ARTICLE 12 - "I BELIEVE IN LIFE
EVERLASTING"
1020 The Christian who unites his own death to that of Jesus views it as a step towards
him and an entrance into everlasting life. When the Church for the last time speaks
Christ's words of pardon and absolution over the dying Christian, seals him for the last
time with a strengthening anointing, and gives him Christ in viaticum as nourishment for
the journey, she speaks with gentle assurance:
Go forth, Christian soul, from this world in the name of God the almighty Father, who
created you, in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, who suffered for
you, in the name of the Holy Spirit, who was poured out upon you. Go forth, faithful
Christian!
May you live in peace this day, may your home be with God in Zion, with Mary, the
virgin Mother of God, with Joseph, and all the angels and saints....
May you return to [your Creator] who formed you from the dust of the earth. May holy
Mary, the angels, and all the saints come to meet you as you go forth from this life....
May you see your Redeemer face to face. 589
I. THE PARTICULAR JUDGMENT
1021 Death puts an end to human life as the time open to either accepting or rejecting
the divine grace manifested in Christ.[590] The New Testament speaks of judgment
primarily in its aspect of the final encounter with Christ in his second coming, but also
repeatedly affirms that each will be rewarded immediately after death in accordance with
his works and faith. The parable of the poor man Lazarus and the words of Christ on
the cross to the good thief, as well as other New Testament texts speak of a final destiny
of the soul-a destiny which can be different for some and for others.[591]
1022 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[592] or immediately,[593]-or immediate
and everlasting damnation.[594]
At the evening of life, we shall be judged on our love.[595]
II. HEAVEN
1023 Those who die in God's grace and friendship and are perfectly purified live for ever
with Christ. They are like God for ever, for they "see him as he is," face to face:[596] By
virtue of our apostolic authority, we define the following: According to the general
disposition of God, the souls of all the saints . . . and other faithful who died after
receiving Christ's holy Baptism (provided they were not in need of purification when
they died, . . . or, if they then did need or will need some purification, when they have
been purified after death, . . .) already before they take up their bodies again and before
the general judgment - and this since the Ascension of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
into heaven - have been, are and will be in heaven, in the heavenly Kingdom and
celestial paradise with Christ, joined to the company of the holy angels. Since the
Passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, these souls have seen and do see the divine
essence with an intuitive vision, and even face to face, without the mediation of any
creature.[597]
1024 This perfect life with the Most Holy Trinity - this communion of life and love with
the Trinity, with the Virgin Mary, the angels and all the blessed - is called "heaven."
Heaven is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of
supreme, definitive happiness.
1025 To live in heaven is "to be with Christ." The elect live "in Christ,"[598] but they
retain, or rather find, their true identity, their own name.[599] For life is to be with
Christ; where Christ is, there is life, there is the kingdom.[600]
1026 By his death and Resurrection, Jesus Christ has "opened" heaven to us. The life of
the blessed consists in the full and perfect possession of the fruits of the redemption
accomplished by Christ. He makes partners in his heavenly glorification those who have
believed in him and remained faithful to his will. Heaven is the blessed community of all
who are perfectly incorporated into Christ.
1027 This mystery of blessed communion with God and all who are in Christ is beyond
all understanding and description. Scripture speaks of it in images: life, light, peace,
wedding feast, wine of the kingdom, the Father's house, the heavenly Jerusalem,
paradise: "no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has
prepared for those who love him."[601]
1028 Because of his transcendence, God cannot be seen as he is, unless he himself
opens up his mystery to man's immediate contemplation and gives him the capacity for
it. The Church calls this contemplation of God in his heavenly glory "the beatific
vision": How great will your glory and happiness be, to be allowed to see God, to be
honored with sharing the joy of salvation and eternal light with Christ your Lord and
God, . . . to delight in the joy of immortality in the Kingdom of heaven with the
righteous and God's friends.[602]
1029 In the glory of heaven the blessed continue joyfully to fulfill God's will in relation
to other men and to all creation. Already they reign with Christ; with him "they shall
reign for ever and ever."[603]
III. THE FINAL PURIFICATION, OR
PURGATORY
1030 All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed
assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to
achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.
