Death Judgment Hell Heaven

Deacon Mike Walsh

www.itinerantpreacher.org

+1

Death & Resurrection:

The Promise Fulfilled

“It is through giving that we receive, and it is through

dying that we are born into eternal life”

St. Francis of Assisi

“I am happy and you should be happy too. Do not weep.

Let us pray together with joy ”

John Paul II

The Peace Prayer of Saint Francis

"O Lord, make me an instrument of Thy Peace!

Where there is hatred, let me sow love.

Where there is injury, pardon.

Where there is discord, harmony.

Where there is doubt, faith.

Where there is despair, hope.

Where there is darkness, light.

Where there is sorrow, joy.

Oh Divine Master, grant that I may not

so much seek to be consoled as to console;

to be understood as to understand;

to be loved as to love;

for it is in giving that we receive;

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life."

Nowhere Nowhere

Two Moments of Great Mystery

Teaching of Jesus

•Love of God

•Love of Self

•Love of Others

•Use of Talents

Relationships

Death Conception

God Given Talents

Our Life on Earth

Heaven Purgatory Hell

The Kingdom of God: “Eternal Life”

Death: What Happens?

• The play Everyman and his friends: – Money/ Fame/ Power & Good Works;

– Only Good Works will join him in death

Death: What Happens?

Near Death Instant Replay noted by Kubler-Ross:

“When you come to this point you will see there are only two things that

are relevant: the service you rendered to others, and love. All the other

things we think are important like fame, money, prestige and power are

insignificant.”

Death: What Happens?

The Christian who unites his own

death to that of Jesus views it as a

step towards him and an entrance

into everlasting life. Catholic Catechism 1020

The separation of body and soul

After Life

Particular Judgment

Purgatory Heaven Hell

Particular Judgment

Judgment @ Moment of death;

No Hiding from truth

Reading B: John 12 47-48

We will judge ourselves

We will see the good & Love

We will see the evil & hurt

The Catholic doctrine of the particular judgment is this: that immediately

after death the eternal destiny of each separated soul is decided by the just

judgment of God.

General Judgment

“He will come again to judge the living and the dead”;

Judgment of all humanity;

End of the World;

Completion of God’s plan

Results of the general judgment (Catholic Encyclopedia)

With the fulfilment of the sentence pronounced in the last judgment the

relations and the dealings of the Creator with the creature find their

culmination, are explained and justified. The Divine purpose being

accomplished, the human race will, as a consequence, attain its final destiny.

The reign of Christ over mankind will be the sequel of the General Judgment.

General Judgment

Where do we go from here?

Limbo has never been defined as church

dogma and is not mentioned in the current

Catechism of the Catholic Church, which

states simply that unbaptized infants are

entrusted to God's mercy.

In the fifth century, St. Augustine concluded that infants who die without

baptism were consigned to hell. By the 13th century, theologians referred

to the "limbo of infants" as a place where unbaptized babies were

deprived of the vision of God, but did not suffer because they did not

know what they were deprived of.

http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/0702216.htm

Limbo not in Limbo

The idea of Limbo

….as a "purification, so as to achieve the

holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven,"

which is experienced by those "who die in

God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly

purified" (CCC 1030). It notes that "this final

purification of the elect . . . is entirely different

from the punishment of the damned" (CCC

1031).

The Catechism of the Catholic Church

defines purgatory:

Purgatory

Purgatory (Lat., "purgare", to make clean,

to purify) in accordance with Catholic

teaching is a place or condition of

temporal punishment for those who,

departing this life in God's grace, are, not

entirely free from venial faults, or have not

fully paid the satisfaction due to their

transgressions.

CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA

defines purgatory:

Purgatory

Purgatory

•A Place of preparation

• Middle state for the Purification of thought

•Losing of Ego

•Pain of dying to oneself to rise again with

Christ

According to the Catholic Catechism

1023 Those who die in God's grace and friendship

and are perfectly purified live for ever with Christ.

They are like God for ever, for they "see him as

he is," face to face…

Heaven

1024 This perfect life with the Most Holy Trinity - this communion of life and

love with the Trinity, with the Virgin Mary, the angels and all the blessed - is

called "heaven." Heaven is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest

human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness.

Heaven

Eternal Union with God

Opposite of Hell

“Blessed are the clean of heart for they shall see

God” Matthew

“Vision of God will transform us into the likeness

of God” John

New Life for us is Eternal Life

McBrien: Heaven is Full Union of human person

with God It is what we strive for…

It is the completion of all we are as human

beings.

The Catechism of the Catholic

Church states:

"The teaching of the Church affirms the

existence of hell and its eternity. Immediately

after death the souls of those who die in a

state of mortal sin descend into hell, where

they suffer the punishments of hell, ‘eternal

fire.’ The chief punishment of hell is eternal

separation from God, in whom alone man

can possess the life and happiness for which

he was created and for which he longs"

(CCC 1035).

Hell

[T]he words of Christ are unequivocal. In Matthew’s

Gospel he speaks clearly of those who will go to eternal

punishment (cf. Matt. 25:46). [But] who will these be? The

Church has never made any pronouncement in this

regard" (pp. 185–6). Crossing the Threshold of Hope, Pope John Paul

As Scripture attests, the consequence of a rejection of God’s offer of love is

eternal separation from God, i.e. hell. We do not know that any man or woman

has in fact finally rejected God. Thus, while recognizing the real possibility of

hell, we are called to hope that all men [and women] attain salvation.

http://www.romancatholicism.org/balthasar-hope.htm

Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar“Dare We Hope “That All Men

Be Saved?”” (Ignatius Press, 1989)

What the Hell?

•Hell is envisioned as Fire

•Jesus uses this image in Matthew 13:47-50

•Does not necessarily describe a place

•Turn our backs on God

•Radical separation leads to everlasting alienation

& estrangement

•Chosen by the Sinner …….

Eternal Life

• This Beatific Vision brings us into a new life:

eternal life;

• God gives eternal life to those that are faithful;

• Our Actions & Choices on earth are important;

• We are called by Jesus to make life better;

• Jesus as our model of the fully actualized

human;

• Called to life of Service = “Happiness”

Jesus Suffers and Dies

• Jesus Suffers Mentally in the Garden – “Father,if you are willing, take this cup away from me; still not my will

but yours be done”. Luke 22:42

• Jesus suffers Emotionally – Betrayed by Judas/ Denied by Peter/ deserted by the Apostles

• Jesus Suffers Physically – Thorn/ Scourged/ Crucified

• Jesus suffers Spiritually – Feeling of Abandonment

Why Jesus Suffered

• Cross as a sign of Love: – “no person has greater love than this, to lay down one’s

life for one’s friends” John 15:13

• Cross is a revelation about Love: – Love entails suffering: “deny yourself and take up your

cross and follow me” Luke 9:23

• Cross is an invitation to Love: – Visual way it says: “Love another as I have loved you”

John 15:12

Resurrection

• Good Friday is not the End: It is the new beginning!

• Jesus is Risen

• Jesus appears to the Disciples on the road to Emmaus

• Jesus is “Glorified” – In his resurrection he is more than simply raised from the dead.

• Jesus sends the Spirit and it was poured out upon the entire church.

The Good News

• Nothing can destroy us anymore

– Not pain

– Not Sorrow

– Not rejection

– Not Sin

– Not even Death itself

Death Judgment Hell Heaven