind longs for truth. In hell, there will only be lies. Our will longs for good. In hell, there will only be evil.
5.4 Why talk about hell? Is it a scare tactic?
The CCC (1036) gives two reasons for the teaching on hell.
Since we know neither the day nor the hour, we should follow the advice of the Lord and watch constantly so that, when the single course of our earthly life is completed, we may merit to enter with him into the marriage feast and be numbered among the blessed, and not, like the wicked and slothful servants, be ordered to depart into the eternal fire...
5.5 Are some people made for hell?
The CCC (1037) teaches that
God predestines no one to go to hell [cf Council of Orange II (529): DS 397; Council of Trent (1547):1567] ... In the Eucharistic liturgy and in the daily prayers of her faithful, the Church implores the mercy of God, who does not want 'any to perish, but all to come to repentance' [II Peter 3:9]: Father, accept this offering from your whole family. Grant us your peace in this life, save us from final damnation, and count us among those you have chosen [Roman Missal, EP I (Roman Canon) 88].
6.1 Body will rejoin the soul
Saint Paul, in his First Letter to the Corinthians (15:12-14; cf CCC 990, 991) teaches that our mortal body will come to life again.
12 Now if Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; 14 if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.
6.2 Resurrection of the body
6.2.1 Does that mean we will see dead bodies walking?
The CCC (997) says:
What is "rising"? In death, the separation of the soul from the body, the human body decays and the soul goes to meet God, while awaiting its reunion with its glorified body. 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.
6.2.2 Will everyone--good and bad people--rise again?
The CCC (998) teaches:
Who will rise? 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" [John 5:29; cf Daniel 12:2]
6.2.3 How will that happen?
Two points in the CCC (999, 1000) explain this.
How? Christ is raised with HIS OWN BODY: 'See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself' [Luke 24:39]; but he did not return to an earthly life. So, in him, 'all of them will rise again with their own bodies which they now bear,' but Christ 'will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body,' into a 'spiritual body' [Lateran Council IV (1215): DS 801; Philippians 3:21; II Corinthians 15:44]:
But someone will ask, "How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?" You foolish man! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body which is to be, but a bare kernel ....What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable.... The dead will be raised imperishable.... For this perishable nature must put on the imperishable, and this mortal nature must put on immortality [I Corinthians 15:35-37, 42, 52, 53].
This "how" exceeds our imagination and understanding; it is accessible only to faith. Yet our participation in the Eucharist already gives us a foretaste of Christ's transfiguration of our bodies:
Just as bread that comes from the earth, after God's blessing has been invoked upon it, is no longer ordinary bread, but Eucharist, formed of two things, the one earthly and the other heavenly: so too our bodies, which partake of the Eucharist, are no longer corruptible, but possess the hope of resurrection [St Irenaeus, Adv. haeres. 4, 18, 4-5: PG 7/1, 1028-1029].
Peter Kreeft (Catholic Christianity, p 139) explains how the bodies of the JUST will be like that of Christ's resurrected body.
Our only real data for what we know about our own future resurrection bodies come from the Gospel accounts of Christ's Resurrection body. This body was recognisable as Christ; it had continuity with his former body; it was he and not another. And yet it was different--so different that at first his own disciples did not recognise him--and then they did (Luke 24:13-32; John 20:11-16; 21:1-13). It could walk through walls (John 20:19) and ascend to heaven (Acts 1:9-11). Yet it was a body, not a ghost; it could eat and be touched (Luke 24:36-43; John 20:19-29; Matthew 28:9).
6.2.4 When?
The CCC (1001) says:
When? Definitively 'at the last day,' 'at the end of the world' [John 6: 39-40, 44, 54; 11:24; Lumen Gentium 48 # 3] Indeed, the resurrection of the dead is closely associated with Christ's Parousia:
For the Lord himself will descend from heaven, with a cry of command, with the archangel's call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first [I Thessalonians 4:16]
7.1 What is it?
The CCC (1038) reiterates the Scriptural teaching that the Last Judgement
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" [John 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" [Matthew 25:31, 32, 46].
The CCCC (214) adds that the after the BODY rejoins the soul, it too is REWARDED or PUNISHED:
After the last judgment, the resurrected body will share in the retribution which the soul received at the particular judgment.
7.2 When will it happen?
At the end of the world, but only God knows when exactly (cf CCC 1040, CCCC 215).
7.3 Why is there a need for a Final Judgement?
The purpose of the Final Judgement is to make the TRUTH known to all. It is a consequence of God's infinite JUSTICE and MERCY. The CCC (1039, 1040)
In the presence of Christ, who is Truth itself, the truth of each man's relationship with God will be laid bare [cf John 12:49]. The Last Judgement will reveal even to its furthest consequences THE GOOD EACH PERSON HAS DONE OR FAILED TO DO during his earthly life
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].
God promises to renew everything, though in a way we do not know. The New Heavens and a New Earth (II Peter 3:13; cf Revelation 21:1) will be characterised by the following (CCC 1042, 1043, 1044, 1045, 1047, 1048)
This does not mean, however, that we should not take active part in developing the world in which we live in. The CCC (1049) quotes Gaudium et Spes (39 # 2) in affirming that:
"Far from diminishing our concern to develop this earth, the expectancy of a new earth should spur us on, for it is here that the body of a new human family grows, foreshadowing in some way the age which is to come. That is why, although we must be careful to distinguish earthly progress clearly from the increase of the kingdom of Christ, such progress is of vital concern to the kingdom of God, insofar as it can contribute to the better ordering of human society."