Judgment, Purgatory, Heaven, Hell
What we call judgment is simply Christ’s originally planned divine communion with each individual, but with the onset of sin, Purgatory or Hell (partial communion or non communion), are possibilities. {83}
The original plan, had God creating persons (angelic and human) from his own person. These persons were to venture into creation and live new and original dimensions of God’s love. Once these creatures had attained perfection of love, they would reunite with God, bringing their unique virtues of spiritual advancement, and again become dimensions of God.{84}
Purgatory
Purgatory is the state of existence as the body of Christ, which is short of full divine union. Purgatory is our participation in the human nature of Christ, while we work toward divine union. That’s us, that’s now. Our Purgatory begins now on earth, if necessary we may, (must) continue our purgation after the death of our body. We do well to complete our Purgatory now, in this life.
In this life our purgation proceeds in parallel with our spiritual advancement. After death our efforts at spiritual advancement cease, and no personal merit may be gained, but purgation of self may continue.{85}
Numerous private revelations from the saints and others, reveal after death Purgatory varying greatly. The lowest levels are Hell like, but anyone may advance to the higher levels which are increasingly pleasant. It is difficult to assign any sort of earth based time or duration to after death Purgatory.
Because God offers to share his life with man (2Pet 1:4), anyone joining God in his life must be free of every imperfection. If Christ forgives our sins of impatience for example, we are not turned into a perfectly patient person. Forgiveness is more than a declaration, it is real reformation of soul.
It is a Catholic teaching that we may not advance in merit in Purgatory. Learning does occur, and this is the entire point of Purgatory, but without any increase in personal merit. In every case a student in Purgatory will advance from his current sharing in the human nature of Christ, to the divine union or marriage which is a permanent sharing in the divine nature of Christ.
The accidents of life remain just that, accidents. The wife need not become a nun, and parish priest need not become a desert monk. Better still is that God provides his own person as our interior guide in our moral conscience. The less attention we give to the accidents of life, the better we will hear the interior voice of God in our conscience. Purgatory was never a part of the plan. It is forced upon us by original sin, but there is no need to continue it beyond this life.
The apostle Paul speaks in some detail about a state of purgation after death in 1Cor 3:10-15. Here Paul speaks of building upon an existing foundation of Christ, (salvation). If a quality structure (gold, silver, gems), having no impurity is constructed it will stand at judgment. If an imperfect structure is built, that will combust when subjected to the flames of the Holy Spirit, (wood, straw), then it and the builder (the student and instructor), will need purgation by this fire prior to Heaven. Here purgation due to erroneous teaching is discussed, but willful moral imperfection also requires reformation before the attainment of Heaven.
Catholic teaching is of four afterlife states: Heaven, Hell, Purgatory, Limbo. 1Samuel 28:15 tells of the prophet Samuel in the afterlife of Limbo. With the coming of Christ, the holding area of Limbo was no longer needed, those able to entered Heaven, those needing purgation entered Purgatory. Limbo no longer seems to be operational.
Heaven
There is frustratingly little description of Heaven in Catholic literature.{86} St. Henry Suso was privileged with one such vision. Christ himself was his guide saying,
“Look up to Heaven where you belong. On earth you are a stranger, and a homeless pilgrim. And just as a pilgrim quickly returns to his homeland, where his dear friends are waiting in longing, so should you also hurry to return to your homeland where people intensely long for your presence.{87} They will greet you lovingly, and unite you to their happy company forever. And if you knew how they want you to struggle bravely in suffering and conduct yourself with valor in all the adversity that they have overcome, all your suffering would be more endurable.”
“The more bitterly you have suffered, the more worthily you will be received. How wonderful the honor feels, how joy races through heart and spirit when a soul receives honor, praise and glory from me in the sight of my Father and all the Heavenly hosts because it suffered so much on earth in its time of struggle.”
