The Four Last Things, death, judgment, heaven, and hell, are fruitful matters for meditation. St Philip Neri said, "Beginners in religion ought to exercise themselves principally in meditation on the Four Last Things"
From LifeSiteNews
By Matthew McCusker
Every soul undergoes its particular judgment at death and the general judgment on the Last Day, according to traditional Catholic teaching.
“It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment” — Heb 9:27
This article explores the teaching of the Catholic Church on the judgment the human soul undergoes at the moment of death. It is the second article in our series on the “Last Things,” which are death, judgment, Heaven, and Hell. The first article, on death, can be read here.
After death the human soul undergoes judgment on two distinct occasions: the particular judgment and the general judgment.
The particular judgment occurs at the moment of death and determines the fate of an individual person’s soul for all eternity. This marks the end of time for the individual human person.
The general judgment occurs on the Last Day and marks the end of time for the human race as a whole. The Catechism of the Council of Trent explains:
[O]n the same day, and in the same place, all men shall stand together, before the tribunal of their judge, that, in the presence and hearing of a congregated world, each may know his final doom: an announcement which will constitute no small part of the pain and punishment of the wicked, and of the remuneration and rewards of the just; when the tenor of each man’s life shall appear in its true colors.[1]
Entry into Heaven, Hell, or Purgatory takes place immediately upon the particular judgment, which will be the primary focus of this article.
The particular judgment
The Church teaches that immediately upon death the soul’s destiny is determined forever. This was explained in more detail in the article on death.
Those who die with sanctifying grace are immediately confirmed in their union with God; they either immediately see God in Heaven, or they immediately begin to undergo the purification in Purgatory which will prepare them for the eternal sight of God in Heaven.
Those who die without sanctifying grace are immediately confirmed in their state of separation from God in Hell.[2]
St. Thomas Aquinas summarized this doctrine as follows:
[S]ince a place is assigned to souls in keeping with their reward or punishment, as soon as the soul is set free from the body it is either plunged into hell or soars to heaven, unless it be held back by some debt, for which its flight must needs be delayed until the soul is first of all cleansed. This truth is attested by the manifest authority of the canonical Scriptures and the doctrine of the holy Fathers; wherefore the contrary must be judged heretical.[3]
And the Council of Florence (1439) taught:
[I]f truly penitent people die in the love of God before they have made satisfaction for acts and omissions by worthy fruits of repentance, their souls are cleansed after death by cleansing pain.…
[T]he souls of those who have incurred no stain of sin whatsoever after baptism, as well as souls who after incurring the stain of sin have been cleansed whether in their bodies or outside their bodies, as was stated above, are straightaway received into heaven and clearly behold the triune God as he is, yet one person more perfectly than another according to the difference of their merits.
But the souls of those who depart this life in actual mortal sin, or in original sin alone, go down straightaway to hell to be punished, but with unequal pains.[4]
This decree of the Council of Florence makes it clear that at the moment of death, human beings enter into a state proportioned to their particular merits and demerits. The elect vary in the degree to which they see God, the damned suffer punishment to different degrees, and the cleansing sufferings of Purgatory are proportioned to the individual’s need for purification.
It follows from this that, at the moment of death, a judgment, taking precise account of every aspect of the person’s life, must have immediately been passed on the soul. As reward or punishment begins immediately after death, this judgment must have been instantaneous upon death.
Hence, the mid-20th century theologian Father Joseph F. Sagüés, S.J., writes: “When it is said that ‘he has died,’ it can also be said ‘he has been judged.’”[5]
And Pope Pius XII taught:
A true judgment about the moral state of each man and the decree concerning his definitive fate pertains to God alone. He passes judgment according as he finds a man at the moment when he calls him to eternity.[6]
We will be judged by Christ the King
In the Nicene Creed we profess:
I believe in one Lord Jesus Christ … He will come again to judge the living and the dead and his kingdom will have no end.
Not only on the Last Day, but also at the moment of our death, it is Jesus Christ who will be our judge.
