Chapter 25 – The End of the World

Posted on 03/02/2019 by Dick Landkamer

Chapter 25: The End of the World

  1. Christ’s Victory over Sin and Death
    • The Victory is Complete for Christ
      • Sheed writes: “Christ died at the hands of sinners and rose again in victory over sin and death” (348-1).
        • Of this, Paul writes to the Corinthians: “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Cor 15:57).
      • However, Scripture does not say the victory is complete for us, but only for Christ:
        • “We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him” (Rom 6:9).
    • The Victory is Progressive in Us
      • The reality is that the victory, which is complete in Christ, is only progressive (i.e., on-going) in us; it is moving toward its full completion at some point in the future (348-1).
      • In other words, “Satan is dethroned, but not driven from the field. He has lost the human race [as a whole], but [he] may still win individuals” (348-1).
      • Thus, St. Paul’s advice to the Ephesians is directed to us as well:
        • “Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we are not contending against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph 6:11-12).
    • The Turbulence of Men
      • The reason for this advice from St. Paul is that the world is now and has always been full of the “turbulence of men” (348-2):
        • “For while they celebrate either child-slaying sacrifices or clandestine mysteries, or frenzied carousals in unheard-of rites. They no longer safeguard either lives or pure wedlock; but each either waylays and kills his neighbor, or aggrieves him by adultery. And all is confusion — blood and murder, theft and guile, corruption, faithlessness, turmoil, perjury, disturbance of good men, neglect of gratitude, besmirching of souls, unnatural lust, disorder in marriage, adultery and shamelessness” (Wis 14:23-26).
        • Of His generation of Israelites, Jesus laments “O faithless and perverse generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you?” (Mt 17:17).
        • Paul urges the Philippians to be “children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation” (Phil 2:15).
  2. The Body Growing to Maturity
    • The Mystical Body Grows into a Temple and Mature Manhood
      • This sad state of affairs (i.e., as described Wis 14:23-26) is merely the “colorful front face of things”; but it is a façade (349-2).
      • The façade clearly and scandalously displays the turbulence of men, but behind it “Christ is forming the new humanity, re-born and re-made in Him” (349-2). Thus, the Mystical Body continues to grow.
        • Millions have died united to Christ and are, thus, perpetually built into the Mystical Body.
        • There are millions living on earth in whom the Life-Principle (sanctifying grace) is presently working to further build up the Body.
        • And there could be many millions more who will be born to the human race and re-born into the Body through Baptism.
      • “The building of the Mystical Body of Christ goes on ceaselessly, and it is humanity’s real work” (349-2).
        • “And this must be our business, to strive to overcome ourselves, and daily to gain strength over ourselves, and to grow better and better” (IOC, I, 3, 3).
      • St. Paul provides two images of the Mystical Body in its fullness:
        • The Mystical Body is growing toward something – a temple dedicated to the Lord (349-3):
          • “Through [Christ] we . . . have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord” (Eph 2:18-21).
        • Paul also compares the growth of the Mystical Body to the maturing that takes place in a natural human body (349-4):
          • “[Christ’s] gifts were . . . to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. . . . Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ” (Eph 4:11-13,15).
    • Complete in the Fullness of Time
      • Both comparisons (i.e., to the building of a temple and a maturing body) convey the same truth:
        • “The building of a temple is more than an endless heaping together of stones”; It has a structure that will be complete at some point (350-2).
        • Similarly, the Mystical Body is “not merely an endless growing of new cells; it has a shape and proportion, and grows toward a maturity” (350-2).
      • The implication of these two comparisons is that when the maturing process of the Mystical Body is complete, the human race will cease to generate (350-2).
        • “To what purpose would new generations be born, when the Mystical Body of Christ is complete?” (350-2).
          • Sheed is posing here a definite reason for the end of the world, rather than a question about whether or not there would be an end. Scripture tells us definitively that there will be an end (see Mt 24:14 in the notes below).
