Copyright © 2006 By Doug Lawrence. All Rights Reserved.
Catechism Of The Catholic Church Reprinted With Permission.
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God’s Truth From The Catechism Of The Catholic Church – cont.
Then Christ will come "in his glory, and all the angels with him. . . . Before him will be gathered all
the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from
the goats, and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left. . . . And they will
go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."
625
1039 In the presence of Christ, who is Truth itself, the truth of each man's relationship with God
will be laid bare.
626
The Last Judgment will reveal even to its furthest consequences the good each
person has done or failed to do during his earthly life: All that the wicked do is recorded, and they
do not know. When "our God comes, he does not keep silence.". . . he will turn towards those at his
left hand: . . . "I placed my poor little ones on earth for you. I as their head was seated in heaven at
the right hand of my Father - but on earth my members were suffering, my members on earth were
in need. If you gave anything to my members, what you gave would reach their Head. Would that
you had known that my little ones were in need when I placed them on earth for you and appointed
them your stewards to bring your good works into my treasury. But you have placed nothing in their
hands; therefore you have found nothing in my presence."
627
1040 The Last Judgment will come when Christ returns in glory. Only the Father knows the day
and the hour; only he determines the moment of its coming. Then through his Son Jesus Christ he
will pronounce the final word on all history. We shall know the ultimate meaning of the whole work
of creation and of the entire economy of salvation and understand the marvelous ways by which his
Providence led everything towards its final end. The Last Judgment will reveal that God's justice
triumphs over all the injustices committed by his creatures and that God's love is stronger than
death.
628
1041 The message of the Last Judgment calls men to conversion while God is still giving them
"the acceptable time, . .
. the day of salvation."
629
It inspires a holy fear of God and commits them
to the justice of the Kingdom of God. It proclaims the "blessed hope" of the Lord's return, when he
will come "to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at in all who have believed."
630
*VI. THE HOPE OF THE NEW HEAVEN AND THE NEW EARTH
1042 At the end of time, the Kingdom of God will come in its fullness. After the universal judgment,
the righteous will reign for ever with Christ, glorified in body and soul. The universe itself will be
renewed: The Church . . . will receive her perfection only in the glory of heaven, when will come the
time of the renewal of all things. At that time, together with the human race, the universe itself,
which is so closely related to man and which attains its destiny through him, will be perfectly re-
established in Christ.
631
1043 Sacred Scripture calls this mysterious renewal, which will transform humanity and the world,
"new heavens and a new earth."
632
It will be the definitive realization of God's plan to bring under a
single head "all things in [Christ], things in heaven and things on earth."
633
1044 In this new universe, the heavenly Jerusalem, God will have his dwelling among men.
634
"He
will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be
mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away."
635
1045 For man, this consummation will be the final realization of the unity of the human race, which
God willed from creation and of which the pilgrim Church has been "in the nature of sacrament."
636
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