“The judge,” Sagüés writes, “is doubtless Christ … since all judgment has been given to him by the Father.”[7]
Our Lord Himself taught:
For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and giveth life: so the Son also giveth life to whom he will. For neither doth the Father judge any man, but hath given all judgment to the Son.…
For as the Father hath life in himself, so he hath given the Son also to have life in himself: And he hath given him power to do judgment, because he is the Son of man. (Jn 5:21-22; 26-27)
And St. Peter recalled:
[H]e commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is he who was appointed by God, to be judge of the living and of the dead. (Acts 10:42)
Commenting on both these passages, the Catechism of the Council of Trent teaches:
Although the power of judging is common to all the Persons of the Blessed Trinity, yet it is specially attributed to the Son, because to Him also in a special manner is ascribed wisdom.[8]
At the general judgment all mankind will be physically present before Christ in their resurrected bodies and gaze upon the Supreme Judge with their own eyes. The catechism continues:
There is a peculiar propriety in Christ the Lord sitting in judgment; for sentence is to be pronounced on mankind, and they are thus enabled to see their Judge with their eyes and hear Him with their ears, and so learn their judgment through the medium of the senses.
Most just is it also that He who was most iniquitously condemned by the judgment of men should Himself be afterwards seen by all men sitting in judgment on all.[9]
At the particular judgment, we will not see Christ in the flesh – we will have no body with which to see – but the intellectual soul will nonetheless be present to Him.
The Australian philosopher and theologian, Austin Woodbury S.M., wrote that at the moment of death:
[T]he soul perfectly understands that it is being tried by Christ the Redeemer through the divine judiciary power which God has bestowed upon him. Therefore the soul knows also that it is being judged not only by God, but also by Christ the Saviour.
Sagüés notes that Christ judges us not “just as God, but also as man.” He continues:
Since from the hypostatic union he is king and therefore judge, it is necessary that he pass judgment on each one, just as he will judge all at the last judgment.[10]
By these two judgments, the particular and the general, Christ the King establishes that state of perfect justice which eludes mankind on earth, where our personal and social lives are marked by injustice.
Pope Pius XII taught:
No human sentence decides ultimately and definitively the fate of a man, but only the judgment of God, whether for individual acts or for his whole life.
Therefore, where human judges may be mistaken, the supreme Judge will restore justice, first of all immediately after death, in a definitive judgment on the whole life of each man, and then, later and more completely, in the presence of all, at the general judgment.[11]
There is no perfect justice in this “vale of tears” nor, despite the delusion of the proponents of liberalism and other modern ideologies, can it ever be perfectly established. While we must work to create as just a social order as possible, under the Social Kingship of Christ, the effects of original sin prevent us from ever achieving a world free from evil and injustice.
All too often in this world, the wicked prosper while the good suffer, the strong take advantage of the weak, and monstrous evils are wrought on those who are most innocent and vulnerable.
All of this will be corrected by the judgment of our Divine King, who will establish perfect justice for all eternity. Hence the Psalmist sings:
The Lord shall be known when he executeth judgments: the sinner hath been caught in the works of his own hands. The wicked shall be turned into hell, all the nations that forget God. For the poor man shall not be forgotten to the end: the patience of the poor shall not perish for ever. (Ps 9: 20-21)
It should be a salutary thought for all those – including many who identify as Catholics – who reject the Kingship of Christ and His rule over states and nations, that immediately upon death they will be judged by the same King whose Social Reign they rejected in life.
The particular judgment as a trial
The particular judgment could be viewed as a trial, at which the soul is judged by Christ the King, the Supreme Judge and Lawgiver for mankind.
At this trial evidence is presented, a verdict is pronounced, and a sentence is determined.
- The presentation of evidence
God knows everything about the soul to be judged; he is already in full possession of the facts of the case. The law against which man is judged is the eternal law of God, as it has been promulgated to him.
