Latest / The Uncensored Catholic / Show 260: The General Judgement
Transcript
- 0:41Speaker 1: The Fish of All. Welcome to this week's show. We
- 1:02will continue our discussion of the end times. Last week
- 1:07we began discussing the Resurrection of the dead, and I
- 1:12think we will be continuing with part two of that
- 1:14section of the book today, And since it tends to
- 1:17be rather long, I'm going to just go ahead and
- 1:19jump right in to a couple of questions and answers
- 1:22from radio replies. You may remember the question from last
- 1:26week really dislikes, disbelieves, hates the idea that there's a hell,
- 1:33And of course, well we all should, but you know,
- 1:36it's a God given to us reality that there is,
- 1:40and it's kind of it's very interesting to listen to
- 1:44read him. Listen to the conversation of him going back
- 1:48and forth to the priests. He says, is any person
- 1:52so bad as to deserve eternal punishment? And the pres
- 1:56answer yes. The man who deliberately and finally despises and
- 1:59reject the infinite love of God deserves to be deprived
- 2:02of it forever. He asks, surely he did some virtuous actions,
- 2:07are they to be of no avail? And they answer
- 2:10they would have counted for very much had the man wished.
- 2:14But if He subsequently commits mortal sin and dies without repenting.
- 2:20He forfeits any benefits of previous virtue. Refraining from adultery
- 2:26on Friday has no excuse for the commission of murder
- 2:29on Saturday. A person says, you damn people whose wills
- 2:33are so weak they cannot avoid sin, And the priest's answer,
- 2:37none but the deliberately none. Let me try again, none
- 2:40but deliberately willed and unrepentant. Mortal sin meets with the
- 2:44eternal punishment. If inherent weakness is so great as to
- 2:48destroy real responsibility, God would not accuse the man of
- 2:51mortal sin. But such is not the case with the
- 2:54normal man. The normal man is able to refuse to
- 2:57consent to the will of evil inclination and suggestions. Some
- 3:01people are only too ready to call their own cow
- 3:05cowardice inherent weakness. They could have refused sin, but shows
- 3:09sin and afterwards fell back on the lame excuse of
- 3:12weak moments. Person says, however bad, however bad people may be,
- 3:18I think it is against right ideas of God to
- 3:20speak of his punishing anyone forever. And they answer, then,
- 3:24what are you going to do with satan? He is
- 3:26a creature of God, even as we is he going
- 3:28to reform? Will he ever come out of the eternal
- 3:31fire prepared for the devil at his angels? No, and
- 3:34granting the fact that God is punishing one of his
- 3:36creatures like that, responsible human souls can certainly meet with
- 3:40the same fate. I do not like the thought of
- 3:43anyone suffering in hell any more than you do, but
- 3:46that will not make me deny the existence of Hell.
- 3:50Hundreds of things we do not like or fects. Person
- 3:53asks how can you reconcile hell with God's love, justice
- 3:56and mercy? And he answers if I could not, But
- 4:00that would but prove something wrong with my own ideas
- 4:03on the subject. For it is certain that God is loving,
- 4:06just and merciful, and he has revealed that there is
- 4:09a hell, so the ideas cannot be repugnant. However, God's love, justice,
- 4:14and mercy demand that there be a hell. His love
- 4:18demands a hell, for the more he loves goodness, the
- 4:21more he must hate sin. To the man who says
- 4:24that God loves too much to send a man to Hell,
- 4:26I reply simply that he sends no men there. Men
- 4:29go there, and God has loved too much not to
- 4:33let them go there if they scorn, reject, and throw
- 4:36God's love back in his face again. His justice demands
- 4:40that if a man dies rejecting an infinite goodness, he
- 4:43should endure a penalty of never ending nature. If there
- 4:46were no eternal punishment, a man could cry to God,
- 4:49you say, thou shalt not. I say, I shall do
- 4:53your worst. You cannot punish me forever. What care I
- 4:56for your commandments? For yourself? You must either make me
- 5:00happy in the end or annihilate me when I shall
- 5:02have escaped your power. It is impossible for the drama
- 5:07of iniquity to end like that. That would not be justice.
- 5:09And as for God's mercy already, it is a mercy
- 5:13that man has the thought of hell as an emergency
- 5:15break to stop him from rushing headlong and device. The
- 5:20truth that there is a hell has mercifully saved many
- 5:22a soul from a life of blasphemy and sin, and
- 5:25still more often from death in a state of sin.
