.“In
Death final choice is followed by particular particular judgment and the
subsequent Heaven, Hell or Purgatory entered in the Bodily Selves that we are
which will be completed at the day of Resurrection with the same body we had on
earth. This is what we mean when we say in the creed: “I believe in the Resurrection
of the Body and the life everlasting.”
Introduction
Eschatology is not an
appendix to theology but something that should permeate all of theology.
Eschatology means the study of the last things. Every Christian must be ready
to face these last things namely death, Judgment, Heaven or Hell, Resurrection
(The story of Blessed Pope John Paul XXIII – page 1, Para 1).
Death
Every human has to face
the first reality in his life is death
Passive
Death and Active Death:
Man
is not undergoing passive death, that helplessly undergo death like animal, but
an active death, that is with conscious act of will accepting death when it
comes; accepting it as part of human condition.
Animals also eat,
drink, sleep and reproduce. Human beings also do the same, but qualitatively
different. There is something humanness about it. So the death of a human being
also cannot be exactly like an animal.
The
Final Choice:
The
special mark of human death is the free choice or the final option it consists;a
final choice ‘for’ or ‘against’ God. As
Karl Rahner and Ladislaus calls, it is decision ‘for or against Jesus’.
This final choice takes
place neither before death nor after death but IN death.Since death is a process.Because before death we keep on
changing our choices and options and so after death it is impossible to make
choices.
All the human beings
have this choice .In his book ‘Life after Death’ Raymond Moody says that even
person in a prolonged coma (aware of things happening), or person shot dead or
by heart attack (brain dies later) or even whose brain blastered (decision
making effect by spiritual element not by fleshly element) have a chance for
this final option. For detail refer page
11 (a, b, c, e).
Why all have choice?
Because it is human
death, not like the death of an animal. The freedom of the human is respected. Earlier
decisions also help a person in his final choice, as a tree falls on the side
to which it is inclined.
Particular
Judgement:
When
will particular Judgment take place?
Immediately
after death. Earlier Fathers of the church thought that soon after death one is
going to a special temporary place, till the judgment.
·
St. Iraneus: special temporary place
(FEF 259) (refer in detail).
·
Tertullian: Go into Hades temporarily
(FEF 351).
But
some fathers implied in their teachings about particular judgment.
The famous legend of Scales of good
deeds and bad deeds – by Ambrose
Council of Lyon II – speaks about reward
and punishment follows death immediately (N. D. 26). (Please refer page 20 No.B) – have a summarized view.
Church
Teaching
The
important teaching that affirmed the view ‘immediately’ is the document ‘Benedictus
Deus’ by Benedict XII (ND 2305) (For
more detail please refer pg 43, C).
So if one goes to
heaven or hell immediately then there should be a judgment given before that.
Scriptural
View:
OT - many
passage refer tojudgement such as Eze 5:7; 7:3Ps. 7:7; Hos 5:3.But no explicit
reference to particular judgement.
NT-
also have no explicit references, but implicitly we can say, Lazarus and Dives
(Lk 16:19-31), parable of watchfulness.Lazarus was taken immediately to heaven,
he was on the bosom of Abraham. Rich man also was immediately taken. Mt 5:22
“you will be liable to judgment.”
Some
Opinions:How long it will take?
Some
say it is not God who judges, but after death one sees in a flash all of one’s
life, thoughts and actions and judges oneself.
God is only confirming the judgement.
But
in reality it is not I who judge but God only judges. God rewards with joy and punishes with
reluctance and the human being perceives that the judgement is right and just
as he sees the whole life as in reality it was.
If
we had made a choice for God IN death, then we will be given Heaven. If our
choice is not for God, then go to hell. When we made a choice for God there is
a little problem, still our Love is not full, so there is Purgatory Maturation.
Heaven:
Descriptive
definition: “Heaven is a sensed, intimate, personal and social, eternal
happiness and a continuous thrill of being plunged into the throbbing,
infinite, loving life of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit without any
obstruction. It is happiness gifted by
the Father and the Holy Spirit in and through the Son, Our Lord and Brother Jesus
Christ. A life of loving communion with
the B.V.M., Angels and all the Blessed”.
