As I ponder what has been revealed to me in a brief but powerful vision, the understanding and meaning of one’s salvation and justification come to the forefront, along with the eternal implications of what it means to be saved through justification. The notion of "once saved, always saved" comes to mind. When one examines the writings of St. James (James 2:26) and St. Paul (Romans 3:28), along with many other passages, one may ask whether they are in contradiction to each other, or must we look at the broader context of Scripture itself as a whole. Does accepting Christ in faith alone equal eternal salvation regardless of any justification of that acceptance? Or does the acceptance in faith mean that with the gift of grace comes responsibilities to act upon (the law), that is, to choose a manner that is ultimately acceptable to Christ Himself (Romans 3:31)?
When one reads the Vatican II Dogmatic Constitution, Lumen Gentium, “The Light of the Nations,” it becomes clear that the Church fully acknowledges the reality that all of God’s creation is subject to Him and that He desires it to return to His Kingdom (Mark 16:15) through the Gospel. The implications are that every single living creature ultimately belongs to the Creator, God. Within this created reality, only one is made in His likeness and image (Genesis 1:26), humankind. God desires all humanity to return to Him in the earthly paradise while this earthly exile exists, and eventually in the new world to come at the end of time in Heaven.
I begin this paper based on the notion stated in Lumen Gentium and the broader understandings of the Church as a community of salvation, encompassing each individual’s perspective, regardless of their understanding and beliefs about their personal faith or lack thereof.
16. Finally, those who have not yet received the Gospel are related in various ways to the people of God.18* In the first place we must recall the people to whom the testament and the promises were given and from whom Christ was born according to the flesh.125 On account of their fathers this people remains most dear to God, for God does not repent of the gifts He makes nor of the calls He issues.126 But the plan of salvation also includes those who acknowledge the Creator. In the first place amongst these there are the Mohammedans, who, professing to hold the faith of Abraham, along with us adore the one and merciful God, who on the last day will judge mankind. Nor is God far distant from those who in shadows and images seek the unknown God, for it is He who gives to all men life and breath and all things,127 and as Saviour wills that all men be saved.128 Those also can attain to salvation who through no fault of their own do not know the Gospel of Christ or His Church, yet sincerely seek God and moved by grace strive by their deeds to do His will as it is known to them through the dictates of conscience.19* Nor does Divine Providence deny the helps necessary for salvation to those who, without blame on their part, have not yet arrived at an explicit knowledge of God and with His grace strive to live a good life. Whatever good or truth is found amongst them is looked upon by the Church as a preparation for the Gospel.20* She knows that it is given by Him who enlightens all men so that they may finally have life. But often men, deceived by the Evil One, have become vain in their reasonings and have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, serving the creature rather than the Creator.129 Or some there are who, living and dying in this world without God, are exposed to final despair. Wherefore to promote the glory of God and procure the salvation of all of these, and mindful of the command of the Lord, “Preach the Gospel to every creature”,130 the Church fosters the missions with care and attention.[i]
I write this paper to explore the concepts of initial salvation and eternal salvation in relation to justification at the end of time, and to examine the significance of this knowledge for all of God’s children. Why is one given grace, the gift of mercy, as St. Thomas Aquinas writes in his commentaries on the epistles of St. Paul[ii], and another is earned based on that grace given, as we see in the epistle of St. James? The core argument is at the heart of many debates with the peoples of God, especially since the Protestant Reformation, and what it truly means to be ‘saved’ into everlasting life.
As a Catholic, I have been taught that Christ makes two distinct yet linked judgments concerning our eternal salvation. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), 1022, Christ makes a Particular Judgment upon one’s earthly death, a notion based on St. John’s expression of a second death in the book of Revelation. Upon this first death, Christ administers a Particular Judgment of the reality of one’s life, and a judgment is imposed based on it. This is a somewhat transient or subjective judgment into a purification and is not made absolute until the final general judgment based on Catholic doctrine concerning praying for the dead.[iii]
Just as Christ preached the Gospel as He walked among us to the living, 1 Peter 4:6 tells us that He also descended to the realm of Sheol and preached the same truth to those who died before His incarnation, revealing the truth of the Gospel, for both the living and the dead. With, in, and through Christ, the righteous and faithful were brought into the purification process. Furthermore, at the end of time, every soul is reunited with its corporeal body in the resurrection into eternal life, and all God’s children receive a second, general, or final judgment[iv] made by Christ and enforced by His angels.
As I genuinely try to express my thoughts on this matter, I have come to an understanding based on what I believe is the truth as taught by the Catholic Church, albeit through my expression of this truth. There are differing aspects of the judgment made for all the humans that have lived and will ever live. Those who are baptized are gifted the initial grace for eternal life. Yet in the freedom granted by God our Father, during their lives ignore and do not build upon that initial grace and choose a wicked life and live their life in a manner not worthy of the gift of grace given at baptism: As well as those who knew not the commands of Christ, the unbaptized who upon their earthly death, their first death, when Christ offers his mercy at their meeting him at their Particular Judgment, they freely deny it with the full knowledge of the consequences of that decision, very similar to the fallen angels’ decision with complete understanding of what that decision meant. These souls are then condemned to eternal death, a second death to come, irrespective of that initial grace that had been given at baptism or the denial of grace at their first death offered to the ‘last’ (Matthew 19:30) at the Particular Judgment.
The very notion that can be construed from the Parable of the Talents. The giving of talents or grace according to each’s ability in Matthew 25:15-30 (see also Luke 19:12-27) was utilized to their fullest or buried and hidden. Those who put to work the gifts of the talents (grace) given receive more, and those who do not put the talents (grace) to work but rather bury them hidden away shall be condemned. That gift shall be stripped away and given to those whose actions increase the gift of (talents) grace given.
This notion serves as a reference point for our eternal salvation and how we are to participate in it. Because an initial (talents) grace is given, it does not mean we are done; the falsehood of a once saved, always saved mentality. Christ teaches in the parable that this gift of talents (grace), according to our abilities, is given with the intent of the Father's will, which is to use it to acquire more talents (grace). With the gift given comes the responsibility to put forth that gifted grace (talents) to work so that we fulfill the will of Our Father through Christ, whose life, death, and resurrection brought to us the very pathway that we can follow to the Father, to his everlasting Kingdom of heaven.
All of God’s Children baptized are free to choose how to manifest the grace given in their lives as they live and breathe, irrespective of when a gift of grace is offered and received within that life, ‘the last shall be first, and the first shall be last’ seen in the parable of the vineyard worker’s salary or wages received in Matthew 20:1–16. Within the freedom God affords, there is a choice to embrace the gift of grace; a choice is also presented to act as one’s ability gives them upon that grace; in true freedom, the responsibility to act or not to act upon the gift of grace received. Those who act are alive and, in Christ, ‘love one another as I have loved you’; those who freely choose not to act are condemned, as in the Parable of the Talents and the servant who buried the talent received.
For those who do not know Christ in this life, an opportunity is given upon their first death, just before the Particular Judgment is made when they meet Christ. This is the basis of what St. Peter writes in his first letter. Christ preached the Gospel to the dead. All human beings are creations of God, his children. Thus, in the love of our Father, all are given a chance to accept the grace offered by Christ through his Gospel in his divine mercy. In freedom, one can accept or reject this mercy offered. Upon receiving it, one is brought into paradise and purified through purgation as required. The paradise of knowing that there is a hope for everlasting life given. A paradise born of the hope of what will come with that acceptance of Christ’s mercy, a seat at the table, absolute joy in the knowledge that there is the hope of a place set aside for you in the kingdom of the Father.
This joy of hope stems from understanding that in Christ’s mercy, all sins are forgiven, and this gives us the possibility of being brought into the Kingdom of the Father in that mercy after purification (Revelation 21:27). The gift of mercy is given and accepted; however, once we are dead, we cannot cleanse ourselves by sacrifice or penance at our own hands. Here, we need the help of those left behind to pray for us and make sacrifices in our names (1 Corinthians 2:9-13).
There is a condemnation upon a rejection of Christ’s mercy offered at one’s first death. This condemnation is twofold, as are our judgments. With the particular judgment, the condemnation is made known in a realization at one’s first death in the denial of grace offered by Christ’s mercy. Secondly, as in St. John’s reference in Revelations as a second death (CCC 1034), when eternal damnation is imposed upon the condemned soul upon receiving their bodies.
St. John describes a second death in Revelation 2:11, 20:6, 20:14, and 21:8, a death unto eternity concerning one’s final damnation with their resurrected bodies. The second death refers to the eternal and everlasting death of one’s soul when unrepentant sinners receive their final punishment through the angels upon Christ’s final judgment, where, after a ‘thousand years,’ they are sent into the fiery abyss (Rev 21:8, CCC 998, John 5:29). A death that comes to those who look but do not see and listen but do not hear. If there is a second death, then it is reasonable to infer a first death, our earthly death, or the death that Christ overcomes at the resurrection, into the particular judgment of this age while we wait for Christ to come again to bring about the next age.
In Matthew’s Gospel 12:31-32, Christ declares,
“Therefore, I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.”
(See also Malachi 3:16-21; Ezekiel 22:20; Matthew 13:40-43)—a denial of Christ’s mercy or the accounting to Satin the acts of God.
Interestingly, one sees in Matthew 13:40-43 (c.f. 1 Corinthians 15:24-25) two kingdoms, two instances where the people of God are to be judged.
“Just as weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all who cause others to sin and all evildoers. They will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth (second death). Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears ought to hear.”
We also see this inference of a Kingdom given to the Son from the Father in Luke 22:29 – “and I confer a kingdom on you, just as my Father has conferred one on me…” Which Christ in turn passes to his Apostles (see also Luke 12:32).
There is a distinct difference between the kingdom of the Son of Man in the flesh, and it is here that all sins against the Son of Man will be forgiven (Matthew 12:32; Mark 3:28), and the ultimate goal for all believers, the Kingdom of the Father joins with the Kingdom of the Son of man into the eternal Kingdom of Heaven, where only the pure shall enter. Unifying these two kingdoms brings back the Kingdom of Heaven given to Adam and Eve before the fall. The fall into sin warranted the need for the Kingdom of the Son of Man, declared as salvation history. Judging both the living and the dead, the Son of God and his angels will pass a perfect, cleansed, and purified kingdom of the incarnate Son to the Father at the end of time. [v]; [vi] Those whose lives were lived in a state of evil and or caused others to do the same are brought to a second and final death without any love, without God.
The inference is that the earthly Church in exile is the manifestation of the Kingdom of the Son of Man.[vii] In this age, the people of Christ are waiting to get to the promised land, the Kingdom of the Father. I propose that the Kingdom of the Son of Man extends into the place or state of purification and purgation for all those who accept Christ within this exile as Messiah who are imperfect, unclean, or impure. An extension of the Son of Man’s kingdom of this age (John 18:37) until his second coming, sending forth his perfected kingdom unto the Father. Purgatory is a continuation of exile where souls are prepared to enter the Kingdom of the Father, just as Christ gave us his Church to do the same as we live and breathe here in this earthly part of exile within the same age.