Immediately upon death the soul will see itself as it really is, with no more place for self-delusion. This follows from the nature of the soul, as Woodbury explains:
[I]n the first instant of separation the soul, being a form had not by matter but by form, is constituted intuitively beholding itself, and the order of its loves, and therefore beholding its supreme voluntary attachment either to God on the one hand or to some created good on the other. Wherefore the soul is instantaneously aware with certitude either of its state of justification or of its state of mortal sin.[12]
The soul also sees these truths under the influence of divine light.[13] Hence Woodbury writes:
Accordingly the soul instantaneously becomes perfectly aware of all its merits and demerits, that is, it has full consciousness and actual knowledge of all its deeds done while in the body.[14]
And he continues:
This is the presentation of the evidence pertaining to a judicial trial, and in this sense it can be said that there is a discussion of the cause because thus there is had a complete examination of one’s whole life.[15]
In his letter to the Romans, St. Paul refers to this moment when he writes of “their conscience bearing witness to them, and their thoughts between themselves accusing, or also defending one another, in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.” (Rm 2:15-16)
And of this knowledge, St. Augustine writes:
A certain divine power is to be understood, whereby it will be brought about that all the works either good or bad will be brought back to the memory of each, and are discerned with marvellous celerity by the intuition of the mind, so that the knowledge accuses or excuses the conscience, and thus together both all and each are judged; which divine power has received the name of ‘the book.'”[16]
- The pronouncement of the verdict and the sentence
At the same moment of death, the soul is immediately aware of the verdict passed on it, that is whether having died in the state of grace it will enjoy eternal bliss with God, or having died without grace will depart from Him forever.
Woodbury writes:
[T]he verdict and sentence is uttered not orally, but intelligibly, in as much as by the operation of the divine power all merits and demerits are most openly manifested altogether to the consciousness of the soul, and thus the soul intuitively knows itself to be worthy of reward or punishment, everlasting or temporal.[17]
The sentence is then immediately executed.
The souls of the just see God before the general judgment
There was a consensus among the Fathers of the Church that the soul was judged immediately upon death. However, there was some difference of opinion as to whether the elect were able to participate in the beatific vision before the resurrection of the body, which takes place only at the general judgment.
Some early Christian writers thought that between the particular and general judgments the souls of the elect “slept” until they rose with their bodies on the Last Day, or experienced joys but not yet the beatific vision.
On the other hand, others held that the soul entered into beatitude immediately, that is, while the soul was still separated from the body.
For example, St. Caesarius of Arles preached:
When the flesh … begins to be devoured by the worms in the tomb, the soul is presented to God by the angels in heaven, and there also, if it was good, it is crowned, or, if it was evil, it is cast into the darkness.[18]
And of the damned, Pope St. Gregory the Great wrote:
For, just as beatitude makes the elect happy, so it is necessary to believe that from the day of their death fire burns the reprobate.
Texts referring to the martyrs of the early Church consistently speak of them as already enjoying the joys of Heaven. For example, St. Gregory Nazianzen preached:
I do not doubt that the things they see with their eyes are much more excellent than what you now enjoy, namely … the choirs of angels, the heavenly order, the contemplation of glory … a more perfect illumination of the supreme Trinity, not as now evading a limited mind dependent on the senses, but offering itself to the total mind for perfect contemplation.[19]
Nonetheless, throughout the Middle Ages there were many theologians, including St. Bernard of Clairvaux, who held to the view that the souls of the just “slept” between death and the resurrection of the body. One proponent of this view was Pope John XXII, who expressed this position publicly, though making clear it was only his personal opinion, never proposing it as a doctrine to be believed by the faithful. Of this famous case Sagüés writes:
John XXII, the Supreme Pontiff, followed [St. Bernard of Clairvaux] almost to the letter, and the Friars Minor followed him, as is generally reported. He held that immediately after death some reward is given to the just, like seeing already the humanity of Christ in heaven, and that the wicked are punished in hell in some way; but before the final judgment that neither the face-to-face vision of God is granted to the blessed nor the punishment of fire to the damned.