To
be with God is joy, peace, harmony.
Scripture:
Old
Testament
·
Mystical Psalms: Longings of the human
heart for the intimacies of God’s presence.
·
Israelite thinks of God residing in his
heavens (Deut 10, 14) Is. 64:1.
·
Psalms of theophany: Ps. 16:2; 36:5-10;
73:23-26.
New
Testament
Heaven
is given us as gift in and through Jesus Christ.
Mt. 25:34, 46, 7:22ff – Jesus Christ is
the one who admits people into his Father’s kingdom.
Lk 23:43 – Paradise is to be with Jesus
Christ
Images
in the NT
1. Vision of God: Vision of God is a
relation between a subject and a subject, a familiar dealing between God and a
human being.
2. Festival lights: The birth of Jesus
is connected with light (Lk 2:9+32), Jesus light of the world (Jn 1:4-5+9,
3:19, 8:12, 9:5, 12:46), Transfiguration (Mt 17:2), Flash of light from heaven
(Act 9:3). In heaven we behold God who
is light and we would be bathed and penetrated by that light.
3. Temple of Splendour / Heavenly City /
Bride Jerusalem
Temple
is the meeting place of God and human being.
Jesus himself is presented as the Temple because in Him God and human
meet (Jn 2:19-22).
2 Cor 5:1-10 – dwelling place with Lord
Rev. 4:1 – symbolic description line
with OT images
Rev. 21-22 – Climax Reality. The
intimate relationship. God and human
beings share a common life.
4. The “Touch” of God – The intimate
tender nature of the relation and contact with God in heaven.
Can
we see God in Heaven? We can see God through the eyes of Glorified Humanity
of Jesus.
Theological
Reflections:
1.
Do the Blessed in Heaven seen the Divine
Essence? It is more than vision. It is intimate relationship, we are plunged
into the Trinitarian life.
2.
Know completely God when we go to heaven
would be impossible. Every moment will
be new. We come to know more and more
about God.
3.
Degrees / Differences in the enjoyment
of the individuals. Only accidental
differences. God’s offer of love and
life is always full. It is only our
reception that varies.
4.
Able to recognize others. Yes, we still keep our personal identities.
Hell
(ccc 1033 – 37)
Descriptive
definition: “It is the voluntarily chosen definitive loss of everlasting life
and communion with God and Blessed”. There is hell and its punishment is
immediately after death and particular judgement. Controversies and diverse opinions revolve
mainly around the nature of hell.
Two
opinions opposed to Hell:
1. Universalism: Somehow all will be
saved in the end. Reasons for this is insistence on the universal salvific will
of God. Origen’s theory of APOKATASTASIS
favoured this.
2.
Annihilationism: After biological death, the lost would be annihilated forthwith.
There is no resurrection for them.
Jehovah witnesses held this.
We
would like very much there is no Hell.but Scripture says there is Hell.
Scriptural
Evidences
Old
Testament
Concept
of ‘Sheol’ – This concept has been influenced by the thought
patterns of people in the Middle East.
In the beginning it was considered to be dark cavern below the earth, to
which went all who die, both good and bad.
There they led a shadowy, sleep existence (1 Sam 28:3ff (v. 18), Job
7:9-10; 10:21-22; 14:12-14; 17:13-16; 30:23; Ps. 88:3-6; 28:2; 30:9; 6:5). This concept underwent a significant change
(2nd and 1st Century BC).
The Septuagint translated sheol by the Greek words ‘Hades’. The Jews began to distinguish two parts in
the Sheol-Hades. The upper part was for
the good who began to enjoy some joy, whereas a lower part which came to be
known later as Gehenna was a place of unending punishment for the lost. II Mac 7:9, 14, 23, 29. Jesus descent into hell (cf. 1 Pet 3:18-19;
Mt 27:50-53). Gehenna is normally
understood in OT as a valley situated in the South of Jerusalem (Hinnom valley)
witnessed the abomination of child sacrifice to Muloch (2 Kg 23:10; 2 Chr 28:3;
Jer 7:30-32). In Is. 66:24 as the place
where all the dead bodies of rebels against God would be thrown and the place
where the worm and fire would last.