- 5:28And remember that God's mercy is offered to every man
- 5:31over and over again during life. Mercy has asked for,
- 5:34not forced upon people. Some men who are allowed us
- 5:38in their protests against God's injustice would be the first
- 5:41to complain if God forced anything on them, even in
- 5:45his mercy. But men cannot have God's mercy and reject
- 5:50one at the same time and object it at Let
- 5:54me try that again and reject it at one and
- 5:57the same time, there we go. Person says, But Christ,
- 6:02who came as the revelation of God, was so kind
- 6:04and gentle. And they answered that intensifies the force of
- 6:07the arguments for hell. Only a grim reality could have
- 6:10forced him to speak as he did. He taught heaven
- 6:12and hell equally. You cannot have heaven because you like it,
- 6:15and reject hell because and reject Hell with the same
- 6:20authority because you did not like it. Think of his
- 6:23passion and death, that there were no hell to save
- 6:25us from it. If all we had to, if we
- 6:29all had to go to heaven, whether he was crucified
- 6:32or not, then his sufferings and death were foolish. Men
- 6:36wish to abolish hell, But is there is but one
- 6:40way to do so? Let each man abolish his own
- 6:44hell by repenting of his sins and endeavoring to serve God.
- 6:47And I need a sip of water. I'm getting tongue
- 6:49to tight again. Finally, the person asks or he states,
- 6:56you make Christ cruel and the presanswors I do not
- 7:00do punishment for not doing as Christ's commands? Is justice
- 7:03not cruelty. Parents know that it is not cruelty to
- 7:07inflect reasonable and deserved punishment upon children who are rebellious.
- 7:11And God has more right to your obedience than any
- 7:14parents to the obedience of their children. It is a
- 7:17blame worthy weakness in parents that they allow their children
- 7:20to do just as they please with no fear of
- 7:22the consequences. And God is not so foolish as to
- 7:25give serious laws to his rational creatures on the understanding
- 7:28that nothing will happen if they break them. But there
- 7:31is no need to endure the extreme penalty. Keep the
- 7:34laws and you will be safe. All right, we'll pause there.
- 7:40There is going to be a whole lot more talking
- 7:41about Hell and purgatory. So you know what, if I
- 7:48do three no, if I do four more questions and answers,
- 7:51I wrap up Hell and we can start on purgatory
- 7:53next week. Let's do that. Okay, it's gonna be a
- 7:55little bit. Four more questions, you know that's best? Fine,
- 8:00says your hell is full of non Catholics who commit
- 8:02grave sin and do not know how to make an
- 8:05act of perfect contrition. And they answered, we do not
- 8:09know how far they understand the gravity of sin. As
- 8:11for the act of contrition, you are leaving out the
- 8:13greatest factor of all, and that's God's grace. In a flash,
- 8:16God can enlighten the mind and move the will to
- 8:19a purely interior act of contrition of which the onlookers
- 8:22know nothing, and God alone knows how many are saved. Yeah,
- 8:28that's interesting. I had a fairly interesting discussion recently about Tritullian,
- 8:33and you know, he's one of the greatest writers, theologians
- 8:37and apologists of the Catholic Church in the early centuries
- 8:41and apparently became considered a heretic. Was persuaded by the
- 8:49Montanist heresy that essentially says that the three persons of
- 8:53the Trinity are not co equal, but that the Son
- 8:56and the Holy Spirit or subservient to the Father. It's
- 9:00a little more complicated than that, but it's a fairly
- 9:02decent summation. And you know, this has led to a
- 9:06lot of confusion. I mean, the Trinity is supposedly still
- 9:10the main objection of the Orthodox schism. Really, I just
- 9:15think they don't like the authority the pope. I mean,
- 9:17you can't really find many Orthodox that are willing to
- 9:20fight to the death on the nature of the Trinity.
- 9:24I mean, and most of them don't even understand what
- 9:26they're talking about. It's not like that's the real issue really.
- 9:31But anyway, others say that Tertullian did not buy a heretic.
- 9:37He may have repented at the end, and here's a
- 9:40perfect example of nobody really knows for sure. You know,
- 9:44he could have repentant on his deathbed. He could have
- 9:47confessed to a priest who would be under the seal
- 9:50of confession. And I'm able to say that, yes, Tertullian,
- 9:55you know, repentant on his deathbed of this heresy. Or
- 10:00it could be that his writings were misunderstood by some
- 10:03and he was never truly full on heretic. I have
- 10:06no idea, but it was interesting to read through some
- 10:09of the history and say, yeah, he was, you know,
- 10:11total heretic at the end of his life, after living
- 10:14you know, an incredible life, as you know, the greatest
- 10:17of the early Catholic writers. And others say, no, he
- 10:21didn't die a heretic, he you know, saw the error
- 10:24of Montanism at the end, or had a mistaken idea
- 10:28about something. Who knows, I have no idea. It's like
- 10:32some of the person was saying to me that, you know,
- 10:34arch heretics are in hell and we shouldn't pray for them,
- 10:38and I said, well, yeah, okay, but how do you
- 10:41know what happened in the last minutes of their life?
