He will come again to judge the living and the dead

Biologically, living is the condition of being alive, the ability for an organism to get and organise autonomously the energy from the environment for the reproduction of its cells. When it can no longer do this it dies, disintegrates into basic chemical elements.

But this is not the living and the dead our creed says will be judged by Christ. Christ is going to judge the living condition of the soul.

What is the soul then?

Many philosophers, psychologists, psychiatrists and theologians have tried to answer this question. It’d be foolish for a layman to try and give a conclusive definition. But I like this almost flippant description: A soul is the self, the I that inhabits the body and acts through it. Without the soul, the body is like a light bulb without electricity, a computer without the software.

St Thomas Aquinas attributed the soul (anima) to all organisms, but taught that only human souls are immortal, and that only immortal souls are capable of union with the divine.

When Christ ascended to heaven, as we observed in our last discussion, he opened a way for us to share in the divine nature. Christ is the one who will determine whether our lives have been lived in a matter befitting our sharing the nature of God or not. John 14:6 and Matthew 28:18 emphasise this point.

What about the dead?

The doctrine of hell is so frightening that numerous people end up denying the reality of an eternal hell.

The Unitarian-Universalists, the Seventh-Day Adventists, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Christadelphians, the Christian Scientists, the Religious Scientists, the New Agers, and the Mormons all have rejected or modified the doctrine of hell so radically that it is no longer considered a serious threat. In recent decades, this decay has even invaded mainstream Evangelicalism which preaches that there is no eternal hell the wicked will simply be annihilated.

In his 1994 book Crossing the Threshold of Hope one of the seminal books in my conversion to CatholicismPope John Paul II wrote that too often preachers, catechists, teachers…no longer have the courage to preach the threat of hell (p 183).

But Jesus has no such qualms. In Mark’s gospel when he warns: It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, where the worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched (9:47-48). And in Revelation, we read: And the smoke of their torment goes up for ever and ever; and they have no rest, day or night, these worshippers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name (14:11).

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: 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. 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 (1035).

Concerning the reality of hell, Pope John Paul said: In point of fact, the ancient councils rejected the theory…according to which the world would be regenerated after destruction, and every creature would be saved; a theory which abolished hell…

The words of Christ are unequivocal. In Matthew’s gospel he speaks clearly of those who will go to eternal punishment (cf. Mt 25:46). [But] who will these be?

The pope answered the question: The Church has never made any pronouncement in this regard.

And what does that mean for you and for me?