Joseph Hollcraft MA
Foundations of Catechetics: CCP 211
Week 11: November 13, 2007
XVII. Eschatology: Eschaton (Gk.): meaning “the last”, this area of theology and catechesis deals with the last things of the Christian journey: our human destiny, death, judgment, resurrection, heaven, hell, and purgatory (CCC 1020-1050).
1. Particular Judgment : The eternal retribution received by each soul at the moment of death, in accordance with the person's faith and works (CCC 1021-1022).
A. Consult Word of the Week on Paradise .
1. The simple request of the penitent thief is quite generous considering his sin…yet God's mercy is inexhaustible! The thief is concerned about his demise but focused on the coming of the Kingdom! The grace of death.
2. Heaven : Eternal life with God; communion of life and love with the Trinity and all the blessed. Heaven is the state of supreme and definitive joy, the goal of the deepest longings of the human heart (CCC 1023).
A. Consult Word of the Week on Heaven.
3.Purgatory: A state of final purification after death and before entrance into heaven for those who died in God's friendship, but were only imperfectly purified; a final cleansing of human imperfection before one is able to enter the joy of heaven (CCC 1031).
A. 1 Cor.3.5-16; 1 Peter 1.7...there is purification through fire. This is the fire of God's love. He loves us so much that he wishes we be purified. The catacombs feature people praying for the dead. It is analogous to the boy who hits a ball into a window, then knocks on the door, and asks for the ball back without paying for the window…you need to pay for the window. Purgatory is the debt paid in the order of justice. Other notable Scriptures:
1. On the “ Day” man will suffer loss through fire, though though yet be saved.
2. Mt.5.26; 12.32... “Every sin will be paid to the last penny.” Debt paid in the order of justice.
a. Note how the parables of the kingdom of heaven convey the reality of the Catholic Church.
3. Eph.3.15... “No one annuls a man's will once it has been ratified.” Our life is our testimony before God on the Day of Judgment.
4. 2 Mac.12.42-45...Jews were praying for the dead. If no purgatory…why pray for the dead?
a. This Old Testament passage foreshadows the more perfected intercessory prayer in the new covenant. Other O.T. passages include 1 Sam.2.6 and Is.66.16.
b. 1 Tim.2.1; 5-8; Heb.12.1...12-23...the power of intercessory prayer.
5. Col.1.24...points to a suffering for a cause. If no purgatory why would we be asked to suffer…there must be redemptive value.
a. Catherine of Genoa reminds us that the church in the Eucharist is a marriage feast and our suffering is like washing our hands before we go to the dinner table (we do this in a provisionary manner in reconciliation before receiving our Lord in the Eucharist--sometimes there is enough suffering to “beam us up.”
1. “ We could not stand under the weight of the crown of suffering. It is like comparing Plato to a parrot or Bach to a magpie…our grotesquery would be seen” --Howard
4. Hell: The state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed, reserved for those who refuse by their own free choice to believe and be converted from sin, even to the end of their lives (CCC 1033).
A. Consult Word of the Week on Hell.
5. Last Judgment : God's triumph over the revolt of evil, after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world. Preceded by the resurrection of the dead, it will coincide with the second coming of Christ in glory at the end of time, disclose good and evil, and reveal the meaning of salvation history and the providence of God which justice has triumphed over evil (CCC 1021, 1038).
A. Rev.20.13...The Great White throne Judgment. Hades (purgatory) precedes Gahanna (hell)…Wis.16.13
6. Hope in the New Heaven and the Earth : At the end of time, the Kingdom of God will come in its fullness. Then the just will reign with Christ forever, glorified in body and soul, and the material universe itself with be transformed. God will then “be all in all” (1 Cor.15.28) in eternal life (CCC 1060).
A. CCC 1045 and the Mass…consider Rev.1.1: Apokalypsis
Read CCC 1950-1974