Death & Final Judgment

Review last meditation: 

Topic: The idea of death

Preparatory Prayer [46]: I will beg God our Lord for grace that all my intentions, actions, and operations may be directed purely to the praise and service of His Divine Majesty.

Mental Representation:  This is a representation of the place. Here it will be to see in imagination the final judgment.

Grace:  I will ask God for what I desire: Here it will be to beg for a deep sense of what the final judgment will be like–the anticipation, the absoluteness. 

Points for consideration:

Nothing is more certain than death:

“Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever?” Zach1,5

“As he had come naked from his mother’s womb, so will he return as he came. He will take nothing from the fruit of his labor that he can carry in his hand.” Ecclesiastes 5:15

“Great men are an illusion; weighed in the balance the scale goes up; they are lighter than a breath” Psalm62,9

“My brothers, one can confidently say to you about the patriarch David that he died and was buried, and his tomb is in our midst to this day” Acts 2

“You sweep men away like a dream, like grass which springs up in the morning. In the morning it springs up and flowers: by evening it withers and fades.” Psalm 90

Death of the body is nothing compared to death of the soul:

The woman and her 7 sons who was willing to die in body because she valued the life of her soul.

They were arrested and threatened with a torturous death because they refused the demands of the king.  “What do you intend…we are ready to die.” The third son, while he was dying, says: “I received my body from Heaven…and I hope to get it back again.”  The fourth son: “One can choose to die at the hands of men and to cherish the hope that God gives of being raised again by him.” The fifth son: “Do not deceive yourself in vain.  We are suffering because of our sins against our God…but do not think that you will go unpunished for having tried to fight against God.” And the mother was especially admirable: “Though she saw her seven sons perish within a single day, she bore it because of her hope in the Lord.” (2 Maccabees 7)

Christ says: Do not lay up your treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume (Mt6,19) and “do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat or drink, nor about your body…which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his span of life?” (Mt6,25)

Final Judgment:

The resurrection of all the dead, “of both the just and the unjust,” will precede the Last Judgment.  This will be the hour when all who are in the tombs will hear the Son of man’s voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment. Then Christ will come in his glory all the angels with him…before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another…some into eternal life and others into eternal punishment.

The truth of each man’s relationship with God will be laid bare. There will be a Particular Judgment for each person individually and there will be a Final Judgment.  At the Last Judgment, it will be revealed even to its furthest consequences the good each person has done or failed to do during his earthly life.

Augustine: All that the wicked do is recorded, and they do not know…Would that you had known that my little ones were in need when I placed them on earth in your service…hoping that you would bring good works into my treasury.  But you do not do this; therefore, you have found nothing in my presence.

(Paraphrased from CCC1038-41 on The Last Judgment)

Colloquy:

The colloquy is like a conversation between friends. Saint Ignatius reminds us that this is the most important part of the mediation. After considering some of the material, we desire to enter into conversation with Christ or whomever we find it helpful to speak with.

Enter into conversation with Christ our Lord. Recall to memory all of those people who have been born and died, how all of them have appeared before the judgment throne of Christ.  How all people living now will also be objectively judged. How those people who have not yet been born, will appear in the same way.  Consider the different judgments-some going to heaven, some to purgatory, some to hell.  I will ask Him for wisdom. I will praise Him for his perfect justice, which sees all things as they are.  I shall also thank Him for this, that up to this very moment He has shown Himself so loving and merciful to me.  Close with an Our Father.