  3. Signs of the End: Apostasy and Anti-Christ
    • Pre-requisite: Gospel Preached Universally
      • As a pre-requisite for the coming of the end of the world, the Gospel must first be preached to the whole world (350-3):
        • “The gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, as a testimony to all nations; and then the end will come” (Mt 24:14).
      • This is the first “event” in series of events related to the end of the world, but it does not mean the end will come immediately after the Gospel has been preached to the whole world; hence, this event is not a sign of the end (350-3).
    • Three Signs of the End
      • We do not know when the end will come, but we do know the signs of the end. We find them in Matthew 24, Daniel (especially chapters 7, 11, 12) and Second Thessalonians (350-2).
        • “Take heed, watch; for you do not know when the time will come” (Mk 13:33).
        • “You also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an unexpected hour” (Lk 12:40).
      • Of these signs, “two are stated with immense clarity, namely, a general apostasy and the coming of Anti-Christ” (350-3):
        • “[The] day [of the Second Coming of the Lord] will not come, unless the rebellion comes first [i.e., the general apostasy], and the man of lawlessness [i.e., Anti-Christ] is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, and the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of his mouth and destroy him by his appearing and his coming. The coming of the lawless one by the activity of Satan will be with all power and with pretended signs and wonders” (2 Thes 2:3-4, 7-9).
        • Apostasy: A complete rejection of the truths of the Catholic faith by one who is baptized. Apostasy is a mortal sin.
          • “But he that shall deny me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven” (Mt 10:33).
          • Note that one who leaves the Catholic faith to join a non-Catholic Christian denomination is not an apostate. Such a person is a heretic, either formally or, most likely, materially, depending on whether the refusal to accept the truths of the Faith is voluntary (formal) or nonvoluntary (material).
      • A third sign is implied by St. Paul: the conversion of the Jews (351-2).
        • “I want you to understand this mystery, brethren: a hardening has come upon part of Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles come in, and so all Israel will be saved; as it is written, ‘The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob’” (Rom 11:25-26).
    • The General Apostasy
      • The time of the general apostasy will be accompanied by great evil, according to Ss. Peter and Paul (351-3):
        • “In the last days there will come times of stress. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, fierce, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding the form of religion but denying the power of it” (2 Tim 3:1-5).
        • “The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the Day of Judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and willful, they are not afraid to revile the glorious ones. . . . They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. . . . Uttering loud boasts of folly [e.g., phrases that have no meaning, or are in opposition to revelation], they entice with licentious passions of the flesh. . . . They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption; for whatever overcomes a man, to that he is enslaved” (2 Pt 2:9-10, 14, 18-19).
          • “Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin” (Jn 8:34).
      • Peter’s description seems especially applicable to our own time (352-1). Consider a few samples of the “loud boasts of folly” he mentions:
        • In 1956, the US Supreme Court found a “constitutional right to marital privacy” in “penumbras” and “emanations” of the Constitution that opened the door to the legalization of artificial contraceptives.
        • In 1973, the US Supreme Court found a “constitutional right to abortion” in the Constitution.
        • In 2015, the US Supreme Court found a “constitutional right to homosexual marriage” (an oxymoron) in the constitution.
        • Excerpt from the Democratic Party’s 2012 platform: “We will appoint judges who defend the constitutional principles of liberty and equality for all, and will protect a woman’s right to safe and legal abortion”
        • “Freedom to choose,” which is a euphemism for “freedom to kill unborn children”
        • “Pro-choice,” which actually means pro-death apropos unborn children
        • Additional resources on this topic:
    • Success of the Anti-Christ
      • The success of the Anti-Christ will be spectacular (352-2):
        • “[The beast] was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and tongue and nation, and all who dwell on earth will worship it, every one whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that was slain” (Rev 13:7-8).