“Look there, above the ninth heaven, there is another heaven. This is the glorious court where the Heavenly host dwells. There, surrounded by ineffable splendor stand the eternal thrones from which the evil spirits were cast down and which now belong to the elect. Look how it glitters with hammered gold, how it glows with precious pearls, and is adorned with jewels and translucent crystal, alive with the sparkle of red roses and white lilies. Now look at the beautiful celestial fields, here is the valley of true joy.”
“Here one sees lovers’ glances dart joyfully back and forth. Here are the strains of harps and violins; singing, dancing, and constant joy. Here all wishes are fulfilled, joy without sorrow and complete certainty that it will continue forever.”
“Move quietly forward and see how the sweet Queen of Heaven hovers above the entire heavenly host. Look how her wondrous beauty gives delight and joy to all. See how the Mother of Mercy has her eyes turned kindly toward you and all sinners, and how she powerfully protects them and reconciles them to her beloved child the Christ.”
“Now turn with the eyes of pure intellect and see also how the exalted Seraphim and the loving souls of this choir of angels flame up ardently toward me continually. How the bright Cherubim move in and out of my eternal light; look at the trinity of the second hierarchy, the Dominions, Virtues and Powers, how they in turn bring about the wonderful eternal order in the natural universe. See how the angelic spirits carry forth my messages and announcements. What a wondrous sight!”
This entire description of Heaven occurs within the very person of Jesus Christ, within his divine nature as the Trinitarian Son of God. Christ speaks of his own person as our resurrection (Jn 11:25), and so he is. It is then no surprise that the very person of Christ is our Heaven also, (CCC 260, 460, 1026; Mt 4:17, John 14:6). Heaven is an individual’s spiritual union with God, as the body of Christ. The resurrection is this union extended to the body.
Those fully divinized (Jesus, citizens of Heaven, angels, thrones, dominions, (Col 1:16)), give positive mediation only. Those in Heaven can have no contact with sin or suffering, and make positive acts of virtue and prayer rather than remediation of sin into virtue. The continuing remediation of sin into virtue is the task of the ongoing Jesus Christ on earth, that’s us.
While the divinized human nature of Jesus may no longer contact sin, his sacrifice in the Eucharist on earth does have a timeless quality, and is still efficacious even today.
Those in Purgatory give evidence that they may pray and perhaps make good action according to their current state, but they may not gain in virtue or sin. Their efforts do have an effect on our world however, and many saints have called on them. Out of justice, they suffer in part their sins committed, and willingly so rather than propagate them on earth.
The Heavenly wedding feast that Christ speaks of is our full divine union, we shall participate in the divine nature of Christ, (2Pet 1:4). This divine union as the fullness of Christ cannot occur until we are free of all traces of sin and self. We cannot become Christ if we remain self. From 1John 3:2-3 we read, “…we shall be like Him [God], for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope purifies himself, just as He [God] is pure.”
Hell
Catholic theology affirms the idea of Hell, just as Jesus spoke of it. Hell exists as a closed or eternal cycle, filled only with evil. Those unable to make even the slightest union with Jesus Christ condemn themselves to Hell.
When the angels cast themselves away from God, they did so with full knowledge of their act. They may not have had perfect knowledge of all consequences, but they knew perfectly that their action was in opposition to God.
Acting against the will of God in itself did not cast the angels into Hell. Hell is an unintended by product of failed final communion. Just as humanity was created for the purpose of divine inclusion into Christ (CCC 398), so too were the angels. In making this inclusion into the divine Christ, no sin could be allowed.
What we call judgment, was this communion of Christ and the angels. Trinitarian Christ (human Jesus did not yet exist), made the communion, taking all goodness into himself. All evil and those owning it were unable to make union into Christ, which now became the larger body of Christ.{88}
Left behind was evil and those owning the evil…this was the formation of Hell. Those angels left behind had absolutely no goodness in them, they were unable to reach beyond self, and certainly could not reach out to God. They existed in a self perpetuating cycle of evil. They had truly condemned themselves to existence without God.