However, he taught this as a private teacher, not as Pontiff, and he held it theoretically or for the sake of debate, thinking that he could be deceived in these matters and permitting others to think differently until the question should be decided authoritatively. Hence he took care to have the matter studied by the Doctors, and frequently summoning debates in his presence on this point, he was prepared to abandon his opinion if it was shown to be against the faith. Indeed, on the day before his death he ordered a declaration of the true doctrine in the presence of all the Cardinals, etc. He said that previously he thought differently about this matter by pondering it and speaking about it. In this way he prepared the way for his successor, Benedict XII, to proclaim a definition of the true teaching.[20]
It was Pope Benedict XII who definitively resolved this question in 1336 in favor of the immediate enjoyment of the beatific vision by the elect, either upon death or upon exiting Purgatory. In his Constitution Benedictus Deus he taught that all the elect:
… immediately after death and, in the case of those in need of purification, after the purification mentioned above … already before they take up their bodies again and before the general judgment, have been, are and will be with Christ in heaven, in the heavenly kingdom and paradise, joined to the company of the holy angels.[21]
He continued:
Since the passion and death of the Lord Jesus Christ, these souls have seen and see the divine essence with an intuitive vision and even face to face, without the mediation of any creature by way of object of vision; rather the divine essence immediately manifests itself to them, plainly, clearly and openly, and in this vision they enjoy the divine essence. Moreover, by this vision and enjoyment the souls of those who have already died are truly blessed and have eternal life and rest.[22]
Since this constitution was promulgated, it is heresy to maintain that the souls of the elect have to wait until the general judgment to see the beatific vision of God.
Rewards will be greater, punishments worse, after the general judgment
The doctrine of immediate beatitude and immediate damnation is not contrary to the doctrine that, nonetheless, the elect enjoy greater joy after the resurrection of the body, and the damned greater agony.
St. Augustine taught:
[A]ll souls have, when they quit this world, their different receptions. The good have joy; the evil, torments. But when the resurrection takes place, both the joy of the good will be fuller and the torments of the wicked heavier, when they shall be tormented in the body. The holy patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, and good believers, have been received into peace; but all of them have still in the end to receive the fulfillment of the divine promises; for they have been promised also the resurrection of the flesh, the destruction of death, and eternal life with the angels. This we have all to receive together; for the rest, which is given immediately after death, everyone, if worthy of it, receives when he dies.[23]
The Catechism of the Council of Trent teaches that the completion of reward for the just – and the completion of punishment for the wicked – is not possible until the general judgment has taken place. It explains:
Those who depart this life sometimes leave behind them children who imitate their conduct, dependents, followers and others who admire and advocate their example, language and actions. Now by all these circumstances the rewards or punishments of the dead must needs be increased, since the good or bad influence of example, affecting as it does the conduct of many, is to terminate only with the end of the world. Justice demands that in order to form a proper estimate of all these good or bad actions and words a thorough investigation should be made. This, however, could not be without a general judgment of all men.[24]
Furthermore, it is only after the resurrection of the body that reward and punishment can be experienced in the body. The same catechism teaches:
[A]s the good and the bad perform their good and bad actions not without the co-operation of the body, these actions are common to the body as their instrument; and the body, therefore, should participate with the soul in the eternal rewards of virtue, or the everlasting punishments of vice; and this can only be accomplished by means of a general resurrection and of a general judgment.[25]
Nonetheless, the verdict of the particular judgment as regards the salvation or damnation of a soul is unalterable and irrevocable.
Souls are conducted to their reward by angels
According to tradition, the souls of the just are conducted to their final reward by angels, and the souls of the damned are dragged down to Hell by demons.
In the parable of Lazarus and Dives, Our Lord relates “that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom.” (Lk 16:22)
And the prayers for the dying in the Roman Ritual beseech the heavenly host:
Meet him, ye angels of the Lord, receive his soul, and present it to the Most High. May Christ who called thee receive thee; and may the angels lead thee into the bosom of Abraham.
Commenting on these passages Woodbury writes:
[S]ince unto that definite time the angels and the devils have no certain knowledge of the salvation or damnation of the soul, it can be believed that they await with great interest and zeal the judgment regarding its lot, for the angels have endeavoured with every effort to bring this soul to heaven, while the devils have made the greatest effort to bring it to damnation.[26]
John Henry Cardinal Newman’s poem The Dream of Gerontius expresses this doctrine beautifully; at the moment of death his soul is taken to its judgment by his guardian angel. As the dying man’s soul separates from his body, his guardian angel sings with joy:
Meditation on judgment an aid to salvation
In Newman’s poem, at the moment his soul separates from his body, Gerontius asks why he is not afraid that he is about to be judged by God:
His guardian angel replies:
Gerontius is no longer afraid of judgment because, as we saw earlier, he knows his eternal state immediately, or as the angel in the poem expresses it:
But he has died in the state of grace because in his life he had a salutary fear of God and the judgment to come.