- 10:45You know, how do you know? You don't know? I mean,
- 10:48so unless you know the Church has actually declared someone
- 10:53to be in hell, which church doesn't really often do that,
- 10:59I mean, very, very rarely, let's put it that way.
- 11:02I mean, the excommunication is one thing, but absolutely being
- 11:07in hell or Brandon an arch heretic. Still, we don't
- 11:12know what happened in the last few minutes of their lives.
- 11:14So I don't think I mean, you know, the church
- 11:16also teachers said all prayers for the dead, even if
- 11:19the person is in hell and can't benefit from a prayer,
- 11:25that's transferred to somebody else who's in purgatory who can benefit.
- 11:29So I don't think it's wrong to pray for anybody.
- 11:33That's my opinion. The other person said they had a
- 11:36degree from a Catholic university and they disagreed with me.
- 11:39That happens a lot. But you know, just what can
- 11:46I say? If the Church officially teaches a position ex Cathedral,
- 11:51ex Cathera or whatever. The pope along with the bishops
- 11:55and cardinals and all that, and says, this is a
- 11:57ficial doctrine. You have to accept it, whether I understand
- 12:00or like it or not. I accept it on matters
- 12:03that are a little less clear. You know, I don't
- 12:06draw conclusions based on my own opinions. That's just me.
- 12:12Maybe I'm strange that way. So he says, if you
- 12:16believe in Christianity, you must believe there are infinitely more
- 12:19people in Hell than in heaven. And the priest's answers,
- 12:23I have not to believe that, and I do not
- 12:24believe it. Yet I believe in Christianity. Why should you,
- 12:28a non Christian prescribe for me what I have to believe.
- 12:31You might at least leave that to Christians. That's a
- 12:33good point. Versus says, how many souls are lost acord
- 12:37to the Catholic Church, and he answers the priest answers.
- 12:39Various theologians have expressed various opinions. But these are merely
- 12:43private opinions. The Catholic Church has no official teaching on
- 12:47the subject, nor has any definite information been revealed to
- 12:51men by God. The one thing certain is that men
- 12:55can be saved and men can be lost, and that
- 12:58unrepentant moral sin is the factor that is enough for
- 13:02all practical purposes. And finally, the person who is world
- 13:06cut it off. He says, are Judas and Adam in hill?
- 13:09And the priest answers, as I was just explaining. It
- 13:13has never been revealed that any particular soul is in hell.
- 13:18Christ said of Judas, better for him had he never
- 13:20been born. That does not look too hopeful in his case,
- 13:23For no matter what a man has to endure, if
- 13:26he attains eternal happiness in the end, is much better
- 13:29that he had been born. However, even of Judas, no
- 13:32man has absolute certainty. The question can be solved only
- 13:36by God. It is practically certain that Adam is in
- 13:39heaven and not in hell. The scripture says, Wisdom preserved
- 13:42him that was first formed by God, the father of
- 13:45the world, and brought him out of his sin. Wisdom
- 13:47ten II. Adam was the type of the second atom Christ,
- 13:50and it is to be expected that Christ the second
- 13:55Adam would see to it that the first anim was
- 13:57fully liberated from Satan. The Greek church from very ancient
- 14:00times to celebrate the feast of Adam and Eve. All right,
- 14:04that does actually in our discussion on hell. So now
- 14:07we can get into purgatory, and well, what a wonderful
- 14:12doctrine purgatory is. I think you're going to find it
- 14:15really enlightening to hear the questions and answers, and when
- 14:18you are questioned by Protestants, you'll be able to fend
- 14:21the doctrine purgatory or explain it to somebody who's Catholic
- 14:25who doesn't really understand it, and believe you me. But
- 14:29there are many things that even those who were you
- 14:34born and raised Catholic, as they say, fully catechized, Catholic
- 14:38school for whatever, kindergarten through high school and then college,
- 14:44get very very very wrong. One should never say they
- 14:48know everything. If I've got a Catechism and I can
- 14:52pick up and quote for it, I'll tell you I
- 14:54know this to be true. If I've got you know
- 14:56anything along those lines official church teaching and doctrine. My
- 15:01own opinions of the Bible. Of a Bible verse are
- 15:04of no regard whatsoever should not be regarded if they
- 15:08are in any way disagree with what the Church says
- 15:11that verse means. Because Jesus gave to his authority, that
- 15:14gave his authority to the Church. Individual interpretation is absolutely
- 15:19forbidden by the Bible, So always keep that in mind.