          • Note that the reference to those “whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life” should not be understood as representing the Calvinistic idea of pre-destination, which is his erroneous teaching that God predestines some to heaven and some to hell, and a man’s freely-willed choices has nothing to do with his final destiny:
            • “We say, then, that Scripture clearly proves this much, that God by his eternal and immutable counsel determined once for all those whom it was his pleasure one day to admit to salvation, and those whom, on the other hand, it was his pleasure to doom to destruction” (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, b. III, c. 21, 2210).
        • Rather, the verse (Rev 13:7-8) points to the fact of God’s knowledge of who will and who will not reject the grace of salvation that He offers to all:
          • “[God] desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim 2:4).
          • “The Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness, but is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Pt 3:9).
          • “Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the Lord GOD, and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?” (Ez 18:23).
          • “For I have no pleasure in the death of any one, says the Lord GOD; so turn, and live” (Ez 18:32).
          • “Say to them, As I live, says the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live” (Ez 33:11).
      • Some of the success of the Anti-Christ is due to his associate, the “false prophet” (352-3).
        • “It [the second beast, the false prophets] works great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in the sight of men; and by the signs which it is allowed to work in the presence of the [first] beast [i.e., the anti-Christ], it deceives those who dwell on earth (Rev 13:13-14).
      • Those who are deceived by the false prophet fall victim to the false prophet’s deceit because they have “not accepted the love of truth” (352-4).
        • In the Knox translation, “not accepted the love of truth” is translated as “refusing that fellowship in the truth.” This captures what Paul is saying rather well, but it is not a literal translation of either the Greek or Latin.
          • “His wickedness will deceive the souls that are doomed, to punish them for refusing that fellowship in the truth which would have saved them” (2 Thes 2:10 Knox).
      • Those who are not deceived by the false prophet are the lovers of the Truth.
        • We have seen in previous chapters (e.g., chapter 21) that Christ established a social religion commensurate with our social nature in order to provide for the dispensing the gifts of Truth and Life. That social religion is found in the Catholic Church.
        • Hence, those who are authentic members of the Catholic Church, the “fellowship of truth,” will not be led astray by the wonders performed by the false prophet.
      • The trial during the time of the Anti-Christ will be fierce but it will not last long. “Christ will come: the false Christ and his false prophet will be overthrown: mankind will be judged” (352-4).
        • “[The beast] was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them” (Rev 13:7).
          • This is a temporal conquering, just as Satan “conquered” Jesus by having Him crucified. However, that temporal conquering of Jesus was the spiritual bruising/crushing of the head of Satan, referred to in Gen 3:15; Jn 12:31).
  4. Identity of the Anti-Christ
    • An Individual Person
      • Scripture portrays the Anti-Christ principally as an individual person (353-1).
        • “The champion of wickedness must appear first, destined to inherit perdition. This is the rebel who is to lift up his head above every divine name, above all that men hold in reverence, till at last he enthrones himself in God’s temple, and proclaims himself as God” (2 Thes 2:4-5 Knox).
        • Daniel 11:36-38 speaks similarly of the Anti-Christ.
    • Forerunners of the Anti-Christ in Every Age
      • Scripture also portrays the Anti-Christ as well as the Apostasy, in a secondary sense, as having forerunners in every age (353-2).
      • If we recognize that the death of every individual person is the end of the world in miniature, then, in that sense, all people live their lives in the last age (353-2).
      • Scripture indicates that what is true for the last age of the world, with respect to the Anti-Christ, is true in miniature for every age (353-2).
        • “The mystery of lawlessness is already at work” (2 Thes 2:7).
        • “Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that the antichrist was coming, so now many antichrists have appeared. Thus we know this is the last hour” (1 Jn 2:18).
        • “Every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God. This is the spirit of antichrist, of which you heard that it was coming, and now it is in the world already” (1 Jn 4:2-3).
    • A “Diabolical Body”
      • From chapter 14: What we actually see in the world is not a chaos of evil, but evil with “a drive and a direction . . . [that] suggests a living intelligence coordinating what would otherwise be only scattered and unrelated plunges of the human will” (207-1).