1031 The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which
is entirely different from the punishment of the damned.[604] The Church formulated
her doctrine of faith on Purgatory especially at the Councils of Florence and Trent. The
tradition of the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture, speaks of a cleansing
fire:[605] As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment,
there is a purifying fire. He who is truth says that whoever utters blasphemy against the
Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to come. From this
sentence we understand that certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain
others in the age to come.[606]
1032 This teaching is also based on the practice of prayer for the dead, already
mentioned in Sacred Scripture: "Therefore Judas Maccabeus] made atonement for the
dead, that they might be delivered from their sin."[607] From the beginning the Church
has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all
the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of
God.[608] The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance
undertaken on behalf of the dead: Let us help and commemorate them. If Job's sons
were purified by their father's sacrifice, why would we doubt that our offerings for the
dead bring them some consolation? Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and
to offer our prayers for them.[609]
IV. HELL
1033 We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love him. But we cannot
love God if we sin gravely against him, against our neighbor or against ourselves: "He
who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and
you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him."[610] Our Lord warns us that
we shall be separated from him if we fail to meet the serious needs of the poor and the
little ones who are his brethren.[611] To die in mortal sin without repenting and
accepting God's merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own
free choice. This state of definitive self- exclusion from communion with God and the
blessed is called "hell."
1034 Jesus often speaks of "Gehenna" of "the unquenchable fire" reserved for those
who to the end of their lives refuse to believe and be converted, where both soul and
body can be lost.[612] Jesus solemnly proclaims that he "will send his angels, and they
will gather . . . all evil doers, and throw them into the furnace of fire,"[613] and that he
will pronounce the condemnation: "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal
fire!"[614]
1035 The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity.
Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into
hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, "eternal fire."[615] The chief
punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the
life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs.
1036 The affirmations of Sacred Scripture and the teachings of the Church on the
subject of hell are a call to the responsibility incumbent upon man to make use of his
freedom in view of his eternal destiny. They are at the same time an urgent call to
conversion: "Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads
to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is
hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few."[616] Since we know neither the
day nor the hour, we should follow the advice of the Lord and watch constantly so that,
when the single course of our earthly life is completed, we may merit to enter with him
into the marriage feast and be numbered among the blessed, and not, like the wicked
and slothful servants, be ordered to depart into the eternal fire, into the outer darkness
where "men will weep and gnash their teeth."[617]
1037 God predestines no one to go to hell;[618] for this, a willful turning away from
God (a mortal sin) is necessary, and persistence in it until the end. In the Eucharistic
liturgy and in the daily prayers of her faithful, the Church implores the mercy of God,
who does not want "any to perish, but all to come to repentance":[619] Father, accept
this offering from your whole family. Grant us your peace in this life, save us from final
damnation, and count us among those you have chosen.[620]
V. THE LAST JUDGMENT
1038 The resurrection of all the dead, "of both the just and the unjust,"[621] 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."[622] 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."[623]
1039 In the presence of Christ, who is Truth itself, the truth of each man's relationship
with God will be laid bare.[624] 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."[625]
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 marvellous 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.[626]
1041 The message of the Last Judgment calls men to conversion while God is still giving
them "the acceptable time, . . . the day of salvation."[627] 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
marvelled at in all who have believed."[628]
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.[629]
1043 Sacred Scripture calls this mysterious renewal, which will transform humanity and
the world, "new heavens and a new earth."[630] 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."[631]
1044 In this new universe, the heavenly Jerusalem, God will have his dwelling among
men.[632] "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."[633]
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."[634] Those who are united with Christ will form the community
of the redeemed, "the holy city" of God, "the Bride, the wife of the Lamb."[635] She will
not be wounded any longer by sin, stains, self-love, that destroy or wound the earthly
community.[636] The beatific vision, in which God opens himself in an inexhaustible
way to the elect, will be the ever-flowing well-spring of happiness, peace, and mutual
communion.
1046 For the cosmos, Revelation affirms the profound common destiny of the material
world and man:
For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God . . . in
hope because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay.... We know
that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; and not only the
creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we
wait for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.[637]
1047 The visible universe, then, is itself destined to be transformed, "so that the world
itself, restored to its original state, facing no further obstacles, should be at the service of
the just," sharing their glorification in the risen Jesus Christ.[638]
1048 "We know neither the moment of the consummation of the earth and of man, nor
the way in which the universe will be transformed. The form of this world, distorted by
sin, is passing away, and we are taught that God is preparing a new dwelling and a new
earth in which righteousness dwells, in which happiness will fill and surpass all the
desires of peace arising in the hearts of men."[639]
1049 "Far from diminishing our concern to develop this earth, the expectancy of a new
earth should spur us on, for it is here that the body of a new human family grows,
foreshadowing in some way the age which is to come. That is why, although we must be
careful to distinguish earthly progress clearly from the increase of the kingdom of Christ,
such progress is of vital concern to the kingdom of God, insofar as it can contribute to
the better ordering of human society."[640]
1050 "When we have spread on earth the fruits of our nature and our enterprise . . .