For all God’s children, their first death brings about the Particular Judgment, and souls that accept Christ’s invitation either on earth as one walked or at the moment just before death are brought into the next station within the Kingdom of the Son of Man. It is an introduction and preparatory state of purification and cleansing, purifying those whose faith has brought them there to prepare them for the Kingdom of the Father. In hope, these are made pure by the fire of the Holy Spirit through the light of the Father and then, upon Christ’s second coming, are brought into everlasting life in the Kingdom of our Father unified with the Kingdom of the Son of Man into the Kingdom of Heaven, the Garden of Eden where man once more walks with God. The understanding is that sins may be forgiven, but the effects of those sins must be cleansed. “If acts are intrinsically evil, a good intention or particular circumstances can diminish their evil, but they cannot remove it. They remain "irremediably" evil acts, per se, and in themselves, they are incapable of being ordered to God and to the good of the person.” [viii] Here is where the understanding of what Christ proclaims in Matthew 7:21-23 can be understood clearly: not all who accept Christ will make it to heaven, simply because they act in His name.
We are brought into the Son of Man’s Kingdom through Grace, not Works.
Understanding how one is brought into the Kingdom of the Son of Man is imperative. Everlasting life or everlasting damnation comes at the second and final judgment, where all are judged for the final time by Christ and collected by his angels, both the living and the dead. However, one’s primary entrance into the Kingdom of the Son of Man comes from faith and the understanding or acceptance that Christ is the Messiah, the Son of God. With this faith, one is brought into the hope of eternal salvation through Him (Romans 11:36). Only through the gift of grace in Christ’s mercy may one enter the Son of Man’s Kingdom. The only requisite is a genuine belief that Christ is the Messiah, the way, the truth, and the life, along with a pure and authentic desire to be with him in his kingdom. Thus, in faith, we are called to be baptized, to go out and baptize, and to partake in Christ’s Body and Blood, the source and summit of that faith that we are sanctified in.
This understanding explains why those not baptized or those who have not partaken in the Eucharist can enter, as Christ preached the Gospel to the dead in 1 Peter. The Holy Innocents, whose lives were taken by Herod through Christ’s birth, entered paradise purified in the Mercy of the Father through his Son. The penitent thief at Calvary was neither baptized nor partook in the Eucharist, but through Christ’s mercy and his outward acts of faith towards Christ, and love shown to the second thief to repent and believe so too, brought him into paradise with the hope of eternal life.
Through God and made manifest in Christ’s judgment through the Holy Spirit comes the gift, the grace needed to enter paradise as we await Christ’s return in glory. Our role is to have faith that Christ is the savior and that we are on the only path to the Father through Him. We see this in the woman who was hemorrhaging for 12 years (Mark 5:25-29; 34), the lowering of the paralytic through the roof (Luke 5:18-20), the centurion and the saving of his servant (Luke 7:2-10; Matthew 8:5-13). We see the actions taken outside Christ’s actions, yet through the true faith revealed through the Father; Christ did not come to them in the flesh but through the Spirit of the Father in faith (Matthew 16:17).
All these are examples of our responsibilities in receiving the grace needed to enter a mere hope of eternal salvation, done so in faith alone. When our works or actions in faith alone (many Protestants stop here in truth) are done with the hope of redemption in the salvific gift of Christ in the truth of the Father, love. This gift is freely given, and it is up to the receiver to accept it and live by it. What good is it if one is given a great gift of love and keeps it to themselves? The gift is lost in the self-centeredness, going against what Christ has given freely in love, his life that we may live. So, too, we are to do the same in His name and project or give the love that was gifted to us (John 13:34).
All intentions of the heart will be made known by a purgation in the purifying light of the Father and are burnt by the fires of the Holy Spirit, revealing the absolute purified truth within our hearts. The wages earned by the purified love shown are then used to make the final entry into the Kingdom of the Father. In this purified state, we come together with the Son in unity with the Holy Spirit in the Kingdom of Heaven. These wages are based upon the love given in Christ’s name and not the perceived wages earned in conceit, falsehoods, or perceptions that are turned to ashes through one’s purgation (Matthew 7:21-22. Christ bestows upon all of his children in faith through his birth, life, crucifixion into death, and resurrection the forgiving power of the Father because of that faith. What we Catholics refer to as a baptism of desire.[ix]
However, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.” Christ gives an understanding that not all who accept the invitation of Christ’s mercy into his Kingdom will make it to the Kingdom of the Father. There is no escaping the purification fires of the Kingdom of the Son of Man. So, too, I would argue that this notion is played out by Christ himself in John 20:16–17 as fully human; he, too, in a sense, had to pass through the Kingdom of his humanity to get to the Father’s Kingdom creating or establishing once and for all the pathway or bridge to salvation for all of God’s children, where he is glorified. This passing for Christ was done most perfectly (Matthew 17:5) for all the faithful to follow, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” (John 14:6) and ‘Be perfect as your Father is perfect’ (Matthew 5:48).
I contend that the kingdom of the Son of Man (CCC 440) in Matthew 13, which I, as a Catholic, interpret as the Church on earth in conjunction with purgatory, is, for the remainder of this age. The resting place is for all those who accept Christ’s invitation and receive the grace necessary to hope for eternal and everlasting life to come. Upon the completion of this age, all evildoers will be revealed in truth and sentenced accordingly (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). This age, with all its imperfections and sanctity, reflects purgatory and the joy of heaven, where the souls of the departed who accept Christ’s gift of mercy undergo purification due to the consequences of sin, experiencing heavenly penance, and those in perfection, the saints, are brought into the joy of the Father. Similarly, for the Church, through Christ, our pathway to salvation in this age involves reconciliation and penance administered via Christ and the power given to the apostles (Matthew 18:18), who, in turn, give to worthy men. These successors of the apostles, the episcopate and priests, we know to this day. These purification rites are akin to the purification offerings in Leviticus but renewed through the apostles and their successors by the power given to them by Christ (1 Cor 6:11; Luke 22:28-30).
In the earthly Church, the priests absolve sins within the sacrament of reconciliation. The priests of the Church that Christ establishes are the successors to the apostles. Through one’s contrite reconciliation, Christ’s absolution via the Priest acting in ‘Persona Christi,’ and an act of penance, is what cleanses sins. Furthermore, I argue that just before one's earthly death and before the Particular Judgment is made, Christ, for the final time, offers an invitation into His mercy, and those who embrace this invitation receive forgiveness for their sins through Christ’s final earthly absolution. This act is performed for those whose faith is strengthened by Christ’s presence as the narrow gate and with contrite hearts that enable them to accept this invitation just before the particular judgment is delivered. We, in part, see this with the penitent sinner upon the cross alongside Christ’s crucifixion.
The souls of the martyrs and saints who, in their perfect actions and deeds that were done as they lived in true charity, have already partaken in the preliminary purification needed to enter the Kingdom of the Father. These souls meet Christ and joyfully accept His invitation to enter the Kingdom of the Son of Man as a pathway into the Father’s Kingdom in Heaven as Christ did when meeting up with Mary Magdelene at his resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:28). Upon the saints’ and martyrs’ first death in the Particular Judgment, their souls are immediately made like the angels (Matthew 22:30) of this age to reign with Christ and the Father in what St. John calls the first resurrection in Revelation 20:4.
Their souls will continue in this age through the Kingdom of the Son of Man to enter the Kingdom of the Father in heaven with the Father in the following age, a return to the Garden with resurrected bodies. Their souls in this age join the choirs of angels and become intercessory agents of those whose time has not come; therefore, we pray to the saints for their intervention or intercession on our behalf. Similarly, within the Gospels, we see Greek outsiders who summoned the apostles as intermediaries to speak with Jesus as he walked (John 12:20–26), and with this comes the Kingdom of the Son of Man, the Kingdom, once purified, that will be reunited with the Kingdom of the Father as one perfect Kingdom of Heaven (John 18:36) and that they may enter the Kingdom of the Father (John 12:26).
The rest of those who had accepted Christ’s invitation to the feast in his kingdom and church and walked amongst the flock, yet who had lived a life of imperfection, remain in the Kingdom of the Son of Man for this age for their purification, awaiting the final judgment. Those who accept Christ’s invitation at the particular judgment but in this life had rejected or did not know him, thus through ignorance or sinning against the Son of Man, will meet him at the time just before their first death, as I perceive it. Either to accept Christ’s invitation to mercy and thus forgiveness with a hope for eternal salvation and by the power of the Holy Spirit in the acceptance of Christ’s mercy are forgiven their sins and enter into the next existence of the Kingdom of the Son of Man in a state of purgation or purification in the fire of the Holy Spirit through the purifying light of God the Father.
Those who are to be made perfect and shown to be worthy with a proper wage or those who are wearing the appropriate wedding garment, and those in a realization of Christ’s true divinity and accept Christ’s mercy but do not have Christ’s heart in charity, they too in accepting Christ’s mercy, are brought into the kingdom of the Son of Man also because of that mercy given and will be awaiting the final judgment in the hope that they, too, may enter into the kingdom of the Father in everlasting life.
Those who enter into this purgation are then put into the flames produced by the indiscriminate heat of Truth for purification, the Light of the Father rained down by the Holy Spirit whose heat and flame burn away all the false works of the heart (1 Cor 3:15; 1 Pet 1:7), thus revealing what works and deeds were done so in true charity and therefore worthy of redemption’s wages (Matthew 20:13-16; CCC 1006) and whose names, in hope may be placed into the Book of Life at this particular judgment that follows or made holy by the deeds and prayers of others.
If, however, no treasures are amassed during this earthly life (Revelation 20:13), accepting Christ’s invitation to his mercy and forgiveness at one’s first death does not automatically mean one is destined to join the Kingdom of the Father even though they are brought into the fold of the Kingdom of the Son of Man (John 10:16) as other sheep or guests at the wedding feast to sit at a table. It is tragic for those who had the chance here in the earthly Kingdom of the Son of Man but did not heed his teachings either deliberately or not, and act in ways that procure wages in charity worthy for the passage to the Kingdom of the Father.
As is our God, our Father, in his goodness and compassion, accepts from those left behind prayers and sacrifices for the blind and deaf who have no one in this exile to pray for them directly. Suppose no one left behind in this earthly vessel commits acts of pure charity simply out of love for one’s fellow human being and the love of God for those souls whose purses are empty; no one commits selfless acts of charity for the sinner without anyone to pray for them directly. At the second judgment, their garments and deeds are found to be missing or inadequate even though, in Christ’s mercy, they have been brought into the place of purgation within the Kingdom of the Son of Man with the hope of everlasting life. At the final judgment, no wages remain to be paid. Their names are not inscribed in the Book of Life (Matthew 25:12) since they have no love or acts of charity to offer as wages into the kingdom of the Father but are mere strangers within the kingdom of the Son of Man, as Christ proclaims, “I do not know you.”