From this we see that Hell is a rejection of union with God, rather than God rejecting anyone. In fact Hell exists as a failure of final communion. God cannot make an act that has only an evil outcome, and condemning a person to Hell is an act with no possible final good.
Hell is produced by the condemned themselves and it occurs in two degrees. The first degree of Hell is internal to a soul, and occurs at judgment when that soul rejects and abandons God. The result of this willful separation is total internal corruption as goodness is abandoned. Catholic terminology for this first degree is the “particular judgment”. These condemned now share creation with the living on earth, but have no virtue or goodness, and prowl the earth causing evil, (Mt 8:29).
The second degree of Hell is yet to come. This is the general judgment when God unites with all goodness from creation.{89} God will take with him all the goodness abandoned by the reprobate, what remains will exist undiluted with goodness, this will be the final Hell. This Hell is what remains after God reclaims all goodness abandoned by angels and humanity.
Again the personal communion planned by God is now corrupted by sin into the personal judgment, and now with Hell as a possibility. The general communion is now the general judgment with Hell as a possibility. This general communion was Christ’s desire to reunite and fulfill all of creation. Everything comes from Christ, (Jn 1:3), and all is intended to rejoin Christ, even the lion who lies down with the lamb in divine Heaven. It is part of God’s plan for creation that all reunite with him, so as to give the entire universe its highest possible level of existence. In this reunion with all creation “God will be all in all things”, (1Cor 15:28).
We cannot speak of a “body of the Antichrist”, such as we speak of a “body of Christ”. Those in Hell are entirely self. It is possible there are many, but there can be no community. Respect, organization, joy and fulfillment are virtues of Christ, and will not be found in the final assembly of the Antichrist. There is no master plan for Hell, and its inhabitants will be left to their own devices. From 1John 2:18, we learn that the Antichrist is not only a singular Devil in the end times, but all who share now in the corrupted spirit of the Antichrist.
As originally planned, all created goodness was to finally share in the very divinity of God. God would incorporate the goodness of creation into his own being. This plan has not changed, all goodness will have its final destiny in the divine life of God. Left behind will be all remaining evil, which will be physical Hell.
The preceding article makes a strong case for eternal damnation, yet the idea of universal salvation does exist within the realm of possibility in the Catholic Church. Pope, now Saint John Paul II states in the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, August 4, 1999.
“Eternal damnation remains a real possibility, but we are not granted, without special divine revelation, the knowledge of whether or which human beings are effectively involved in it.”
The possibility of universal salvation necessarily remains a possibility because Christ does not assign or retain anyone to Hell. Eternal Hell is an evil with no possible good outcome, and God may neither assign, nor retain anyone in eternal Hell.
Hell is a closed cycle of evil, where the evil wills of the residents would corrupt any incoming goodness. But God is expert at breaking closed, eternal cycles; creation is a breakout of the closed cycle of eternity.
Consider that each individual was a dimension of God before his creation as a human person.{90} Recall that in Heaven (which is the person of Christ, before or after incarnation), each potential human was an eternal idea in the mind of God; every current human person, has his origin in the mind of God, as an idea of God. An idea of God is as real as it gets, and in a certain way, even more real than that idea brought to physicality.
Even God, who is eternally complete, must feel a sense of incompleteness if one of his human or angelic creations fails to rejoin him. It is reasonable to believe that Christ makes every possible effort to rejoin each person into himself. Christ has the authority to ensure this happens, even by extraordinary means.
Christ has the ability, even to force the salvation of a person, even upon a devil.{91} Christ has the authority to make any necessary exceptions. Christ has the desire to do this, (1Tm 2:4). In the end, evil is not stronger than good, and God retains authority over the Devil. Ultimate universal salvation cannot become doctrine, nor can it be excluded from the realm of possibility.
God has the ability and authority to remove people from a just sentence of Hell, and may do so, if he desires. Therefore, universal salvation necessarily remains a possibility. The Church encourages us to hope and pray for the salvation of all persons, and without regard to time of death.