The Four Last Things

Did you know that: 166,324 people die daily, 6,930 people die every hour, 116 people die every minute, and 1.93 people die every second?

Yet, most people are afraid to consider their own death out of fear. In this episode of Authorschoice Online, we will consider the four last things that will happen to everyone, beginning with death.

Death, according to Christian teaching, is the separation of the soul from the body. The soul, being spiritual, cannot die (i.e., it is immortal), but it is also self-reflective, aware, and knows. It also possesses the ability to move from one place to another, passing through walls and things like that. More importantly, as soon as we die, God grants our soul light to see with perfect clarity the good or evil aspects of the choices we have made throughout our lives up until the moment before our death. Death makes these choices permanent, and the soul adheres to these choices and can neither change nor repent any longer. Thus, the soul of the dead perseveres in choosing or rejecting God forever. Death irrevocably fixes the good or evil we have chosen in life, and we cannot change it. Put another way, death is the end of the testing process; what remains is either reward or punishment. God immediately judges and rewards the good soul with heaven and judges and punishes the evil soul with hell. If the soul is in a state of grace with some imperfections, it goes to purgatory for purification. This immediate judgment is the particular judgment, and it differs from the general judgment at the end of the world.

Immediately after death, the soul is Judged in the Particular Judgment

At the particular judgment, the soul of the dead appears immediately before God (even as the relatives are weeping or preparing the decomposing body for burial). God grants the soul light to see the choices made while alive. If it has chosen God (good), it rushes towards God, who is infinite love, beauty, happiness, joy, eternal blessedness, and the very source of all that is lovely. If it has chosen evil, it rushes away from God and towards hell: hatred, evil, misery, emptiness, and eternal separation from God. The truth of the particular judgment and the immediate retribution or punishment at the moment of death is borne out in sacred scripture by the words of Jesus on the cross to the good thief, “Today, you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:43).

Regarding the fittingness of immediate judgment after death, it is argued that, since a dead man cannot choose good or evil anymore, there is no reason to wait until the final judgment at the end of time to reward the just or punish the wicked. Besides, such a “waiting” or “delay” will only punish the just, keeping them in a state of permanent anxiety, not knowing their fate, while at the same time, it would be a reward for the damned soul whose punishment is put off for a very long time till the end of the world.

Purgatory

If the soul is imperfect, having no mortal sin but retaining imperfections, it goes to a place of purification we Catholics call purgatory. This is because, before a soul enters heaven, every trace of imperfection must be eliminated, and all attachment to sin or evil must be destroyed and purified.

Even though many people (primarily Protestants) contend that there is no purgatory because the Bible does not explicitly mention it and because we are fully prepared for heaven when we pass away because of our salvation through faith in Christ alone, the Church teaches that purgatory is in the Bible, even though it is not explicitly mentioned. The sense of purgatory is clear from the Old Testament, the second book of Maccabees, where Judas Maccabee took and gathered a collection of money for the sin offering for the souls of his dead men to be released from their sins. (Mac 12:39). In the New Testament, purgatory is even clearer. 1 Corinthians 3:10–15 talks about two fires: one fire to examine the good or evil of men’s deeds and another fire to purify them before they are saved. Experience tells us that there are different shades of perfection, and we all can grow in perfection. Thus, purgatory answers the question, “What happens to the soul of the imperfect who dies?”

This is why the Church offers the Eucharistic sacrifice of the Mass during the funeral and encourages all to offer suffrages for the souls in purgatory. The souls in purgatory, by nature of their state, can no longer merit graces for themselves and are wholly dependent on the people on earth to pray for them.

The pain of loss & pain of the senses

The souls in purgatory suffer two kinds of pain. The pain of loss consists of a certain delay in seeing God. The souls in purgatory no longer desire material things; they only have one consuming desire: to see God. Although that delay is painful, it differs greatly from the loss-related pain that the damned souls experience in that they have the satisfaction of knowing that it is only a temporary delay and that they will eventually see and join the love of God. In addition, there is the pain of sense that some call fire. This fire purifies them of their imperfections. This suffering is not a meritorious act because it is not performed freely but with compulsion. Yet, the souls in purgatory gladly accept this fire and impatiently await the end of their trials so that they can be with God. The duration and intensity of their suffering are dependent on the amount of suffrage we on earth offer them through our good acts and Eucharistic devotions. It is the duty of charity to pray for the souls in purgatory since they are our brothers and sisters. It is a requirement of justice since souls can be unduly detained because of our negligence, and finally, it is the obligation of piety that we owe members of our supernatural and natural families who might be in purgatory.