Accordingly, all who in their sin are blinded by the falsehoods lived and, upon one’s free rejection to pass through Christ just before the particular judgment is to occur, thus rejecting Christ’s mercy just before one’s first death, will bring upon themselves eternal condemnation and are immediately cast into the darkness of the abyss awaiting the second death at the last judgment. Here, they exist in a state of no hope and are in the darkness without any purifying light of the charity of our Lord, God our Father.[x] For those whose hearts remain stone, this may be the preferred waiting rather than the pain and torment of the remission of sins as we see Christ suffers for all in His passion where He who had no sin became sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). This torment is brought upon them by the fires of our Father visa-vi the Holy Spirit while burning away the false charity and selfishness that was their lives lived and knowing the actual outcome of the second death, freely choose the darkness and eternal exile at the first.
The crucifixion and death of Christ gave all of God's children, Jew, Gentile, or slave, the opportunity within the Kingdom of the Son of Man to see and hear for the entirety of one’s life up until the soul leaves the body at one's first death. This includes all those who had lived and died without that opportunity. For example, those who lived before Christ's first coming. To fulfill this, Christ went to those whose first death occurred before the Gospel had been preached. He went to those who had lived in light of the old covenant before Christ’s incarnation had instituted the new, fulfilled covenant proclaimed in the Gospel.
They saw and heard the truth of the Gospels in Christ’s descent to the dead. Those found worthy, too, were brought into the new covenant and were invited to accept His mercy and enter into the hope of everlasting life into the Kingdom of the Son of Man, who upon the final judgment into the New Jerusalem (1 Peter 4:5-6; cf. Colossians 1:23), the new Heaven or the Kingdom of the Father (2 Peter 3:13; Revelation 21:1-2) where all those whose names are in the book of life shall be brought to reside into everlasting life (CCC 634, 635, 636). Those condemned yet forgiven their sins in Christ’s mercy at the particular judgment are also brought into eternal life if found with a worthy wage of true charity as payment (Luke 23:41).
Within this notion comes the thoughts and revelations I pose in this work: the expounding upon Christ’s mercy and to whom he grants it. At one’s particular judgment, one’s first death, one’s earthly death, and what this judgment brings and affords to all of God's children as seen through the Gospels and parables of Christ and the revelation of the saints: a chance through faith into an everlasting life, reconciled through Christ and his chosen one’s, cleansed by the fire of the Holy Spirit, made pure by the light of the Father and brought to hope through an acceptance in Christ’s Mercy while living and breathing, even unto the last moment of this earthly existence; the 59th minute of the eleventh hour, mere moments before one's first death (Matthew 20:14–16).
God our Father, through Christ, invites all His children, both sinners and saints. Those who stay and those who leave (Luke 15:11–32), and he wants the wedding feast hall to be filled (Luke 14:23). This invitation comes with the freedom to accept or reject Christ’s Mercy and thus Him. Upon rejection of the invitation, those who do so are plunged into the wasteland of burnt cities and despair upon their first death. Those who do not accept the invitation that Christ gives are cast immediately into the darkness without hope upon their first death. However, those who accept the invitation received will enter the hall and await the final inspection of the King. Upon the final judgment, if one’s garments or charity is still lacking, it is then at the final judgment that they, with their resurrected bodies, will be banished into the everlasting darkness of the second death, grinding their teeth into everlasting death.
However, before the final judgment, those who remain in this earthly exile may offer what has been given unto them as gifts and treasures for these very souls with no one to pray for them. Prayers for redemption are provided in pure love, with prayers for Christ’s compassion and their purification made possible by the actions of those prayers and supplications that one’s name is added to the Book of Life, and the Father's Kingdom is granted unto them at the second coming (2 Maccabees 12:44-46; Luke 16:1-8).
Avoiding Second Death: Christ Gave Everyone an Invitation to Earthly Reconciliation
Within the Kingdom of the Son of Man, Christ summons us to reconcile with God through Himself in the Sacrament of Reconciliation (John 20:23). Christ appoints his chosen ones to spread reconciliation through the Holy Spirit and his breath. The scriptures affirm that reconciling with God leads to salvation in a new creation, a creation in Christ. Not only partaking in Christ’s body and blood but also the sacramental aspect of reconciliation, bestowed by Christ, is evident as one truly opens one's eyes and looks at the entirety of scripture. This earthly reconciliation is where we ask for and then accept Christ’s Mercy through those appointed to loose and bind in heaven while we live and breathe here in this exile, awaiting Christ’s return in glory. The Gospels are very straightforward in this proclamation of earthly reconciliation through the apostles, which is wrought in heaven with the Father.
1) From John:
“And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said, ‘receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’”[xi]
Here, Christ unequivocally bestows the Apostles with the same forgiving authority he possesses. What they bind and loose on earth is bound and loosed in heaven. This authority, given by Christ, Holy Orders, constitutes the Apostles, our first Bishops, with the power to absolve sins as Christ does. [Jesus] said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” This continuity of authority from Christ to the Apostles underscores the divine origin of their power. [xii] All Bishops henceforth have been given the same divine power by the same rite of Holy Orders from this moment, as we read in John’s Gospel.
2) From Matthew:
“And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this Rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”[xiii]
The demonstration of authority given to the See of Peter in the Gospel of Matthew is a testament to the continuity of divine authority. It declares that Peter has the power to bind and loose (CCC 1444). This authority, the ultimate decision-maker for matters of faith and morals, was brought to earth by the Word from heaven made flesh and is now on earth made so in heaven by that same Word. Passed down from Peter to all the bishops of Rome (CCC 1461), just as Christ did unto him, forging a historical and spiritual connection. This ordination is done by the same rite of ‘breathing’ and anointing of the ordained by the Apostles' successors.
St. Paul also reminds us that our reconciliation with God is through and in Christ, sanctifying the authority given to the Apostles by Christ in a new creation.
“So, whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come. All this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation; namely, God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.” [xiv]
The Church distinctly speaks of our obtaining earthly reconciliation, and by what means does this reconciliation occur: to reconcile with God through Christ in his appointed ones (Matthew 11:27; Jn 3:35; 6:46; 7:28; 10:15). The process by which we are cleansed in the sacrament of reconciliation is explicitly given to us by Christ in the Gospels “My Son your sins are forgiven” is the same absolution given by the Priest acting in Persona Christi, the power handed down I spoke of earlier. St. Paul describes this in Acts 13:38, where that which was not justified under the law is justified in faith.
However, it must be understood that there are three aspects of our reconciliation and that all the effects of sins are retained in our souls if all three aspects of reconciliation are not met. The first act of sin reconciliation is to reconcile with contrition in one’s heart; the second is to have the sin forgiven or loosed in absolution; and the third, sin must be sanctified or cleansed in penance.[xv] Suppose I intentionally or unintentionally cause pain or suffering to another. In that case, that pain is not theirs but mine that I projected or gave them through my action or deed, and unless I seek reparation for it here and now, this unreconciled pain is retained upon my soul after my first death, at which time, in hope and by Christ’s mercy, I will be cleansed in purgatory. This causality is also about the ‘pain’ or assault we send forth to God. We see this within the makeup in the statutes given in the Ten Commandments, which Christ so eloquently summarizes in Matthew 22:37-40.
All our doled-out pain shall return to us in the particular judgment. It is our ‘pain’; there is no escaping this reality; “truly, I say to you, you will never get out till you have paid the last penny.” (Matthew 5:26; Luke 12:59). So reconcile while you are on your way to the magistrate (Luke 12:58). I contend that within the passion of our Lord, the sweating of blood is the very action of Christ taking on the sins of all that had lived before he came; thus Christ, the righteous one, by taking on all sin was made sin that we may be freed from it (2 Corinthians 5:21) allowing us to become the righteous of God through him.
The same truth about our earthly participation in reconciliation is also expressed upon our first death. Just before the particular judgment occurs, forgiveness can be sought by accepting Christ’s invitation to his Mercy in his outstretched arms. However, with contrition in our hearts, the repaying of the pennies and our reconciliation must occur by the purifying fire of the Holy Spirit and the sanctifying light of Our Father, what we Catholics call purgatory. Only through what remains after the fire of God the Father’s burning light has made pure can a wage be given that those who have built with worthy deeds in charity for others on the final judgment, “the Day” (ver.13), and one may be redeemed (1 Corinthians 3:10–17). Those who accept Christ’s mercy but, while alive, have not built with worthy materials will receive no wage and, upon “the Day,” our final judgment, be sent to a second death, thus denied the everlasting life Christ offers by one’s lack of charity for God and man. (Matthew 22:37-40)
One day, some 12 years ago, the Lord gave me a vision while waiting for Mass. As I tried to understand it, I pondered the exclusivity of earthly reconciliation through Christ's chosen vicars and the reconciling with God through Christ directly and His mercy. I pondered the Protestant claims of once saved, always saved, and Christ as one’s personal savior. Is the passing through Christ upon his invitation a reconciliation for those who rejected or did not know Christ here in this existence? Is there a reconciliation for those who deny him with a hardness of heart based upon the blinders they wear, as Saul had done before he was 'reborn' Paul, or those who openly choose to ignore and belittle him and his Church?
As per what was given, I began to open my heart and reflect on the message that was shown. Some things are read or heard, and the spirit moves one to realize the truth based on what the Lord wants from us. I reflected and looked at the Church Fathers and Church teachings to better understand if there is more to one's reconciliation and if it is universal in and through Christ for all, irrespective of creed or beliefs. I pondered if Christ’s mercy is not limited to one’s earthly reconciliation through our priests in persona Christi as one lives and breathes. At the end of the consecration, the priest, after the mystery of faith, declares,
“Humbly we pray that, partaking of the Body and Blood of Christ, we may be gathered into one by the Holy Spirit. …Remember also our brothers and sisters who have fallen asleep in the hope of the resurrection and all who have died in your mercy: welcome them into the light of your face.”[xvi]
I began to understand that we proclaim within these words that there is a hope that the gathering unto Christ is for all who partake in his body and blood, for all those asleep or who have died in Christ’s mercy, and what it is that those dying in Christ’s mercy imply. Within this comes the unity or oneness vis-à-vis the Holy Spirit of those in the light of Christ’s face and the presumption that they are with him. Therefore, all who enter must be reconciled through the divinity and mercy of Christ until the completion or fulfillment of one's first death, our earthly death, that they may be with Christ within the kingdom of the Son of Man after the particular judgment is made.
However, earthly reconciliation is the foundation of our healing and the beginning of our purification through the forgiveness of sins and purgation through penance so that we may be, in part, spared the inevitable purification that must be completed before one can enter the New City on the Hill within the Kingdom of the Father. In this earthly sacrament of reconciliation, Christ bestowed upon the Apostles, and they bestow upon their successors the means to help us overcome our addictions and appetites for sin. When facing another human being, our priests, and bearing one’s sins, this personal meeting invokes humility within us as we face the reality of our sins within this exile, this earthly body, this fallen body. As the preliminary and ultimate final judge, Christ will do so in His time, and this ‘personal face-to-face’ with Christ himself is fulfilled.