- 15:23Leave sipple water here and then we'll dive into the
- 15:26end times. Try to get very ominous when I'd say that, No, seriously,
- 15:33it's actually very encouraging work the end of this present
- 15:35world in the Mystery of the Life for the world
- 15:37to come. Feather Armagnann's book written in eighteen eighties, eighteen Nights,
- 15:44absolutely fascinating, absolutely encouraging and uplifting, even though it's dealing
- 15:49with some of the most serious of all subvics. So
- 15:52we talked about the resurrection, and he's continuing with the
- 15:56resurrection accomplished. The immediate consequence is the judgment, which will
- 16:00take place without delay. It is impossible to imagine the
- 16:03innumerable members of the human family made up the long
- 16:06line of generations massed together over the confined space and
- 16:10the surface of the Earth, trying to recognize the traces
- 16:13of places where they once dwelt and again reduced to
- 16:17sprinkling them with the sweat of their brow and wrangling
- 16:20over the ownership of the land. It is evident that mankind,
- 16:24once resurrected, will enter upon another mode of existence, and
- 16:28that divine goodness is bound to open up new abodes,
- 16:31new habitations. These habitations will be of different kinds, according
- 16:35to the merits or demerits of each person. The just
- 16:38will enter the imperiod heaven, and the dam will fill
- 16:41up well that part of the pages caught up. We're
- 16:45going to assume the dam are going to Hell, as
- 16:47we were discott to see. It is pointless for a
- 16:49few those godless men who deny this supreme manifestation of
- 16:53justice and solemn climax of human deathtin The general judgment
- 16:57is a certain fact announced by the prophets. It is
- 17:00the truth which Christ constantly stresses, the truth ratified by
- 17:03reason and consonant with the law of conscience and every
- 17:07idea of equity in Holy Scripture. Each time that the
- 17:11judgment is spoken of without any qualification, and each time
- 17:15that this day of judgment is designated by the words
- 17:19as I said, I am avoiding reading what's in Latin,
- 17:22because my pronunciation is not great. I don't want to
- 17:25confuse people by saying the wrong thing. So so these
- 17:30expressions must be understood as referring to the general judgment
- 17:35which will take place at the end of times. Thus
- 17:38it is written, Behold, I say unto you, it shall
- 17:40be more tolerable for tire insight in the day of
- 17:43judgment than for you. It shall be more tolerable for
- 17:47the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than
- 17:49for thee. The day of the Lord shall so come
- 17:52as a thief in the night. We beseech you, brethren,
- 17:54says Saint Paul, that you be not easily moved, as
- 17:58if the day of the Lord wear was at hand.
- 18:00Profits are full of similar words. The great day of
- 18:02the Lord is nearest, says the prophet Sophinias. I guess
- 18:06that day is a day of wrath. Oh, golly, go out,
- 18:12I'm sinking down on my ch heir, Okay, hold on here,
- 18:15pull myself back out. There we go. That day is
- 18:17a day of wrath, a day of tribulation and distress,
- 18:20a day of calamity and misery, a day of darkness,
- 18:23and obscurity, a day of clouds and whirlwinds, a day
- 18:27of the trumpet and alarm. Christ spoke more explicitly in
- 18:30Saint Matthew chapter thirteen, Suffer both the wheat and the
- 18:33cockwele to grow, And in the time at the harvest,
- 18:36I will say to the reapers, gather up the first
- 18:38cockles and bind it into bundles to burn. But the
- 18:41wheak gathered ye into my barn. Elsewhere, in the same Gospel,
- 18:45chapter thirteen, verse forty seven, he says, the Kingdom of
- 18:48Heaven is like a net cast in the sea and
- 18:51gathering together of all kinds of fishes, which when it
- 18:55was filled, they drew out, And sitting by the shore,
- 18:59they chose out the good into the vessels, but the
- 19:01bad they cast forth. So it shall be the end
- 19:04of the world. The angels shall go out and shall
- 19:06separate the wicked from among the just, and shall cast
- 19:10them in the furnace of fire. There shall be weeping
- 19:12and gnashing of teeth. Have you understood all these things?