according to the command of the Lord and in his Spirit, we will find them once again,
cleansed this time from the stain of sin, illuminated and transfigured, when Christ
presents to his Father an eternal and universal kingdom."[641] God will then be "all in
all" in eternal life:[642]
True and subsistent life consists in this: the Father, through the Son and in the Holy
Spirit, pouring out his heavenly gifts on all things without exception. Thanks to his
mercy, we too, men that we are, have received the inalienable promise of eternal
life.[643]
IN BRIEF
1051 Every man receives his eternal recompense in his immortal soul from the moment
of his death in a particular judgment by Christ, the judge of the living and the dead.
1052 "We believe that the souls of all who die in Christ's grace . . . are the People of God
beyond death. On the day of resurrection, death will be definitively conquered, when
these souls will be reunited with their bodies" (Paul VI, CPG # 28).
1053 "We believe that the multitude of those gathered around Jesus and Mary in
Paradise forms the Church of heaven, where in eternal blessedness they see God as he is
and where they are also, to various degrees, associated with the holy angels in the divine
governance exercised by Christ in glory, by interceding for us and helping our weakness
by their fraternal concern" (Paul VI, CPG # 29).
1054 Those who die in God's grace and friendship imperfectly purified, although they
are assured of their eternal salvation, undergo a purification after death, so as to achieve
the holiness necessary to enter the joy of God.
1055 By virtue of the "communion of saints," the Church commends the dead to God's
mercy and offers her prayers, especially the holy sacrifice of the Eucharist, on their
behalf.
1056 Following the example of Christ, the Church warns the faithful of the "sad and
lamentable reality of eternal death" (GCD 69), also called "hell."
1057 Hell's principal punishment consists of eternal separation from God in whom
alone man can have the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he
longs.
1058 The Church prays that no one should be lost: "Lord, let me never be parted from
you." If it is true that no one can save himself, it is also true that God "desires all men to
be saved" (1 Tim 2:4), and that for him "all things are possible" (Mt 19:26).
1059 "The holy Roman Church firmly believes and confesses that on the Day of
Judgment all men will appear in their own bodies before Christ's tribunal to render an
account of their own deeds" (Council of Lyons II [1274]: DS 859; cf. DS 1549).
1060 At the end of time, the Kingdom of God will come in its fullness. Then the just
will reign with Christ for ever, glorified in body and soul, and the material universe itself
will be transformed. God will then be "all in all" (1 Cor 15:28), in eternal life.
"AMEN"
1061 The Creed, like the last book of the Bible,[644] ends with the Hebrew word amen.
This word frequently concludes prayers in the New Testament. The Church likewise
ends her prayers with "Amen."
1062 In Hebrew, amen comes from the same root as the word "believe." This root
expresses solidity, trustworthiness, faithfulness. And so we can understand why "Amen"
may express both God's faithfulness towards us and our trust in him.
1063 In the book of the prophet Isaiah, we find the expression "God of truth" (literally
"God of the Amen"), that is, the God who is faithful to his promises: "He who blesses
himself in the land shall bless himself by the God of truth [amen]."[645] Our Lord often
used the word "Amen," sometimes repeated,[646] to emphasize the trustworthiness of
his teaching, his authority founded on God's truth.
1064 Thus the Creed's final "Amen" repeats and confirms its first words: "I believe." To
believe is to say "Amen" to God's words, promises and commandments; to entrust
oneself completely to him who is the "Amen" of infinite love and perfect faithfulness.
The Christian's everyday life will then be the "Amen" to the "I believe" of our baptismal
profession of faith:
May your Creed be for you as a mirror. Look at yourself in it, to see if you believe
everything you say you believe. And rejoice in your faith each day.[647]
1065 Jesus Christ himself is the "Amen."[648] He is the definitive "Amen" of the
Father's love for us. He takes up and completes our "Amen" to the Father: "For all the
promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why we utter the Amen through him, to
the glory of God":[649]
Through him, with him, in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all glory
and honor is yours, almighty Father, God, for ever and ever. AMEN.
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