The Catholic doctrine of the particular judgment states that “immediately after death, each separated soul's eternal destiny is determined by God's just judgment.” Although there has been no formal definition, the Union Decree of Eugene IV (1439) implies the dogma. It declares that souls leaving their bodies in a state of grace but in need of purification are cleansed in a form of purgation, which Catholics call Purgatory. “Perfectly pure souls are immediately admitted to the beatific vision of the Godhead. On the other hand, those who depart in actual mortal sin, or merely with original sin, are immediately consigned to eternal punishment, the severity of which corresponds to their sin.” This doctrine is also found in the profession of faith of Michael Palaeologus in 1274, in the Bull "Benedictus Deus" of Benedict XII in 1336, and the professions of faith of Gregory XIII and Benedict XIV.[xvii]
I am contemplating the notion stated above that within the particular judgment, there is a state whereby souls are immediately consigned to eternal punishment, the severity of which corresponds to their sin.’ Dante’s Spiral Mountain of Purgatory[xviii]. Here is where I try to expand upon the notion concerning the level of punishment and those who die in Christ’s Mercy for us all. I firmly believe that eternal damnation is not automatic if one accepts Christ’s invitation to the feast, the Protestant view of being saved by faith. However, purification by fire must also occur, and a final judgment based on the remaining charity that has been purified shall be made. One can, therefore, conclude that within this notion of levels of severity, the more deeds and actions that require purification, the greater the severity of the punishment or purification, Dante’s levels of purgatory, which he calls Paradise[xix].
We must look at scripture to find evidence of a particular judgment at our first death. Ecclesiastes 11:9; 12:1 sq.; and Hebrews 9:27 are sometimes quoted in proof of the particular judgment, but though these passages speak of a judgment after death, neither the context nor the force of the words proves that the sacred writer had in mind a judgment distinct from that at the end of the world. Therefore, the Scriptural arguments defending the particular judgment are done so indirectly. [xx]
According to St. Augustine of Hippo, in his “Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel according to St. John,” all souls, upon leaving this world, have different experiences. Those considered good experience positive outcomes, while those considered evil face negative consequences. After the resurrection, both the joy of the good and the torments of the wicked are expected to intensify, as they will be experienced in the body. Patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, and believers have found peace throughout history. However, they still await the fulfillment of certain promises, including the flesh's resurrection, death's end, and eternal life. All anticipate this ultimate promise, with rest being granted to those deemed worthy immediately after death. This rest has been received progressively over time by various groups: first by the patriarchs, then the prophets, then the apostles, more recently the martyrs, and gradually by others who are faithful. The duration of their rest varies, but ultimately, all are expected to receive the fulfillment of the promises together.
When one looks at the development of doctrine for the Catholic Church regarding Purgatory, it was affirmed by the Second Council of Lyons (1274). The Council of Florence (1439), both addressing relations between the East and the West, as well as the Council of Trent (1563), which tackled issues stemming from the Reformation in the West (DS 856–8, 1304, 1580, 1820). Recently, it has been presupposed by the Second Vatican Council in its Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium, 51). It was reaffirmed by Pope Paul VI in his Credo of the People of God (1968) and by the “Letter on Certain Questions Concerning Eschatology” (1979) from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
The teaching of the Council of Trent may be summarized as follows: 1) Purgatory exists; 2) Those detained there may be aided by the prayers and good works of the faithful, particularly by the sacrifice of the altar. Additionally, the Council commands the bishops to ensure that the faithful uphold sound doctrine regarding purgatory. More complex questions that do not contribute to piety should be excluded from public instruction. Furthermore, anything that appears to involve idle curiosity, superstition, or financial exploitation is expressly prohibited.[xxi]
There is no text we can say expressly affirms this dogma. Still, several teach immediate retribution after death, implying a particular judgment whereby one’s soul is assigned to a ‘state of being’ based upon one's life. As I stated earlier in Matthew’s Gospel 13:40-43, there is a notion of two kingdoms: the Kingdom of the Son of Man and the Kingdom of the Father (see also Lk 22:28-30). Also, in Christ’s parables (Luke 16:19-31), Christ represents Lazarus, the poor beggar, and Dives, the rich man, receiving their rewards immediately after death within the particular judgment made. I believe that this reality of the two kingdoms is perhaps where some misunderstandings come from regarding understanding the Kingdom of God. The unification of the Kingdom of the Son with that of the Kingdom of the Father by the binding force of the Holy Spirit. One is made holy through Christ’s Mercy into his kingdom, and the purification of the Holy Spirit is needed to enter the kingdom of the Father. Thus, within this triune relationship, one enters the Kingdom of God.
As a Catholic believer in the resurrection, one must consider that neither Lazarus, the poor beggar, nor Dives, the rich man, has received their bodies in a second and final judgment, where we see what has been described as the existence of a chasm between Abrahem and Sheol which in the death and resurrection of Christ bridges or creates the pathway to heaven and our own glorious resurrection. Lazarus and Divas have always been regarded as types of the just man and the sinner, and within the teachings Christ presents in Luke, they are within sight and earshot of each other, able to see each other and speak to each other, while their souls exist in differing states based upon their lives lived. The deeds done or not done, and the love in their hearts.
The Catholic notion of a particular judgment proclaims this state of being as a preliminary judgment of Christ to all God’s children made at one’s earthly death or first death. Here, the Kingdom of the Son of Man is extended into the realm of the dead as Dante describes the levels of paradise in his Divine Comedy[xxii]. All God’s children who, upon their first death, are 1) brought into the joy of heaven, or 2) those who have fallen asleep, or 3) those who accept Christ’s Mercy. All these souls are within the kingdom of the Son of Man who awaits Christ’s second and final judgment in the state that Christ judges them to have, be it a state of joy, hope, or remorse.
Those who enter the joy of heaven, referred to by St. John as the first resurrection, are saints and martyrs. Upon Christ's judgment, those found pure in heart, having lived in faith and with love for God and His children, attain a station like the angels. Meanwhile, others await the second coming in purgation (Revelation 20:6), with Lazarus at peace and Dives in torment.
This undoubtedly shows us the relationship one attains at death based upon the particular judgment made with one’s path to eternity. As the sinner, Dives, begs to go and tell his brothers of his fate (Luke 16:28), Abraham proclaims that his brothers are on their own; they know the law. But I ask, can Dives be brought to salvation at the second coming of Christ through the prayers of those same brothers left behind? As a Catholic, the answer is an emphatic yes (2 Maccabees 12:44-46; CCC 958).
To the penitent thief, it was promised that his soul, instantly on leaving the body, would be in the Kingdom of the Son of Man: “This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43), the place where Christ dwells in the fullness of his humanity Glorified, the Kingdom of the Son of Man, the sole pathway to the Father. What Dante gives levels to in the numbered heavens, earthly paradise. We also see in his writings that St. Paul (2 Corinthians 5) longs to be absent from the body that he may be present to the Lord, evidently understanding death to be the entrance into his reward (cf. Philemon 1:21 sq.). Ecclesiasticus 11:26-28 speaks of retribution at the hour of death. Still, it may refer to temporal punishment, such as sudden death amid prosperity, the evil remembrance that survives the wicked, or the misfortunes of their children. However, the other texts that have been quoted are sufficient to establish the strict conformity of the doctrine with Scripture teaching (cf. Acts 1:25; Revelation 20:4–6, 12–14).[xxiii]
Here is a distinct reference regarding the state at which our souls will be upon our first death: either in a state of peace and exist as the angels do or a state of cleansing, or, as I contend by a free choice, the rejection or the acceptance of the invitation of Christ’s mercy and power at the meeting of Him at the particular judgment. One’s rejection, one aspect of the sin against the Holy Spirit,[xxiv] casting one into the darkness, denying Christ’s invitation of mercy and power through the purifying fire of the Holy Spirit. Otherwise, it is an acceptance through faith upon seeing and believing in Christ at death and thus the acceptance of the purifying fire of the Holy Spirit through Christ that we may one day be with the Father.
Upon the end of time, all the living and the dead are brought to a final judgment where one receives their eternal bodies in resurrection. An eternal judgment is either the permanent residence into the rooms our Father has prepared within the New Heaven within the Kingdom of God for the holy ones whose names are in the Book of Life and for those who are made holy by the cleansing power of the fire of the Holy Spirit whose names have been added to the Book of Life via that purification or the evil ones who are sent to a second death into the pool of fire for the unpurified sinners. Those who, upon death, either rejected Christ’s invitation into paradise for their cleansing or those who, upon death, accept Christ’s mercy in their seeing him at the particular judgment and in faith declare him truly, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28) and within that acceptance are forgiven their sins. However, it is also true that the forgiveness of sins is not the remittance of the results of those sins, there must be a purification performed. Those who amassed no treasures in charity after the purification fires revealed the truth are sent outside the gates to gnash their teeth, into the abyss and if these souls had no one left behind to pray for them and give them gifts or treasures so they, too, may receive wages that they had not earned in prayer and sacrifice. In Rev 20:6 and 21:8, St. John refers to this as a second death upon the final judgment. Accepting Christ’s Mercy and forgiveness does not necessarily wipe away the requisite owed, to Our Father, for the grace given in baptism.
Therefore, one must conclude that before the final resurrection and second death, the one who accepts Christ’s invitation as they repent and choose to pass through or embrace Christ before their earthly death, their soul leaving the body, are waiting at a table at the wedding feast. Unclean souls are placed in a state of hope not within the City on the Hill in the Kingdom of the Father as those who are perfect, nor are they sent to hell or Gehenna as those who reject Christ’s invitation. ‘Damnation consists precisely in definitive separation from God, freely chosen by the human person and confirmed with death that seals one’s choice forever. God’s judgment ratifies this state.’[xxv]
The mercy of the Father through and in Christ’s forgiveness grants all who accept it hope of eternal life in the everlasting kingdom of the Father. This encounter with Christ is absolute and unavoidable. All God’s children must face Christ, the Son of Man, and are subject to this particular judgment of their lives. With the freedom given, one may accept the invitation presented by Christ and pass through him into the paradise or garden of the Kingdom of the Son of Man or reject it. Those who choose to make this passage are then brought into a state of waiting within Christ’s Kingdom for the second coming and the second resurrection. All who are in Christ and share a space within his kingdom are then cleansed or purified of their sins through differing levels of purgation. This applies to all of God’s created children who freely accept the invitation in this exile visa-vi the Church and those whom Christ gives the power to do so. Those who partake in the earthly confession of their sins in reconciliation and those who freely accept the invitation by the Father through Christ, his son, that they are reconciled to God the Father in Christ his Son, who applies the particular judgment in the first death. St. Paul in 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 very distinctly proclaims this truth.
So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come. And all this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who did not know sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
As I genuinely try to understand and explain what has been revealed, I look at the Catholic Church's teachings within the context of what was shown. In His Church, the unavoidable facing of Christ’s light occurs before the immortal soul departs from the body (CCC 336). Modern science supports this notion, as it acknowledges that a person's revival is possible if there is brain activity, in part our soul, even after bodily death, which, according to professionals and doctors, has the potential for revival to last for a significant amount of time.
In this period, between the cessation of bodily functions and the departure of the soul, I ask, based upon what the Lord showed me, is there the possibility of what I would call a final temporal reconciliation through Christ himself, similar to the reasoning behind St. Peter's account in 1 Peter 4:6 or is it at least feasible and within reason? This is when individuals face eternal retribution in a particular judgment that aligns their lives with Christ's teachings and in the Love of God. Per our Catholic teachings, this judgment determines the state of being in which the soul exists in spirit until the second coming, the living in the spirit St. Peter spoke of.