      • The many antichrists John speaks of indicate that a “body” of antichrists exists that spans across every age. Thus, we have a parallel of sorts between Christ and His Mystical Body on the one hand, and the Devil and his “Diabolical Body” (i.e., the Anti-Christ and his body of forerunners) on the other.
        • Bishop Sheen speaks of the Devil as being the head of this Diabolical Body, and says of him:
          • “He will set up a counter-church, which will be the ape of the Church, because he, the Devil, is the ape of God. It will have all the notes and characteristics of the Church, but in reverse and emptied of its divine content. It will be a mystical body of the Antichrist that will in all externals resemble the mystical body of Christ” (Bishop Fulton Sheen, “Communism and the Conscience of the West”).
      • While there is a parallel between the Mystical and the Diabolical bodies, notice the enormous difference between the two.
        • The Mystical Body is a single living organism in which all of the individual “cells” are nourished by the life-principle (sanctifying grace) for which Christ is the source.
        • The Diabolical Body is composed of individuals that can only hate each other and everyone else and are associated only by their evil deeds. There is no life-principle that nourishes the loosely associated members of the Diabolical Body.
        • “The head not only influences the members interiorly, but also governs them exteriorly, directing their actions to an end. Hence it may be said that anyone is the head of a multitude, either as regards both, i.e. by interior influence and exterior governance, and thus Christ is the Head of the Church, as was stated (Article 6); or as regards exterior governance, and thus every prince or prelate is head of the multitude subject to him. And in this way the devil is head of all the wicked. For, as is written (Job 41:25): “He is king over all the children of pride.” Now it belongs to a governor to lead those whom he governs to their end. But the end of the devil is the aversion of the rational creature from God; hence from the beginning he has endeavored to lead man from obeying the Divine precept. But aversion from God has the nature of an end, inasmuch as it is sought for under the appearance of liberty, according to Jeremiah 2:20: “Of old time thou hast broken my yoke, thou hast burst my bands, and thou saidst, ‘I will not serve.'” Hence, inasmuch as some are brought to this end by sinning, they fall under the rule and government of the devil, and therefore he is called their head” (Summa III, q.8, a. 7).
  5. Judgment
    • The Second Coming
      • Jesus will come in power to judge the living and the dead, accompanied with angels and flaming fire (353-3)
        • “When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance upon those who do not know God and upon those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” (2 Thes 1:7-8).
        • “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken; then will appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory; and he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Mt 24:29-31)
        • See Excursus below for more on the “sign of the Son of Man.”
      • Sheed does not elaborate on the “flaming fire” spoken of in 2 Thessalonians 1. It appears to be a reference to the final conflagration. It is not a sign pointing to a future event, but a sign that accompanies the Second Coming at the time of the Last Judgment.
        • Scripture references to the final conflagration:
          • “For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of man” (Mt 24:27).
          • “Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth. Our God comes, he does not keep silence, before him is a devouring fire, round about him a mighty tempest. He calls to the heavens above and to the earth, that he may judge his people” (Ps 50:2-4).
          • “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of persons ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be kindled and dissolved, and the elements will melt with fire!” (2 Pt 3:10-12).
        • The Apostolic writings on the final conflagration:
          • “In the Apostolic writings we are told that the end of the world will be brought about through a general conflagration, which, however, will not annihilate the present creation, but will change its form and appearance (2 Peter 3:10-13; cf. 1 Thessalonians 5:2; Apocalypse 3:3, and 16:15)” (Catholic Encyclopedia, s. v. General Judgment).
        • From the notes of St. Thomas Aquinas:
          • “It is written (Ps. 49:3): ‘A fire shall burn before Him, and a mighty tempest shall be around Him’; and afterwards in reference to the judgment (Ps. 49:4): ‘He shall call heaven from above, and the earth to judge His people.’ Therefore it would seem that the final cleansing of the world will be by means of fire. Further, it is written (2 Pet. 3:12): ‘The heavens being on fire will be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with the burning heat.’ Therefore this cleansing will be effected by fire” (Summa suppl., q. 74, a. 2).
