Judgement

11-17-2024Weekly ReflectionFr. Leonard F. Villa

At the end they will examine you about love, learn to love God as He desires to be loved, and leave your present condition. St. John of the Cross

"A la tarde te examinarán en el amor. Aprende a amar como Dios quiere ser amado y deja tu condición" Dichos #59

Catechism of the Catholic Church

The Particular Judgment
1022 Each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death, in a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ: either entrance into the blessedness of heaven-through a purification or immediately -or immediate and everlasting damnation.

The Last Judgment
1038 The resurrection of all the dead, "of both the just and the unjust," will precede the Last Judgment. This 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." 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."

1039 In the presence of Christ, who is Truth itself, the truth of each man's relationship with God will be laid bare The Last Judgment will reveal even to its furthest consequences the good each person has done or failed to do during his earthly life…

1451 Among the penitent's acts contrition occupies first place. Contrition is "sorrow of the soul and detestation for the sin committed, together with the resolution not to sin again."

1452 When it arises from a love by which God is loved above all else, contrition is called "perfect" (contrition of charity). Such contrition remits venial sins; it also obtains forgiveness of mortal sins if it includes the firm resolution to have recourse to sacramental confession as soon as possible.

1453 The contrition called "imperfect" (or "attrition") is also a gift of God, a prompting of the Holy Spirit. It is born of the consideration of sin's ugliness or the fear of eternal damnation and the other penalties threatening the sinner (contrition of fear). Such a stirring of conscience can initiate an interior process which, under the prompting of grace, will be brought to completion by sacramental absolution. By itself however, imperfect contrition cannot obtain the forgiveness of grave sins, but it disposes one to obtain forgiveness in the sacrament of Penance. (emphasis added)

Recently in the bulletin the meaning of the funeral Mass was discussed, pointing out that it is offered for the welfare of the deceased to assist in his/her purification of their love for God in a state called Purgatory. The realities of judgment involve Heaven (Purgatory) and Hell. The dynamic involved in judgment: Mortal sin is a disordered turning to some transitory good and a turning away from God, unchanging goodness. The sinner disobeys God not because he does not love Him but because he loves Him less than something created less than himself. Placed between God and some something created being used in a way forbidden by God he does not want to have to choose; but he does choose and he chooses to please himself. He makes something created an idol, which he loves more than God.

Brief Points on Hell and Damnation
There is a Hell as truly as there is God. Hell is the final rejection of God. We are made for God and in Him alone can we find rest and peace. God alone can satisfy our immense craving for happiness. In this world we should go to God through the right use of creation. Creation is meant to be a means to go to God, reflections of His goodness and beauty. The sinner turns created things into idols forgetful of God and in defiance of His will. It is a perversion, an anticipated Hell though the distractions, the tumult and the glamour of the world somehow conceal it from the sinner. In death the person leaves behind this world of sense and all its illusions. The final choice of some created reality as his love and idol will be eternal. The sinner will be chained to this love for all eternity; but it will never satisfy because it is less than God. A healthy fear of Hell assists us to conquer temptations and moves us to make war on sinful attachments, reaching out to God for grace.

The painting beginning this essay is Ian Van Eck’s the Last Judgment.

John Grodelski comments: St. Michael stands upon death, the skeleton, which has been defeated. What follows below (below the skeleton in the painting) is the chaos of those who, nevertheless, chose to cast their lots with evil and death. Compared to the joy and expanse of heaven, the souls of the damned are crushed into darkness and death, alongside demons. Whatever joy is seen in heaven is absent here: at best, there is the perverse Schadenfreude (pleasure derived from someone else’s misfortune) of sharing in senseless and eternal damnation.

Those on each side chose their identities. But not all identities are equal. None of the bottom half of this painting had to be. That it is not God’s will, but man’s. Freedom is a mortally serious matter. Choice has eternal consequences. Because it’s not the act of choosing but the choice that determines these fates. And the Last Judgment is nothing more than Jesus repeating to ourselves the words of the prayer he taught us: “Thy will be done.” https://www.ncregister.com/blog/rosary-and-art-maryqueen-of-all-saints.