At the end of time, upon the second and final judgment, there shall be a universal resurrection of our bodies, which will be reunited with our souls. Upon this reunification, there will be four distinct outcomes for all of God’s Children: 1) those who reject Christ’s Mercy outright, whose fate is sealed into Gehenna or hell, receive their just outcome into everlasting damnation. 2) All whose names, at the first resurrection, are entered into the Book of Life will remain in the new Heaven, the unified Kingdom of the Father, and their bodies shall be glorified into everlasting life and made Christ-like, becoming new Adams and new Eves. 3) Those who accepted Christ in their earthly exile but did not fully live it as He so commanded, as well as those who, at their first death, accepted Christ’s mercy at the particular judgment into his kingdom and through the grace given are brought into purgatory’s sanctifying fire, where their straw was turned to ashes and any wages manifested. Here, there are two outcomes: 3.1) After purification, if no wages remain or in life did not obtain any fruits of love, (1 Corinthians 3:12–15, Matthew 25:26–30), there is a condemnation of Hell's everlasting damnation as in St. John's second death. 3.2) Those whose purification either by their fruits of love (deeds) or the fruits of love gifted by others are found worthy are given the bequeathed wages as the toll, those who pray and offer sacrifice to the dead. These souls are reunited with the bodies and are brought into the Kingdom of the Father purified and made whole into everlasting life, just like the Saints. There are no other paths; this final judgment is for eternity.
CCC 1022 Teaches us that; "Each man receives 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[xxvi] or immediately,[xxvii]—or immediate and everlasting damnation.[xxviii] (393; 1470)[xxix]"
The notion of a universal opportunity for reconciliation for all of God's created children is simple, to the point, and yet so profound. I considered this ideal a glimpse into the particular judgment as I, a Catholic, understand it: the remittance of one’s life to Christ upon death. The understanding is that no one gets to the Father except through Christ (John 14:6) within the Kingdom of the Son of Man, purified. The reception of reconciliation or a means by which is the giving to all of God’s created children the ability to meet Christ, either in death or through His Church, and thus to be given the choice to accept or reject him within this moment in time before the particular judgment occurs, a time between the cessation of bodily function and the soul leaving the body, one’s life lived in its entirety.
Those who, in this exile, freely and fully embrace Christ and his teachings and, through the sanctifying grace gifted in their baptisms, confirmations, and their receiving the Body and Blood of Christ with faithful and contrite loving hearts, run to him, embrace him, and without hesitation pass through him. These, too, receive the same reconciliation in Christ’s mercy as the sinner, the nonbeliever, etc. This is ratified in 1 Peter 4:5-6; Acts 10:42; 2 Timothy 4:1, where those who lived before Christ's first coming had a chance to pass through Christ and were given the same particular judgment to receive eternal peace or retribution—a judgment applied to both the living and the dead.
Here, too, is where the argument of those children whose life was exterminated before birth, either by choice or not, pass through Christ in the same manner at their death and, in their innocence, are made pure in that baptism, confirmation, and the partaking of the body and blood of Christ immediately when they pass through Our Lord at the articular judgment and are sent to the Father in his Kingdom of Heaven just as the saints and martyrs are judged to be pure and holy (Matthew 18:1-5). Christ’s proclamation, so, too, those who choose the extermination of the most innocent among us will and must be rectified in Christ for their lack of innocence.
Origen of Alexandria, an anti-Nicaean Church Father, comments on the writings of St. Paul in Rom 8:19, 20 and 1 Corinthians where, “St. Paul in 1 Cor 15:20ff tells us that the first fruits, “to look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are unseen.” And he who considers that “the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God, not willingly, but because of him who subjected the same in hope,” while he praises the creature, and sees how “it shall be freed altogether from the bondage of corruption and restored to the glorious liberty of the children of God (Rom 8:19, 20).” [xxx]
Origen, here, speaks of this first death in the particular judgment as I perceive it. Within these words, I pray that the light of Wisdom falls upon all who read it about the understanding, as I believe it, that the moment before one's soul leaves the body, our first death, all are given a free choice to accept our Lord at their particular judgment, Jesus Christ, as the Son of Man and with contrite hearts reconcile through him into Dante’s paradise to be with him in his Kingdom. In His Divine Mercy, all created children of God are given the opportunity by Christ himself to repent and to see that He is the one gate to salvation through faith, choosing to pass through, thus passing the final test of that faith and the pouring of mercy that is received and the hope of eternal peace.
A reconciliation to those whose hearts Christ confirms as genuine and contrite, expounding upon what the Catholic Church describes in CCC 1452 and 1453. Vis-a-vi an invitation, these souls are brought into the wedding feast to sit at a table while they await the arrival of the King, Our Father, who has given unto His only begotten son, the Son of Man, all judgment (John 5:22); they are the workers who get the same pay, having only worked one hour or even one minute, whereby the first shall be last, and the last shall be first (Matthew 20:8; 16) etcetera. One of the notions of a sin against the Holy Spirit, “the reject Christ’s mercy, when offered”[xxxi] and the cleansing power of the Holy Spirit, along with attributing to Satin that which the Lord has done, is what Christ calls the sin against the Holy Spirit (CCC 1031): immediate and eternal damnation without any hope while awaiting the final judgment and second death to come.
Within this very acceptance by faith and one choosing to step through Christ, one partakes in the Body and Blood of Christ, ‘unless you eat my flesh and drink my blood you have no life in you,’ into a possibility in the hope of the new Kingdom of the Father and everlasting life. Then, our soul separates from our bodies, and a particular judgment occurs when we refer our lives to Christ. Within the Dialog of Catherine of Siena, Christ reveals to St. Catherine a judgment at the extremity of death, where we taste our first judgment. Where we receive our place at the feast, our seat is based upon the station at which we are when we die; this is known as Eschatology.
Christ tells St. Catherine of Siena this notion of pre-knowledge of what is to be:
…And so, they taste eternal life before they have left the mortal body, that is before the soul is separated from the body. Others who have passed their lives and have arrived at the last extremity of death with an ordinary charity (not in that great perfection), embrace My mercy with the same light of faith and hope that had those perfect ones, but, in them, it is imperfect, for, because they were imperfect, they constrained My mercy, counting My mercy greater than their sins. The wicked sinners do the contrary, for, seeing, with desperation, their destination, they embrace it with hatred, as I told you. So that neither the one nor the other waits for judgment, but in departing this life, they receive everyone their place, as I have told you, and they taste it and possess it before they depart from the body, at the extremity of death—the damned with hatred and with despair, and the perfect ones with love and the light of faith and with the hope of the Blood. And the imperfect arrives at the place of Purgatory with mercy and the same faith.[xxxii]
In the words of St. Catherine, ‘as I have told you, and they taste it and possess it before they depart from the body, at the extremity of death.’ The notion of where I am going within this paper is in the sense of retribution or reconciliation being imposed before the soul leaves the body. The other aspect is the prayers and supplications of those left behind for those departed that, in charity and Christ’s mercy, another's grace and holiness may be bequeathed to the souls in purgatory in need of reparations.
To better understand what I am trying to portray, what the Gospels are teaching, and what, as a Catholic, I firmly believe, as seen in CCC 605, which denotes that God's Will is to welcome everyone. Through faith and upon accepting Christ and his mercy, the bestowing of one’s reconciliation is through him, and one receives forgiveness of sins within this action of accepting the invitation; there is but one gate. Accept the invitation (Matthew 22:2-14), and by passing through this gate, Christ brings one into the Kingdom of the Son of Man, into the wedding feast to be seated at a table waiting in hope to partake in the everlasting life and enter the Kingdom of the Father.
Still, in this first death, our earthly death, most of us are brought into the outer reaches of the tables at the rear of the hall, waiting for the new Jerusalem, the New Heaven, to come. Both the good and the bad are invited, and the King wants his hall full (Matthew 22:10). So, we also see the truth in the earthly Church, the Kingdom of the Son of Man, as a representation or extension of what will come. Those who accept Christ's mercy and forgiveness, both receiving mercy and forgiveness, coexist within this part of the earthly Son of Man’s Kingdom, the Church, awaiting the particular judgment, not within the gates of the city on the hill to come but rather in the outer rooms, those in the Gospel who freely accept the invitation to the wedding feast to be seated at a table awaiting their final judgment.
We can openly and with contrition seek and receive reconciliation through Christ’s mercy via his appointed successors of Christ in His Church. However, upon one’s first death, this opportunity is gone. Upon one’s death, there are but two outcomes possible: anyone with a contrite heart who passes through Christ in faith, thus accepting His mercy and entering into paradise, or rejects Christ's invitation of forgiveness and is sent to the darkness into an eternal damnation without hope, as St. Catherine describes.
Upon this choice, Christ assesses one’s life when one refers one's life to him. Preserving one’s station is made for this age until the second coming (Rev 22:12), where we will be brought into the city gates of the Kingdom of the Father or be condemned to a second death. There is no escaping atonement for our sins, for nothing unclean shall enter the gates of the City on the Hill. Every copper shall be paid (Luke 12:59). Everyone shall be salted (purified) with fire (Mark 9:49). Even Christ himself, in his humanity, must also pass through the Kingdom he establishes as the pathway to the Father (John 20:17)[xxxiii], as he so lived so too in death he creates the way.[xxxiv] Within his humanity, the perfect way, there is no salting, no fault, nor copper owed (1 Corinthians 15:24-28), and a new pathway is established by and through Christ to the Father.
Throughout this age, the age between Christ’s resurrection until the time of our resurrections, one's actions, both good and bad, will be subject to the light of God's purifying light of fire by the Holy Spirit (1 Peter 1:7; 2 Peter 3:12; 1 Cor 3:13, 15). Whether the holy one in perfection, the purification of the imperfect, or the souls that are damned, this initial state sentenced by the particular judgment of Christ continues until the second coming and the revealing of all truths for those who accept Christ's forgiveness into 'paradise' the Kingdom of the Son of Man and those who do not. At that time, there shall be a ‘making known’ through Christ and his angels by exposing one's true nature and heart. They will receive the station they deserve for eternity, the final eternal sorting (Matthew 25:33–34) into eternal life to be lived in the New Jerusalem within the Kingdom of the Father or sent to a second death into the fiery pits of hell, where Christ thus reveals, “I do not know you” (Matthew 25:11–12) to all who accepted his mercy in death yet whose life was lived devoid of charity.
As I further ponder what the Lord has given and the question about what constitutes reconciliation upon our death, if anything, I could not help thinking from a Catholic point of view about someone whose life was honorable but just before death falls into mortal sin and does not have a chance to go to earthly confession and be reconciled to God. I asked: Are they truly going to hell for eternity, dying in mortal sin as seemingly the Catechism of the Catholic Church[xxxv] (CCC) 1035 proclaims? Or is there more to it? This does not sound like Jesus or my Church, where all charity is ignored in light of a fall (John 5:14; 8:11) without the mercy Christ so wants to give.