    • Excursus: The Second Coming and the Sign of the Son of Man (354-1)
      • “’The sign of the Son of Man’ has been traditionally interpreted as the Cross in glory, which will shine like the sun” (Navarre Bible, commentary on Mt 24:30).
        • This is reminiscent of the sign given to Constantine, while still a pagan, prior to his decisive battle against Maxentius in 312 that gave him control over the western Roman Empire, and which finally brought 249 years of state sponsored persecution of Christians to an end: “In hoc signo vinces” [in this sign you will conquer]).
      • “This sign of the Cross will be in heaven when the Lord shall come to judge. Then all the Servants of the Cross, who in their lifetime have conformed themselves to Him that was crucified, shall come to Christ their judge with great confidence” (IOC, II, 12, 1).
      • “Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in Heaven;” that is, the cross being brighter than the sun, since this last will be darkened, and hide himself, and that will appear when it would not appear, unless it were far brighter than the beams of the sun. But wherefore doth the sign appear? In order that the shamelessness of the Jews may be more abundantly silenced. For having the cross as the greatest plea, Christ thus cometh to that judgment-seat, showing not His wounds only, but also the death of reproach. ‘Then shall the tribes mourn,’ for there shall be no need of an accusation, when they see the cross; and they shall mourn, that by His death they are nothing benefited; because they crucified Him whom they ought to have adored” (St. John Chrysostom, Homily 76 on Matthew).
    • The Last Judgment
      • Paul writes of those who are alive on earth at the time of the Second Coming (354-2):
        • “Lo! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed” (1 Cor 15:51-54).
        • Scripture could be understood to imply that some part of the last generation of the human race will not die:
          • “For the Lord himself will descend from heaven . . . And the dead in Christ will rise first; then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord” (1 Thes 4:16-17).
          • “Paul seems to assert . . . that [the bodies of the final generation] will be instantly glorified and made immortal. This is how Paul was understood by the Greek Fathers of the Church, and this agrees with the prophetic outlook of 1 Cor 15:51-53” (Ignatius Study Bible commentary for 1 Thes 4:17).
      • Excursus: Will the Last Generation Die?
        • St. Paul implies not all will die:
          • “Lo! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed” (1 Cor 15:51-54).
        • On the other hand, from the notes of Thomas Aquinas we read:
          • “All men shall die and rise again: yet those are said to be found alive who will live in the body until the time of the conflagration” (Summa, supl., q. 74, a. 7. ad. 3).
        • There are two reasons to think that one must die before entering heaven.
          • First, death is a punishment associated with Original Sin: Those who are alive at the time of the Second Coming will have been conceived in the state of Original Sin; therefore it seems that they would need to die before entering heaven.
          • Second, “since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Rom 3:23), it seems likely that there will be some among the just at the time of the Second Coming who will be in need of some degree of purgation. This would seem to require their death because purgatory is a place for the separated soul.
            • However, the soul’s purgation can take place in this life while still united to the body, as is the case with saints, so it is possible that those who are left alive will have persevered through the tribulation such that there is no longer a need for them to be purified further.
          • God’s original plan for man: “As soon as Adam had attained to that happy state of seeing God in His Essence [i.e., the Beatific Vision], he would have become spiritual in soul and body” (Summa I, q. 100, a. 2).
      • Regarding the Judgment itself, Matthew tells us the following in his twenty-fourth chapter where he describes the Last Judgment (354-3, Mt 25:31-46):
        • All the nations (i.e., all who have ever lived) will be gathered before Him (v. 32).
        • He will separate the righteous from the unrighteous as a shepherd separates sheep from goats (vv. 32, 33).