New
Testament:
Gehenna
hell is mentioned in Mt (7 times), Mk (3 times), James (once). In parables and discourses of Jesus this term
is recurring.
Parables:
·
Mt 13:24-43 : Wheat and the
cockle
·
Mt 13:47-50 : The Net
·
Mt 22:1-14 : The Wedding
feast
·
Mt 25:14-30 : The Talents
·
Mt 25:31-46 : The Last
Judgement
·
Lk 16:19-31 : Lazarus and Dives
Discourses:
·
Mt 5:22 : For sins against chastity the
liability is hell fire
·
Mt 5:28 : Sins against chastity
·
Mt 9:42-48 : Scandalizing
simple people
·
Jn 1:4, 11:25; 14:6 The one who rejects Jesus would land
himself in darkness of death.
·
Rev. 20:15 : Those who are
not in the book of life – thrown into the lake of fire
St. Paul – Rom 2:8 – wrath and fiery;
Phil 3:19 – destruction; 2 Thess 1:6-10 – Eternal destruction.
The
Teaching of the Fathers of the Church:
-
Ignatius of Antioch – the one who
corrupts, by his evil teaching, will go to unquenchable fire.
-
St. Justin – Eternal punishment, eternal
sentence of fire.
-
St. Iraneus – everlasting fire, damned
forever.
-
Tertullian – special fire like volcano
-
St. Hippolytus – fiery worm that does
not die
-
St. Gregory of Nazianzenus – Hell fire
is a punishment and does not purify .
-
St. Augustine, Pope St. Gregory the
Great – defend immediate punishment
-
Origen – hell is freely chosen person
makes a choice. He speaks of possibility
of restoring the choice. For him eternal
punishment is not these. He questions
eternal punishments nature because he believes in universal restoration.
Church
Documents:
Lateran IV (1215 A.D.) Perpetual punishment
Lyons II (1274 A.D.) Immediately to hell
Ferrara – Florence (1439 A.D.) Immediately to Hell
CCC 1033 – 1037 Punishment
In
general the Church documents avoid using hell and fire, they are not so
evidently found.
Theological
Reflection – Karl Rahner
For
Rahner, after life we become part of cosmos.
Both good and bad in a special relation to the whole of cosmos since we
still have the inner bodily dimension.
Good would move them to thank and praise God with whole creation while
the very same thing would hurt the lost.
The reason for this strange thing is that these things would be pointing
to the God whom they have voluntarily rejected.
For Rahner hell means those who have lost the sense of being with God.
How
long will somebody in Hell? Is there fire in hell? What are the images used for
Hell? (please refer
Text Page 33-35)
The
Maturation in Purgatory:
There is no proof for existence of
Purgatory in the scripture. We have texts could be accommodative. The most
frequent Text is 2 Mac 12:39-45.But this text is not accepted by Protestant and
jews since the original of the book in Greek.
Scripture:
2
Mac 12:39-45 – Judas Maccabeus makes a collection and send to Jerusalem to
offer sacrifice in NT 1 Cor 3:10-15.
Super structure put on the foundations laid by the Apostles, which
superstructure would be tested by fix.
This fix is not referring purgatory at all, but it is testing
credibility.
Teachings
of the Church:
There
is difference in the emphasis between east and west. The West emphasized the aspect of
satisfaction for sins committed (satispassio),(Pain must be extracted.
Punishment due to the sins were left behind to be paid by Satispassio) East
emphasized the aspect of purification and maturation.( what is done in the
purgatorial state is continued to be accomplished by the Holy Sprit) (Refer
Lyons II, Florence; The Council of Trent, Vatican II etc) pg. 23-25, Come Lord
Jesus Come.
Suffrage – Meanings for all prayers, Hoe
suffrage helps them those who are in Purgatory( Refer Page No.24)
Theological
Reflections:
1.