I understand I am being sarcastic, but many Catholics believe this to be absolute and thus miss out on the actual and endless mercy of Christ. In my most profound reaches of understanding as a faithful Catholic, this notion expressed within CCC 1035 rings true whereby in death one in mortal sin will be confined to eternal damnation, however as I so postulate here that just before the particular judgment before one’s soul leaves the body, if they accept Christ’s invitation, his open arms he forgives all sins against the Son of man. This forgiveness is done so in the same nature he showed as he walked amongst us and his limitless Divine Mercy that has been revealed to us. At the same time, the unrepentant causality of mortal sin creates a rift between us and the Kingdom of the Father, codifying CCC 1035. As Christ’s in his particular judgment knows that the over-dependence on his mercy without works of charity is a fool’s errand wrought from the misunderstanding of what Christ had proclaimed.
This stand-alone article must be seen in Christ’s teachings and actions while he walked amongst us. Along with the embracing of the entirety of his Church’s teachings. This is my point: we are to look at the entirety of the Church's teachings to formulate what we understand as the truth of Christ via that Church and the Kingdom of the Son of Man. In her teachings and the Gospels, the Church tells a different and cohesive story, which I am trying to relate to here.
The understanding is that the kingdom of heaven is like a net cast (Mt 13:47) that collects or gathers both good and bad fish (Particular Judgment), and the net is taken ashore (the waiting for the second coming) to sort the good from the bad (the final judgment). Again, I reflected on how these words could be reconciled or be seen in unison with the teachings of the Church, especially CCC 1035.
Many Protestants teach that faith is what reconciles us to Christ and opens the door to heaven; I say an emphatic yes. Still, I would proclaim that this door is to the Kingdom of the Son of Man, bound to this earthly existence carried into the waiting for the second coming or this age, where our true goal lies in the entering the Kingdom of the Father with the final judgment. The new Heaven, the new Jerusalem, the new City on the Hill, as new creations resurrected and leaving behind the old established as a pathway to it by Christ within His kingdom, the Kingdom of the Son of Man, the new path we see at His resurrection.
When Christ met a sinner, he forgave their sins and told them to ‘sin no more, not that I condemn you in your sin’ (John 8:12; 12:47). Understanding this sentiment of Christ's nature while alive, which would then be missing or absent upon our meeting Christ in the particular judgment is lost in his resurrection and glory for those who refuse to see that dying in unrepentant mortal sin does not necessarily automatically conclude in a predestination of the second death that St. John defines. There is a time when we await the second coming, and it is then if one is judged unworthy with no wages for their purse, one is assuredly sent to the fires of Gehenna into the second death. With Christ’s abundant mercy, however, there is a choice one makes first to reject the mercy of Christ within the life lived or at one's particular judgment just before one’s first death. Upon this free choice made to deny Christ’s mercy, one’s station then becomes predetermined within the confines of the particular judgment, and one remains in darkness with no hope until the second death, a free decision to reject Christ’s invitation, a damnation affirming the sentiment within CCC 1035.
Again, the Gospel teaches us, as we see in Jn 8:11, Christ's reaction to an adulteress woman when he tells her, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.” Also, in Mt 9:2 or Mk 2:5, when Jesus saw the faith of those who lowered the paralytic man, he told the paralytic, “Child, your sins are forgiven.” The faith of the outsiders, whose love and actions save the paralytic man, is a forbearance for we who pray for those who have died. Again, in Luke 7:47,
“Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little.” And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
I am merely reiterating the notion Christ himself expressed while he walked amongst us, that in death, He remains amongst us in His kingdom, the Kingdom of the Son of Man; “you will be with me in paradise.” For me, this is not a rewriting of the Doctrine but rather the expansion or expounding of it. This age, that of the Kingdom of the Son of Man, will not end until all things are done, the second coming (Matthew 24:33-35).
To Whom I am Speaking
Scripture shows Christ's obvious and distinct actions while dealing with sinners and knowing their true hearts. However, in the vision, the Lord so showed me, in the most simplistic terms, a journey; I must ask within the realm of divine revelation if what was shown was just for me or if it is more complex. I thought about the vision given to St. Peter of unclean food (Acts 10:9) as I tried to expand on the gift, believing in my heart that there is much more to it, as was that given to St. Peter. With this prenotion that a more profound meaning is present, I ask: At death, before the soul leaves the body, is there the opportunity for Christ to forgive one’s sins, and if yes, why? Earlier, I considered Christ’s descent into hell, which foretells this redemption to all souls at all times (CCC 632-635; 1 Peter 3:18-22). “There is not, never has been, and never will be a single human being for whom Christ did not suffer.” (CCC, 605).
In the Particular Judgment, there is a giving or application of one’s station by Christ, as mentioned above (CCC 1022), a station as we lived it, in what some of the old call the intermediate state or limbo, the place of the dead, (Sheol in Hebrew, Hades in Greek) while in Christ there is a fulfillment of the path to the Kingdom of God—The Word made flesh establishing the Kingdom of the Son of Man as the pathway to the Kingdom of the Father; “I am the way…”. Once the body no longer lives and one has received one’s station with the particular judgment, our ability to change that station is gone. Preservation of the same faith that we lived comes to us in death until the final sifting or sorting of every soul in the kingdom when Christ comes again for the eternal placement of all those living, asleep, and dead (Revelation 21:5-8) with the resurrection of bodies into their eternal domain.
Those who fully and entirely embrace Christ during their mortal existence do so in faith and thus anticipate the ultimate or final judgment and the glory of the resurrection of their physical bodies in God's new city on the hill into the Kingdom of the Father. Just as Christ rose and went to the Father (John 20:17), this anticipation occurs between earthly death and the final judgment at Christ's second coming. The station one receives, and the subsequent waiting for the resurrection are inescapable; there is a confining of all who lived in faith and at first death accept Christ's forgiveness in the given state until the second coming in the hope of everlasting life and glory (Revelations 21:4) or to their second death as St. John describes in the Book of Revelation (Revelation 20:14).
It is essential to acknowledge that prayers from the living offer hope and the potential for grace to those who have passed away and are asleep (CCC 1032), even the wicked who died in Christ’s mercy, who, at the last moment of the hour, accept forgiveness in that mercy (Matthew 20:12) receiving the same gift of reconciliation as Christ tells us in the parable of the Workers in the Vineyard. The day laborer brought into the vineyard in the last hour receives the same reward as the one who started at the first hour (Matthew 20:1-16). Meanwhile, the saints and faithful martyrs whose souls, upon the particular judgment made, immediately pass through the Kingdom of the Son of Man, walking with Christ, enter the Kingdom of the Father to come. They are like the angels, walking with God the Father, whose light is not purifying but sanctifying. The Fires of the Holy Spirit are reflected, and the saints and martyrs become our intercessors as they await their bodies. The final judgment and resurrection are to become like Adam and Eve before the fall.
A proclamation of the first judgment in the second is made when the soul leaves the body with the knowledge of what is coming. The particular judgment bestows upon everyone the state in which they live. Whether we wait while sitting at a table at the wedding feast in the rear of the hall or a place of honor, whereby this waiting is done in a state of perfect peace, damnation, or imperfection (CCC Purgatory), we still must wait until the end of time to be fully glorified within our resurrection as Christ is.
This waiting, station, or state is completed within the same ‘space,’ ‘room,’ or realm within the Kingdom of the Son of Man, similarly as the rich man could see and speak to Lazarus in Luke 16:23 as they waited for the first coming of Christ, so too all of humanity that accept Christ’s invitation to mercy are now in the banquet hall awaiting the second coming, the meeting of the King. Some are seated at the head table, and others are in the rear. The good and the bad who have accepted the invitation sit together at a table as they wait.
I have referenced thus far from Matthew 22:2-14, The Parable of the Wedding Feast: “The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son.” As I break down the passage, one must first acknowledge that the closing of the gates of the feast signifies our first death and our acceptance of the invitation to enter. We take our seats, and there comes a sealing of the choices made in this life, the closing of the wedding feast gates; the particular judgment is sealed, and the gates are closed until Christ returns and we face our King, the Son of Man. It is essential to acknowledge that given within one’s life is the opportunity to be in the Joy of Heaven while we wait; as Christ told St. Catherine, “…in departing this life, they receive everyone their place.”
In our arrogance, one may think that if they choose to accept the invitation to the feast in faith alone, they have made it (22:8); on the contrary, most are not worthy to come, yet there is an invitation (a final reconciliation) to all God’s children, 'let the hall be full.' Those who in faith accept the invitation, and once inside the banquet room, the closing of the doors occurs, and all those, worthy and unworthy (Particular Judgment), both good and bad (22:10), who have taken their seats at the feast (the waiting for the second coming) just as in the parable of a net cast in Mt 13:47 that I spoke of earlier.
Then, for all those seated in the hall comes a second judgment (the final judgment) made by the King based upon their ‘garments’ worn; the same notion expressed earlier concerning the test of fire and one’s wages that are left, the garment. Christ, given all authority in the judging of God’s Children within the Kingdom of the Son of Man, determines one’s worthiness; if those seated are found unworthy without a proper wedding garment (22:12), there is a second death and the casting out of the gates to whale and grind their teeth (22:13) forever—a separation of the sheep and the goats we see in Matthew 25:32.
The invitation into the Kingdom of the Son of Man is for everyone, and in faith, one (Mt 22:10) accepts the invitation to enter the feast. As I try to understand better what the Lord was portraying to me, I believe this invitation can come at the very last moment before the gates close, ‘before they have left the mortal body, that is before the soul is separated from the body.’ As Christ so teaches the workers at the vineyard, “Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last.” (Matt 20:16). However, as this is the end of one’s earthly life and the means to amass treasures of charity (deeds and actions, our wedding garments) has passed, we are therefore stuck with the treasures of charity (deeds and actions, garments) amassed in our heavenly purse, our hearts (Matthew 6:20) as we lived, be it full, partial, or empty (Luke 12:33). One’s worthiness is the garment we wear to the feast.
These deeds done in charity or love have nothing to do with the initial particular judgment, which is merely an assessment by Christ of those deeds, the life one has lived, and the Mercy of Christ in the forgiveness given by the Holy Spirit. If found to be perfect as the Father is perfect (Matthew 5:28), these deeds of charity enable one’s station to pass through the Kingdom of the Son of Man to be carried out with the Father in his Kingdom while awaiting Christ’s second coming. Those whose deeds are found to be lacking but in an imperfect way fall asleep in the Kingdom of the Son of Man for further refining or purification (Purgatory). And then those who die in Christ’s mercy accept his invitation to the feast but have no deeds of charity are left to wait in the burning fire of God the Father’s light in the flames of the Holy Spirit with a hope that someone in exile will pray and make sacrifice and bequeath unto them deeds of love in that sacrifice unearned, the praying and making sacrifice of the living in exile for the dead.