The Catholic Church has always recommended the practice of meditation on the fundamental reality that we will all die, be judged, and spend eternity either in Heaven or Hell.
Encouraging the faithful to keep judgment in mind, the Catechism of Trent teaches:
[T]he just should be encouraged by the hope, the wicked appalled by the terror of a future judgment; that knowing the justice of God, the former may not be disheartened, and, dreading his eternal judgments, the latter may be recalled from the paths of vice.[28]
It continues:
[I]t is almost impossible to find one so prone to vice, as not to be capable of being recalled to the pursuit of virtue, by the reflection that the day will come when he shall have to render an account before a most rigorous judge, not only of all his words and actions, but even of his most secret thoughts, and shall suffer punishment according to his deserts.
But the just man must be more and more excited to cultivate justice, and, although doomed to spend his life in want, and obloquy, and torments, he must be transported with the greatest joy, when he looks forward to that day on which, when the conflicts of this wretched life are over, he shall be declared victorious in the hearing of all men; and admitted into his heavenly country, shall be crowned with divine, and these, also, eternal honours.[29]
Even though in our world today true Christian teachers are few, we can all continue to meditate on the immutable truths of the Catholic faith, and in them find the salvation of souls.
References
| ↑1, ↑8, ↑9, ↑24, ↑25, ↑28, ↑29 | Catechism of the Council of Trent, Book I, Article 7. |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | It is of divine and Catholic faith that those who die with original sin only do not enter heaven. It is the more common and more probable opinion that they exist in a state of natural happiness. This will be explained in more detail in a later article. |
| ↑3 | St Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, Suppl. q. 69 a.2. |
| ↑4 | Decree of Union, Session 6, Council of Florence (1439). |
| ↑5 | Rev Joseph F, Sagüés, Treatise on the Last Things, Sacrae Theologiae Summa Volume IVB (English edition translated by Rev. Kenneth Baker, 2016), p308. |
| ↑6 | Pope Pius XII, Address to the Convention of the Association of Lawyers (1955). Quoted in Sagüés, STS IVB, p284. |
| ↑7, ↑10 | Sagüés, STS IVB, p308. |
| ↑11 | Pope Pius XII, Address to the Convention of the Association of Lawyers (1955). Quoted in Sagüés, STS IVB, p284. |
| ↑12 | A. M. Woodbury S.M., Lecture notes on “God as consummating his works, or the Last Things”, No.32. A. |
| ↑13, ↑14, ↑15 | Woodbury, “Last Things”, No. 32. A. |
| ↑16 | St Augustine of Hippo, The City of God, Book 20, Chapter 14. This passage of St Augustine is specifically about the Last Judgment, but Woodbury understands it as applying to the particular judgment too in “Last Things”, No. 33. |
| ↑17 | Woodbury, “Last Things”, No. 32. B. |
| ↑18 | St Caesarius of Arles, quoted in Sagüés, STS IVB, p302. |
| ↑19 | St. Gregory Nazianzen, In laudem Gorgoniae sororis suae n.23. Quoted in Sagüés, STS IVB, p303. |
| ↑20 | Sagüés, STS IVB, p298. |
| ↑21 | Pope Benedict XII, Benedictus Deus (29 January 1336). |
| ↑22 | Pope Benedict XII, Benedictus Deus. |
| ↑23 | St Augustine of Hippo, Tractates on St John, 49.10. Translation at New Advent. |
| ↑26 | Woodbury, “The Last Things”, No. 35, B. |
| ↑27 | John Henry Newman, The Dream of Gerontius. Full text: https://www.newmanreader.org/works/verses/gerontius.html. |
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