Hell

Truly, many do not understand what hell is; if they did, they would be anxious never to go there. Strictly speaking, the Catholic Church does not talk about those in hell because they are considered to be outside of the Church. They are no longer a part of the church. The souls of people who die in a state of opposition to God through attachment to evil go straight to hell. Hell is the ratification of the choices they freely made up until the moment of death. Death makes the opposition to God permanent and eternal. In Hell, the separation from the all-loving God is permanent, irrevocable, and without end. It is a life of complete frustration and emptiness. Hell is the opposite of love; it is hatred, darkness, and eternal punishment. It is eternally living with evil and knowing that it is forever, without end. Recalling that we are going to die and that there is an afterlife could help us keep focused.

Hell involves two kinds of pain. The pain of loss and the pain of sense

The pain of loss is the most intense and, in enormity, surpasses every other suffering imaginable because it is the loss of the ultimate end, happiness, and eternal bliss desired by every creature. The souls in hell experience intense remorse, not because of repentance from their sin but because of the enormity and eternal duration of their punishment. They also experience the pain of the senses, which some consider to be unquenchable fire, burning sulfur. Even if they do not know it, all men are created in the image of God to live with God forever. Every soul hungers for this union of love and happiness with God. To be eternally deprived of ever achieving this is the most terrible suffering a soul can have—a loss of all meaning and purpose and a permanent state of frightful misery

This pain of sense on the other hand is comparable to dying but never dying, hence the name “eternal death.” Apart from these two pains mentioned above, there are other pains, such as the suffering of being in the eternal company of the wicked and the damned, where all is misery and vile, the permanent company of the devil and all his demons, where hatred and evil are the only rules. We should truly pity those who do evil here on earth.

Heaven

The existence of heaven is explained in the same way that the existence of hell is explained. It is proper and fitting that those who die in the state of grace, without sin, and in union with God, having kept and obeyed his laws in this life be rewarded. That reward is the immediate and eternal possession of God who is love.

The metaphor of heaven as the dwelling place of God in the sky can be misleading, but through faith, we know that heaven is not a place but a living relationship with the Holy Trinity in Christ. The happiness of heaven is the enjoyment of all good, all love and beauty and bliss in God in a permanent eternal way without any fear of loss, forever. This eternal vision of God cannot be unless God grants the soul a light of glory that illuminates and unites with God. This light of glory called lumen Gloriae enables the creature to see and know God. Since love comes from knowledge, this act of seeing and knowing God is immediately followed by an intense love of God that produces immense joy, happiness bliss that nothing in this world can describe.

Thus, the soul participates in all the joy and happiness of the blessed. Moreover, it is in the blessed company of the saints, Mary, and all the blessed. It also knows all creatures through the mind of God. It is able to communicate with his loved ones on earth and rejoices as they progress towards heaven.

The final judgment

Unlike the particular judgment that comes immediately after death, the final judgment comes at the end of the world. It is the public ratification of the irrevocable sentence of the particular judgment. Moreover, is in keeping with the justice of God that just as many people do good without reward because no one sees them and many people do evil and are never caught, the final judgment will be the universal acclamation of hidden good-doers and universal condemnation of hidden evildoers.

It is also the time for the resurrection of the body. The same body that participated or even aided in the good or assisted in the evil done while on earth, will resurrect and re-unit with the soul for the universal judgment of body and soul. The final judgment will show that God’s justice prevails over all the injustices perpetrated by his creatures and that God’s love is stronger than death. Our hope does not look forward to the eternal life of the soul alone but to the eternal life of the whole human person, body, and soul. There is an eternal life of salvation, as a participation of the entire man in the glorious Resurrection of Jesus Christ. In addition, there is an eternal life of damnation, in which the separation from God becomes eternal.