During this age, those brought into the kingdom of the Son of Man dwell there in their station through faith, where they receive their wage for the works performed, and here is where the cleansing of the imperfect occurs in hope (1 Corinthians 3:13-15). I pray in hope and perfect charity for the potential cleansing of the wicked in their hatred and despair. Those who, with contrite hearts, accepted Christ’s invitation to the feast will suffer the cleansing power of the Father's light as they wait.
The Lord has given those who remain here on earth the power to amass treasures in another’s name for their salvation and Christ’s continued mercy (CCC 1032). We pray for the dead to offer sacrifice for them and pray for God’s mercy in their name (CCC 958), offering our treasures and gifts of the Father for their salvation into His kingdom (Luke 16:1-8) in the same manner Christ did for us in his—a manifestation through Christ’s love and Mercy for all God’s children.
Within The Parable of the Wedding Feast, there is an invitation to the wedding feast by the Father for his son. The passing through Christ, the Son of Man, visa-vi the acceptance to the Father’s invitation, the unbaptized, the atheist, the agnostic, the nonbelievers, the ignorant, and even the wicked in the hope to be with the Heavenly King, enter the wedding feast hall, the Kingdom of the Son of Man, ‘I want my hall full.’ Those who desire a seat with Christ, their earthly King, their God, at the feast, regardless of their motives to be there, are all invited. This innate desire comes from the moment of one’s conception through God and an inherent understanding of a natural law instilled within all of God’s children.
An invitation arrives, and all, every child of God, is given a choice via true freedom to accept or reject ‘his invitation’ into his Son’s Mercy. I perceived it as a choice to choose the Light of the Father, seen in Christ, or not, which comes before the soul leaves the body for those who did not know him in this life. A choice at the fringe of death that brings one into the kingdom of the Son of Man upon accepting the invitation to pass through Christ. Both the good and the bad in faith are invited into the cleansing light of the Father, into the wedding feast. While the bad and dishonest who had no one to pray for them during their time in waiting after accepting Christ’s mercy into His Kingdom, upon the second coming, are told, 'I do not know you' (Matthew 25:12), the unworthy garments are revealed (Matthew 22:12) and is then that they are cast outside the gates into a second death.
As I perceived the message I was given, one received their station and entered the gates of the wedding feast through faith in Christ. Reconciliation comes as they accept Christ as their savior and King and, in His Mercy, receive His forgiveness and pass through the narrow gate (Matthew 7:14) with the hope of everlasting life of the Father to come. In the passing through Christ, 1) one is then baptized by the gate of Christ's blood and water pouring from his side, 2) partaking in the Body and Blood of Christ’s flesh, 3) in union with the Holy Spirit, which rests upon Him, to enter the wedding feast, the Kingdom of the Son of Man.
In this, all those who are not followers of Christ and consequently accept Christ's invitation are initiated into Him, baptized, confirmed, and partake in the Eucharist as they pass through Him. All are invited, good and bad, saint and sinner, who enter in faith through the narrow gate into the cleansing Light of the Father. This light is the light of sanctification, purification, or a form of damnation by the burning cleansing of that light via the Holy Spirit. Everyone, even the ignorant, must partake in the Body and Blood of Christ if there is to be an instilled hope of eternal life; “he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him at the last day.” (Jn 6:54)!
My Church, My God
As I read St. Thomas Aquinas, this stuck out to me, whereby St. Thomas's answer on eternal damnation states that:
I answer that, as Augustine says (De Civ. Dei, xxi. 17, 18), some evaded the error of Origen by asserting that the demons are punished everlastingly while holding that all men, even unbelievers, are at length set free from punishment. But this statement is altogether unreasonable. Just as the demons are obstinate in wickedness and therefore have to be punished forever, so too are the souls of men who die without charity, since death is to men what their fall was to the angels, as Damascene says.[xxxvi]
The very notion of which I speak, as I believe Origen’s sentiment earlier may be alluding to, partially refers to the particular judgment and St. Thomas's final judgment. While Origen misinterprets the ‘final reconciliation’ as a release from punishment, I wholeheartedly disagree and proclaim that the final reconciliation is not the remission of punishment. However, both are correct concerning different aspects of the judgment, such as that everyone must go through two distinct judgments, a primary and a final. The gathering, reconciliation, and sorting into one’s final eternal destination. Less those whose rejection of Christ's mercy before the first death has already been finally judged vis-à-vis the particular judgment and condemned into a state of no hope of joy, simply waiting for the second coming in the misery lived, and with the final judgment comes their eternal bodies being plunged into the second death.
True, Catholic, and Apostolic
As I further ponder this notion of a final reconciliation and communion with Christ within our eternal bodies (Philippians 3:21), I believe our perception is restricted to an earthly understanding of Christ’s mercy within the confines of His kingdom established here in this exile, the Kingdom of the Son of Man. Therefore, to gain a deeper understanding of the Church's perspective on mortal sin, I first looked at what constitutes the need for reconciliation and referred to the CCC’s definition of Mortal Sin:
MORTAL SIN: A grave infraction of the law of God that destroys the divine life in the soul of the sinner (sanctifying grace), constituting a turn away from God. For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must be present: grave matter, full knowledge of the evil of the act, and full consent of the will (1855, 1857).[xxxvii]
Then, in paragraph 1856 of the CCC, we read that Mortal sin defiles charity within a person and, therefore, “necessitates a new initiative of God’s mercy and a conversion of heart which is normally accomplished within the setting of the sacrament of reconciliation: (1446).” [xxxviii]
Within that paragraph, the CCC quotes St. Thomas Aquinas regarding what constitutes mortal and venial sins (St. Thomas Aquinas, STh I–II, 88, 2, corp. art.). There is an undeniable availability of God’s Mercy. In CCC 1864, the Church tells us, “Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.”[xxxix] Here lies the heart of the matter for me. I pondered, by whom? Who forgives every sin and blasphemy of men? And when or to what extent can this occur? I reason that both those ordained to do so and undoubtedly Christ himself in His most divine mercy upon one's death. The one who gives life is the means of that forgiveness in our reconciliation, as Christ summons us to reconcile with God through His human nature, the Gospels, and the Traditions of the Apostles.
The Catechism goes on to express that there are no limits to the mercy of God. Anyone who deliberately and knowingly refuses to repent and accept Christ's compassion and mercy, thus rejecting the forgiveness of one's sins and the salvation the Holy Spirit offers.[xl] Such hardness of heart can lead to final impenitence and eternal loss.”[xli]
Once more, I ask, when? If someone is genuinely unaware of Christ in this life, or one who is a decent person, a good person, how do they refuse or accept God’s mercy upon death if in a state of mortal sin or a sin against God’s natural law (CCC 1954)? Or even so, can one accept Christ’s mercy upon death? Within the context I have put forth, if the answer is no, then I must ask if Christ's mercy is thus limited to those who live in the body before death, and what they reconcile unto God can only occur through vicars of the Sacrament within this exile of living in the flesh alone. Then, one can ask how Christ’s Divine Mercy is employed as St. Faustina proclaims as atonement for our sins and those of the whole world.
I further considered the CCC definition of Punishment, Eternal: "The penalty for unrepentant mortal sin, separating the sinner from communion with God for all eternity; the condemnation of the unrepentant sinner to hell." The penalty for perpetual unrepented mortal sin, separating the sinner from communion with God in this life, creates the situation where the sinner, separated from communion with God, does no good works of charity or amasses no treasures for heaven and, upon death, denies the Mercy of Christ’s outreached arms and sins against the Holy Spirit, as I expand upon what I was shown, and thus for all eternity is cast into the darkness, the condemnation of the unrepentant sinner to hell (1035) by their own decision to reject Christ's mercy and the cleansing power of the Holy Spirit. This leads me to the notion, based upon what has been given me, of how one can repent within the time of the body's physical death yet just before the soul leaves the body as they refer their lives to Christ, with the understanding that one needs to meet Christ to refer one's life to him for the particular judgment.
Again, the notion of God’s Mercy is expressed as “…although we can judge that an act is in itself a grave offense, we must entrust judgment of persons to the justice and mercy of God.”[xlii] In contemplating the circumstances of our existence and the decisions we make regarding our way of life, it is worth considering that just as we have choices throughout our lives, we are also presented with a crucial decision before our souls depart from our physical bodies. This decision pertains to whether one embraces Christ as their Savior, acknowledging him as the Son of God and accepting the mercy that God so earnestly desires to bestow upon all his children (the prodigal son), and in so accepting, we partake in his flesh passing through him receiving our final reconciliation into his kingdom, the Kingdom of the Son of Man, with the hope of retribution—a remittance of sin, however, not a remittance of the effects of those sins, or the pennies owed (Matthew 5:26; Luke 12:59).
As believers, we must please God and trust His mercy and grace for our salvation through Christ. Throughout one’s journey towards eternal life, one can accept the light of Christ and, based upon that knowledge, decide to follow that light until one's death, when the soul departs from the body. “God predestines no one to go to hell;[xliii] for this, a willful turning away from God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end,”[xliv] one’s soul leaves the body. The point, once again, is what constitutes 'until the end?' I understand that the end is when the soul leaves the body. Thus, as I know it, at that moment, just before this occurs, there is a giving to everyone, a choice of accepting or turning away, an invitation to the feast for all, through Christ’s mercy or into the darkness.
After death, God's children must undergo a primary or Particular Judgment, the meeting of Christ at death as we refer our lives to him. Condemnation for those who reject Christ's mercy is instant and for eternity, with no possibility of redemption, left without hope in the darkness outside the gate, a permanent separation from the Light of God, as St Thomas expressed in his answer above. Those who accept Christ's mercy enter the kingdom of the Son of Man to reside with him in paradise until the final judgment, where all truths shall be revealed. There are few alternatives to this second death for the wicked; thus, we are responsible for consciously embracing the freedom offered through Christ's teachings as we live and breathe. Our connection with God is only possible if we willingly love Him and, within that love, extend it to our neighbors in charity.
The notion of meeting Christ at the Particular Judgment is a reasonable assumption based upon the understanding that we will be given an understanding of our particular life lived, “an interior illumination which makes known to the separated soul its state in relation to God”[xlv] at the time of one’s death. The reasonableness of this notion is understandable, whereby the separated soul has no means to justify the judgment made. One is at Christ’s mercy, and within that light comes the purifying grace to be stationed amongst those saved by that grace, those who have been saved into the purification of one’s deeds or works, as scriptures reveal to us.
No created person is released from this judgment but one, the Blessed Virgin Mary, within her immaculate conception and whose flesh is that of Christ’s. She will be glorified through that flesh in her assumption as Christ was in His ascension. All individuals whose lives have been lived will, in the end, submit to their first death. The meeting of Christ is subjective. Christ, whose flesh is retained, comes in a manner that the individual can relate to, as Christ so intimately knows one’s heart.
This is where the confusion may come in near-death experiences, where the main idea is similar and the particulars are somewhat different and personalized. A simple internet search for ‘near death experiences testimonies’ reveals the vast differences of the experience, and yet with a familiarity of ‘one is taken to a scene or place’, here is the crutch, all these are the personal aspect of that knowledge that Christ has for each of us. We are shown what we perceive as an afterlife, even if we deny it in this life. Christ’s revealing is one of meeting us where we are and making himself known in that place. For the faithful Christian, it is a vision of Christ incarnate, giving each an opportunity to accept him and choose to partake in his body and blood, stepping through him into the Kingdom of the Son of Man.