        • He will first announce the reward of the just (they know who they are as a result of the particular judgment):
          • “Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (v. 34).
        • Then He will announce the punishment of the unrighteous (they also know who they are):
          • “Then he will say to those at his left hand, `Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels” (v. 41).
        • The reward or punishment that is administered will be based upon the works of charity that were done or left undone (vv. 35-36; vv. 42-44).
        • Both the righteous and the unrighteous will be surprised to know that their treatment of their neighbor is exactly identified with their treatment of Christ Himself. However, none of us should be surprised at this because the principle is clearly taught in Scripture, in this passage and elsewhere:
          • “‘Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?’ And he said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets” (Mt 22:36-40).
          • “He who does not love [i.e., act with charity toward] his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1 Jn 4:20).
          • “He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?’ And he said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And he said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting’” (Acts 9:4-5).
      • “It is the common teaching that these works of charity [upon which the Last Judgment is based] are used here as representative of the virtues in general” rather than only the specific works mentioned (355-2).
      • The Last Judgment will be a complete judgment in the sense that all of the works, good or bad, done by every person who has ever lived, will be seen in their full context, that is, in relation to the actions of every other person “and in relation to the overruling providence of God. . . . [Thus,] at last we shall see the shape and bearing of all things” (355-2).
    • Chronological Summary of the End of the World
      • Summary of the Major Events associated with the End of the World
        • The Gospel will have been preached to the whole world.
        • There will be a general apostasy of the baptized.
        • The Anti-Christ will appear doing marvelous works.
        • There will be a brief time of great persecution.
        • The General conflagration will consume the heavens and the earth.
        • The Second Coming of Christ will occur.
        • The General (Last) Judgment will take place.
    • Excursus: The Need for the General Judgment (not addressed by Sheed)
      • If the soul has already been definitively judged at the time of the particular judgment (i.e., at the moment of death), then why should there be a General Judgment? There are three reasons for the General Judgment.
      • First: Judgment of the human race:
        • God deals with the human race, in some matters, as though it were one “person.” Two cases in point are the “general” condemnation and the “general” redemption:
          • “For if many died through one man’s trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many” (Rom 5:15).
        • The General Judgment will be a third such instance. That, the works of the race are made known through the works of its individual members. The General Judgment will display God’s patience with the race with respect to both the saved and the condemned.
      • Second: Judgment on the body’s Role in man’s affairs
        • The particular judgment necessarily takes place at the moment of death, in keeping with Scripture’s command to promptly reward the laborer (see Lev 19:13). As a result, the body does not take part in the particular judgment, though it took part in the sins for which the soul has been judged.
      • Third: Realization of God’s Vengeance
        • “The Last Judgment will reveal that God’s justice triumphs over all the injustices committed by his creatures” (CCC 1040).
        • God has promised vengeance for all of the injustices committed by man.
          • “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord’” (Rom 12:19).
          • “For we know him who said, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay.’ And again, ‘The Lord will judge his people’” (Heb 10:30).
          • As seen above, “[the Judgment will take place] when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance upon those who do not know God and upon those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” (2 Thes 1:7-8).
        • However, the vengeance promised by God cannot be fully realized prior to the last judgment. It can only be realized in the presence of the entire human race.
          • But the entire human race will not have a capacity for comprehending the full vindication until after the last person has died.
            • Recall from chapter 24 that after we die we become like angels, and from chapter 13: “The nature of [the angel’s] ideas, at once universal and concrete, make the angel’s knowledge intuitive, not in any way successive and discursive. He sees at a glance the particular in the universal, the conclusion in the principle, the means in the end” (LaGrange, “Reality,” c. 23, p. 167; also see Summa I, q. 58, a.3).
        • Thus, the full vindication of Christ, who has been judged falsely throughout human history, implicitly or explicitly, requires the presence of all whom He redeemed.
        • Similarly, the full vindication of truth and justice requires the presence of the entire human race in order for vengeance to be fully realized.
