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Q&A with Fr Flader: What is the particular judgement?

Fr John Flader
Fr John Flader
Fr Flader is an American-born priest who arrived in Australia in 1968. A former director of the Catholic Adult Education Centre in Sydney, he has written Question Time for The Catholic Weekly since 2005. Submit your question here. Fr Flader blogs at fatherfladerblog.com.
The Last judgement is by Michelangelo on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel. It took four years to complete from 1537 to 1541. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

I know that when we die we will face God in the judgement. Does the church have any teaching about the nature, or content, of this judgement?

We should clarify at the outset that when we speak of the judgment of each soul immediately after death, we are speaking of what the church traditionally calls the particular judgment, the judgment of each soul individually.

This judgment is distinguished from the general judgment, the judgment of all souls together on the Last Day.

We can begin with Scripture, where we find a good number of passages that refer to the judgment of each soul after its death.

For example, the Letter to the Hebrews says: “It is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment” (Heb 9:27).

And St Paul, in his second letter to the Corinthians, says: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body” (2 Cor 5:10).

On the basis of these texts and a constant tradition of the church, the Catechism teaches: “Each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death, in a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ: either entrance into the blessedness of heaven–through a purification or immediately–or immediate and everlasting damnation” (CCC 1022).

Leos Moskos’ the last judgement. Photo: picryl.com.

The judgment is a crucial moment in our life. It is definitive. On it depends our eternal destiny: either heaven, immediately or via purgatory, or hell.

It is truly the “final exam” of our life, as I wrote in my book The Final Exam, (Connor Court 2023). It is the one exam we cannot afford to fail.

With the judgment, there is no opportunity for repenting, or for pleading with God for more time.

If we have made bad choices, we have had our whole life to repent and change our ways. With death, our eternal destiny has been decided.

St Jerome writes: “What will happen to all on the day of judgment, has already taken place for each one on the day of their death” (In Joel, 2:1).

The Catechism teaches: “Death puts an end to human life as the time open to either accepting or rejecting the divine grace manifested in Christ.

The New Testament … repeatedly affirms that each will be rewarded immediately after death in accordance with his works and faith” (CCC 1021).

St Paul may be describing the judgment when he compares being judged by others with being judged by God: “But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. I do not even judge myself.

I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. Therefore, do not pronounce judgment before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart.

particular judgement
If we have made bad choices, we have had our whole life to repent and change our ways. With death, our eternal destiny has been decided. Photo: Pexels.com.

Then every man will receive his commendation from God” (1 Cor 4:3-5).

St Paul is saying that when he examines his conduct, his conscience is clear, but that does not justify him before God. It is God who will judge him.

What is more, God will bring to light things hidden in darkness, things or deeds we have forgotten about completely, both good and bad. And he will reveal the purposes, the motives, that moved us to do what we did.

All of this is telling us that the particular judgment will be thorough, complete, objective. We will not be able to hide anything.

All will be brought to light. And we will not be able to come with excuses, to justify our conduct. We will accept what we see, because we will acknowledge that, before God, it is the truth. We will see ourselves as God sees us, not as we see ourselves.

As I wrote in Dying to Live (Connor Court 2022), in the numerous accounts of near-death experiences, persons who found themselves in the judgment deserving of hell all acknowledged that that is what they deserved for their sins.

If they had excuses when they committed those sins, there was no place for excuses now.

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