However, when Christ is manifested in a particular judgment, there is always a choice that must be made to accept him or not. Is this a reality that can be reasoned and intellectualized? Absolutely. Just as all humankind has a choice as we live to accept Christ, so too in death, just prior to the soul leaving the body, that same choice is given to those who in this life outright reject or are ignorant of Christ. With the absoluteness of this choice, our decision is based upon our perception of what is to come. For the atheist mindset, there is no afterlife, and yet when one experiences a near-death event, their reality changes to acknowledge that there is something to what is to come, what is the next step on our journey to what God has intended for us.
Meeting Christ is relative to the individual’s perception, yet the reality is that Christ cannot be swayed or altered outside of His mercy and grace that he so wants to give. We overwhelmingly see this in the Gospels, Christ meets individuals where they are, and within this encounter is His revealing through the Spirit of who he is within their hearts yet do not see (Mark 2:7; 6:3). For those who have never heard or have been exposed to anything Christian or even remotely Christocentric ideology they too will meet Christ where they are. The deepest desire, as we can only limitedly understand it, is that God has for all of creation to be with him, which is an absolute, unwavering, and unambiguous reality regardless of the individual's perception.
By accepting Christ's grace and mercy as we live and breathe, we can fulfill the tasks and obligations He has instructed us to undertake, see the beatitudes, for example—an amassing of treasures done in charity that will be brought to light during the final judgment. Christ's assessment of everyone’s life is immediately after passing away and is based on their charitable actions and faith. Upon death, one's immortal soul and heart receive eternal retribution, an assessment of one's life compared to the teachings of Christ and the love of the Father.
The scenario exemplifies the concept of the Particular Judgment as inferred in Scripture and the Catechism. It depicts a gathering of the righteous and the wicked into the kingdom of God of those who accept the invitation. The hall of the wedding feast is full of guests (Mt 22:10), and the final judgment entails the separation of the two, one into heavenly bliss and the other into a second death. The illustration of this concept comes through various biblical references, such as the separation of wheat from weeds (Mt 13:40), good fish from bad (Mt 13:49), sheep from goats (Mt 25:32), and chaff from grain (Lk 3:17). These notions, St. John shows us, are for all, both the living and the dead at the end of time, the second and final judgment.
This notion suggests that upon the second judgment, those who were not righteous and lived unchristian lives void of charity, the bad, the goats, the chaff, are waiting in the Kingdom of the Son of Man upon their acceptance of the invitation to come, partaking in the wedding feast at the table, in the net yet to be judged. What is said at the consecration in the second eucharistic prayer is, “Grant that he (she) who was united with your Son in a death like his, (the saints and martyrs) may also be one with him in his Resurrection. Remember also our brothers and sisters who have fallen asleep in the hope of the resurrection (those who are imperfect but on their way to purgatory with some grace) and all who have died in your mercy (those who accept Christ’s Mercy just before the particular judgment).”[xlvi]
This is at the heart of this paper: how did they get there? Are they in purgatory? How can they be automatically dammed if, at the first judgment, they are invited and brought into the feast, seated at a table, and thus are only sent to the darkness outside the gates to gnash their teeth upon the second coming’s exposing the truth, revealing their actual wedding garment worn, their deeds exposed?
During the final judgment and the resurrection of all the dead (CCC 1038; Revelation 20:11–15), which occurs at Christ's second coming sitting upon His throne within the Kingdom of the Son of Man, there is a welcoming of the righteous and those purified by the light of God the Father and the rejection of the wicked (the chaff), the wrongdoers (the bad fish), and evildoers (the weeds) with the casting of them into darkness, into Gehenna, the eternal fire of damnation into St. John’s second death.
It is crucial to acknowledge that there is no escape from God's Justice (Revelation 21:8) and that His Justice is based upon our application of it in charity for God and our fellow brothers and sisters. For Christ so showed the world the path to eternal salvation through establishing the Kingdom of the Son of Man, let us all embrace it and accrue the treasures of love needed to be hailed as the righteous. And in our compassion as in Christ's, we too pray for the souls in purgatory that have no one to pray for them, sacrificing the treasures given to us for those who have none just as Christ so did upon the Cross, and in so doing, they too may see a glimpse of hope and the peace and joy of the Kingdom of the Father, the joy of Heaven to come.
18* Cfr. S. Thomas, Summa Theol. III, q. 8, a. 3, ad 1.
125 Cf. Rom. 9:4–5
126 Cf. Rom. 11:28–29.
127 Cf. Acts 17:25–28.
128 Cf. 1 Tim. 2:4.
19* Cfr. Epist. S.S.C.S. Officii ad Archiep. Boston.: Denz. 3869–72.
20* Cfr. Eusebius Caes., Praeparatio Evangelica, 1, 1: PG 2128 AB.
129 Cf. Rom. 1:21, 25.
130 Mk. 16:15.
[i] Catholic Church, “Dogmatic Constitution on the Church: Lumen Gentium,” in Vatican II Documents (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2011).
[ii] St Thomas Aquinas. Expositio in Omnes S. Pauli Epistolas, n.d.
[iii] Patrick Toner, “Prayers for the Dead,” in The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church, ed. Charles G. Herbermann et al. (New York: The Encyclopedia Press; The Universal Knowledge Foundation, 1907–1913).
[iv] Benedict XII, Benedictus Deus (1336): DS 1000; cf. LG 49. (see also CCC 1023)
[v] A. Jones, “The Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St Matthew,” in A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture, ed. Bernard Orchard and Edmund F. Sutcliffe (Toronto; New York; Edinburgh: Thomas Nelson, 1953), 877.
[vi] Saint Matthew’s Gospel, The Navarre Bible (Dublin; New York: Four Courts Press; Scepter Publishers, 2005), 107.
[vii] Exile – outside of the Garden of Eden. This earthly life and death are waiting for Christ to fulfill our Salvation so that we may leave this exile as aliens or sojourners from Eden and enter back into the Garden prepared for us from the beginning. c.f. – Destination - The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: The New Testament (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2010), 448.
[viii] Paul II, John. “Veritatis Splendor.” Www.Vatican.va, 6 Aug. 1993, www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_06081993_veritatis-splendor.html. Par. 81.
[ix] Joseph Pohle and Arthur Preuss, The Sacraments: A Dogmatic Treatise, Volume 1, Dogmatic Theology (St. Louis, MO; London: B. Herder, 1917), 243.
[x] “28 July 1999 | John Paul II.” Www.vatican.va, www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/audiences/1999/documents/hf_jp-ii_aud_28071999.html. Par. 1
[xi] New American Bible. Revised Edition, (NABRE) The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2011, John 20:22-23
[xii] Cf, John 20:21.
[xiii] Cf, Matthew 16:18-19
[xiv] Cf, 2 Corinthians 5:17–19.
[xv] David W. Fagerberg, “The Sacramental Life,” in The Oxford Handbook of Catholic Theology, ed. Lewis Ayres and Medi Ann Volpe, First Edition, Oxford Handbooks (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2019), 253
[xvi] The Roman Missal: Renewed by Decree of the Most Holy Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, Promulgated by Authority of Pope Paul VI and Revised at the Direction of Pope John Paul II, Third Typical Edition (Washington D.C.: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2011), 648, 649
[xvii] John McHugh, “Particular Judgment,” in The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church, ed. Charles G. Herbermann et al. (New York: The Encyclopedia Press; The Universal Knowledge Foundation, 1907–1913).
[xviii] Dante Alighieri, The Harvard Classics 20: The Divine Comedy by Dante, ed. Charles W. Eliot (New York: P. F. Collier & Son, 1909).
[xix] Dante Alighieri, The Harvard Classics 20: The Divine Comedy by Dante, ed. Charles W. Eliot (New York: P. F. Collier & Son, 1909).
[xx] ibid, John McHugh, “Particular Judgment.”
[xxi] Joseph A. Komonchak, Mary Collins, and Dermot A. Lane, The New Dictionary of Theology (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2000), 824.
[xxii] Dante Alighieri, The Harvard Classics 20: The Divine Comedy by Dante, ed. Charles W. Eliot (New York: P. F. Collier & Son, 1909).
[xxiii] ibid, John McHugh, “Particular Judgment.”
[xxiv] Paul Jerome Keller, 101 Questions & Answers on the Sacraments of Healing: Penance and Anointing of the Sick (New York; Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 2010), 28.
[xxv] “28 July 1999: John Paul II,” 28 July 1999 | John Paul II, July 27, 1999, https://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/audiences/1999/documents/hf_jp-ii_aud_28071999.html.
[xxvi] Cf. Council of Lyons II (1274): DS 857–858; Council of Florence (1439): DS 1304–1306; Council of Trent (1563): DS 1820.
[xxvii] Cf. Benedict XII, Benedictus Deus (1336): DS 1000–1001; John XXII, Ne super his (1334): DS 990.
[xxviii] Cf. Benedict XII, Benedictus Deus (1336): DS 1002.
[xxix] Catholic Church. Catechism of the Catholic Church. (CCC). 2nd Ed., United States Catholic Conference, 2000. Print.
[xxx] Origen. “Origen against Celsus.” Fathers of the Third Century: Tertullian, Part Fourth; Minucius Felix; Commodian; Origen, Parts First and Second, edited by Alexander Roberts et al., translated by Frederick Crombie, vol. 4, Christian Literature Company, 1885, p. 641.
[xxxi] Michael F. Patella, “The Gospel according to Luke,” in New Testament, ed. Daniel Durken, The New Collegeville Bible Commentary (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2009), 263.
[xxxii] St. Catherine of Siena. Dialog of Catherine of Siena - Enhanced Version. Christian Classics Ethereal Library. Kindle Edition, loc 1342.
[xxxiii] Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel according to S. John, vol. 2 (London: Walter Smith, 1885), 663.
[xxxiv] Francis Martin and William M. Wright IV, The Gospel of John, ed. Peter S. Williamson and Mary Healy, Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2015), 337.
[xxxv] Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2000
[xxxvi] Thomas Aquinas. Summa Theologica. Trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province. London: Burns Oates & Washbourne. Print.
[xxxvii] Catechism of the Catholic Church, p. 889.
[xxxviii] Catechism of the Catholic Church, pp. 454–55.
[xxxix] Cf, Mt 12:31; cf. Mk 3:29; Lk 12:10.
[xl] Cf. John Paul II, DeV 46.
[xli] Catechism of the Catholic Church, p. 456.
[xlii] Catechism of the Catholic Church, p. 456.
[xliii] Cf. Council of Orange II (529): DS 397; Council of Trent (1547): CCC 1567.
[xliv] Catechism of the Catholic Church, p. 270.
[xlv] F. L. Cross and Elizabeth A. Livingstone, eds., The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 1232.
[xlvi] The Roman Missal: Renewed by Decree of the Most Holy Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, Promulgated by Authority of Pope Paul VI and Revised at the Direction of Pope John Paul II, Third Typical Edition (Washington D.C.: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 2011), 649.