Karl Rahner – Purgatory is a process of
maturation. This maturation does not
mean growth in glory or merit.
2.
Card. J. Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI) –
Encounter with Christ the Risen Lord.
The individual would realize all the sufferings he / she had inflicted
on the Mystical Body of Christ and feel ashamed and guilty. At the same time that individual would
experience forgiveness flowing from the head of the Mystical Body to the truly
good, biologically dead person, however imperfect he or she may have been
living on this earth.
3.
Fr. Joseph Francis – we have to get out
of selfishness and self centredness. We
cannot enter heaven even if we have a little bit of selflessness. According to him purpose of purgatory. Once our fleshly bodily dimension (external
dimension) is torn away, our inner bodily self, which has inborn desire for God
fly towards God. Due to lack of proper
maturity, lack of perfect love, we experience intensely the pull but cannot
reach the Trinitarian persons of our longings.
This is the suffering could be compared to an intense fire.
Resurrection:
When
Jesus comes with power in parousia all the dead and living will raise. Then
there will be the final judgment – there who make choice for God will have life
full of joy harmony and peace, and they will get their same body like Jesus and
mother Mary.
Scriptural
View:
O.T: Dan 12:1-2 – First reference to
resurrection. All the other we find
previously are about resuiciation (1 Kg 17:17-24; Eze 37:1-14)/
2nd reference – II Mac 7:9ff
– The widow and her seven sons.
N.T.: We see it is belief of Pharisees
Did Jesus believed? Yes he himself spoke
about that.
Jesus also warns against interpreting
resurrection in any grossly biological sense (Mt 22:23-33).
Paul’s teaching about
resurrection is clearly explained in 1 Cor 15:1ff.For Greek people it is
difficult to believe in the resurrection. Because, they follow the philosophy
of Plato. According to that, (entering again soul into the body is the
punishment). But resurrection means coming back to the body so Paul makes
argument. ( Refer Pages 50-51)
He
speaks about progressive resurrection that initial resurrection is experienced
in paschal experience of death and resurrection at Baptism. This process completes at Parousia.
In
Rom 8:15-27, II Cor 5:5; Eph 1:14 speaks about pneumatological aspect where
resurrection is seen as an ongoing process.
The
justified person has received Holy Spirit as guarantee (the arrabon) as the
first installment in the process of transformation from death to life. This transformation go on day by day
according to our lower level co-operation with God’s grace, the higher level
and comes to completion at the last day.
Death was traditionally described as separation of body
and soul, by the Western Christian circle, due to the influence of Plato’s
philosophy. But today the Christian anthropological
understanding is, “the body and soul are not two independent things in a
temporary union, but now understood as bodily self, which does not exclude the
immortal soul, nor it excludes the bodily dimension, which is essential for a
human being to be a human being”. So at
death, only externally extended body dissolves.
Individual’s identity remains even after biological death through
internally extended body.
So bodily self is persisting
even after biological death. In the
resurrection we will get back the external bodily dimensions because
resurrection means the repossession of a glorified, external bodily dimension. The sameness of the body will be never
absent. For example rubber stamp –
though we use after many years image is same, though ink and paper is
different.
There
are various arguments concerning that body
-
Some argue for perfect corporeal
identity based on 1 Cor 15:53-54
-
Some others for partial and non-material
body – 1 Cor 15:50
-
Others for spiritual body – a body
perfectly submissive to the movement of the spirit and under the perfect
control of the spirit.
Possible
characteristics of the body:
I. Pohle – The vegetative functions
would case.
V. De Broglie – possibility of
vegetative functions would be present without any dependence or need or craving
for them. Because Jesus after his
resurrection ate fish, breathed on the apostles and they touched him.
Four qualities of that body – that
reveals dominance of spirit over the body (1 Cor 15:42-44).
i)
Impassibility – no suffering, sickness,
death, pain etc., - It is not dependant
ii)
Splendour – beauty and radiance –
controllable at will.
iii)
Subtility – Docile to Spirit and enjoy
compentiability.
iv)
Agility – not restricted to space and
time.
Precious Blood Missionaries
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