          • “The Last Judgment will reveal that God’s justice triumphs over all the injustices committed by his creatures” (CCC 1040).
  6. The Place of Matter in the Kingdom of God
    • The Resurrected Body
      • We know there will be some matter in the Kingdom of God, for we will be reunited with our bodies, in some sense, “so that we shall be constituted in the completeness of our [ontological] personality” (355-3).
      • The exact nature of that reunion is a mystery. Our bodies go through a regular “remaking” as the individual cells that make up the body die out and are replaced with other cells (355-3).
      • Hence, it would not be possible for our resurrected bodies to be remade with all the same cells that were, at one time or another, living cells in our bodies. The answer must lie elsewhere (355-3).
      • Despite the ongoing changing of the cells that make up our bodies, there is some element that persists to preserve the material identity of our bodies. It may be that it is this element that will be reunited with our souls so as to give our glorified bodies their proper identity on the day of our resurrection (355-3).
      • When that reunion occurs, man will be fully man again, for the glorified body will provide no rebellion to diminish the union of body and soul (356-1).
        • “So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body (1 Cor 15:42-44).
          • It is called a spiritual body “because the body will remain immortal and incorruptible through the spirit that enlivens it (St. Fulgentius, ‘On the Faith’ 70)” (“Ignatius Catholic Study Bible,” commentary on 1 Cor 15:44).
      • After the resurrection, “matter will be once more the extension of spirit, [rather than] its limit; the instrument of spirit, not the enemy” (356-1, quoting Christopher Dawson).
    • Other Forms of Matter
      • Will there be other matter besides the matter that constitutes our bodies? Because Scripture is filled with the promise of there being a new heavens and a new earth, it seems certain that inanimate matter will form some part of the Kingdom (356-2, 357-1).
        • “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a loud noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fire, and the earth and the works that are upon it will be burned up. . . . But according to his promise we wait for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells” (2 Pet 3:10, 13).
        • The same idea with additional detail is found in chapter 21 of the Book of Revelation.
      • St. Paul writes along the same lines:
        • “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Rom 8:19-21).
      • Matter and the second person of the Blessed Trinity
        • As we saw in chapter 10, where we spoke of the divine appropriations, the ordering of creation is appropriated to the Son as an act of wisdom, and the re-ordering of creation is appropriated to Him as Redeemer. Thus, material creation is especially bound up with the second person of the Blessed Trinity: “through Him all things were made” (Nicene Creed) (357-2).
      • Consider the following verses that intimately unite the created order to the Incarnate Word:
        • “He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation; for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. . . . He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. . . . For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross” (Col 1:15, 16, 17, 19-20).
        • “He has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth (Eph 1:7-10).
    • Life in the Kingdom
      • “The essential life in the Kingdom will be the gazing on the face of God in union with Christ, “our whole being uttering itself in knowledge and love of Him” (357-3).
        • However, this gazing of the face of God does not exclude creatures (358-1).
        • Just as God’s infinite knowledge and love of Himself does not exclude creatures but, rather, flows over into knowing and loving them, so too our knowledge and love of God will not exclude creatures but will flow over into knowledge and love of them (358-1).
      • Creation is God’s self-expression in created beings. To those created beings who are most like Him in that they are rational beings, He has expressed Himself further by Revelation. It is eminently reasonable to think that the “gazing on the face of the Lord” Sheed refers to will be nothing less than God’s on-going self-revelation to those rational beings who have chosen God over self.
      • Our infinite God will not run out of things to reveal to His finite creatures, and every such revelation, seen in its full light, will be a source of inexpressible joy to the soul.
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About Dick Landkamer

In my day job, I'm an IT Analyst (BSEE, University of Nebraska) for Catholic Charities of Wichita. Outside of my regular job, I have a passion for theology (MA Theology, Newman University), sacred music, traditional church architecture, logic, philosophy, mathematics, physics, astronomy, and a host of other related things.
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