- 19:16They say unto him. Yes. Let us add to these
- 19:20texts from scripture the testimony of Saint Thomas, who gives
- 19:23us three theological reasons for the opportuneness and propriety of
- 19:28a universal judgment. The first of these reasons consists in
- 19:31the fact that the works of man, whether they are
- 19:33good or bad, are not always isolated transitory x More often,
- 19:38especially in the case of the leaders of nations and
- 19:41those who are invested with public authority, they continue to
- 19:44subsist after they are concluded, either in the memory of
- 19:47other men or in public acclaim, as a result of
- 19:50the consequence they have had they had and the scandal
- 19:54they have caused. Think about Okay, Martin Luther, when he
- 20:00broke away from the church and started Protestism. We're now
- 20:03five hundred years into people following his lead, right, so
- 20:07obviously he's going to have to be judged for that. Thus,
- 20:11at first sight, a particular secret crime seems to be
- 20:15only a private personal deed, but it becomes social on
- 20:18account if its effects. Certainly, it is of faith that
- 20:22there is a particular judgment, and that every man, at
- 20:24the instant of his soul's departure from the body, appears
- 20:27before the tribunal of God to hear his eternal sentence pronounced.
- 20:31Yet this judgment cannot suffice, and it is essential that
- 20:35it should be followed by another public judgment, in which
- 20:38God will not examine the actions in isolation and taken
- 20:41to themselves, but will examine them and their effects upon
- 20:44other men, and the good or evil deriving from them,
- 20:47for families and peoples, in a word, and the consequences
- 20:51which they have produced and which those who perpetrated them
- 20:55ought to have foreseen. The second reason given by the
- 20:58angelic doctor for this manifestation relates to the false judgments
- 21:02and mistaken appraisals of human opinion. Most men, even the
- 21:06wisest and most enlightened, are easily outwitted and deceived by others.
- 21:11They do not discern the innermost depths of the soul.
- 21:14They cannot reach what a secret and interior in them. Hence,
- 21:18it happens that they generally form air of judgments on appearances,
- 21:22on what is visible and exterior. Again, it follows that
- 21:26good men are often treated with undeserved severity, and they
- 21:30are unappreciated and injured in their reputation. On the other hand,
- 21:34the wickedness of a large number of men remains unknown.
- 21:37They are everywhere, They everywhere enjoy public esteem and trust,
- 21:41and the world accords them that consideration and praise which
- 21:45is due to the just alone. So a judgment is
- 21:48necessary which exposes every pretense on masks, all hypocrisy, and
- 21:52lays bare hidden ruses and all falts and base virtues.
- 21:58This judgment, Saint John tells us, will not take place
- 22:02according to the flesh, nor according to that which the
- 22:04eyes see and the ears. Here it will be accompanied
- 22:09in the dazzling splendor of the light of God, and
- 22:12the discernment of all intentions and all desires, the full
- 22:16intuition of the most secret and mysterious recesses of the heart. Lastly,
- 22:21a third reason given by Saint Thomas is that God
- 22:24governs men by means adapted to the circumstances of their nature,
- 22:28and will judge them according to the promises he made
- 22:31them and the hopes which He aroused in them, whether
- 22:34rewarding or punishing them. He owes it to his wisdom
- 22:37to keep to the laws and the limits of distributive
- 22:40justice such as He has fixed them in this life. Now,
- 22:44Saint Paul himself calls the present life a course, a race,
- 22:47and arena. He portrays man as a traveler on this earth,
- 22:51under the figure of a soldier or athlete, rushing after
- 22:54his crown. He holds forth before us the prospect of
- 22:57eternal life, which he calls by the name of Palm trophy,
- 23:02Crown of Justice, crown of life and glory. In order
- 23:05then that the reward may really match the promise, it
- 23:08has to be bestowed at a public assembly, with a
- 23:11pomp and ceremony worthy of him who confers it, in
- 23:15the presence of all those who have taken part in
- 23:17the battle of all the enemies over whom the Saints
- 23:19a triumphed, following the manner in which ancient Roman Greece
- 23:23hustack toward their victorious warriors and heroes. In what place
- 23:27would the last judgment be held? No one knows was
- 23:30certainty of faith. But the general opinion of the Fathers
- 23:33and that of Saint Thomas, is that it would be
- 23:35in the value of jostage of Joseph Fet. There Joseph
- 23:39Fet j O s a p h at Holy Scriptures
- 23:44gives this name to the region through which flows the
- 23:47Cedron Torrent, which includes within its boundaries the town of
- 23:50Jerusalem and also of Calvary, and extends as far as
- 23:54the amount of olives. It is not indeed, is it
- 23:57not indeed fitting that Christ should manifest themself in his
- 24:00glory in the very places which were the scenes of
- 24:03this agony, where He appeared in his sufferings and humiliations.
- 24:07Such was what the angels implied when they said to disciples,
- 24:12this Jesus, who has taken up from you, shall so come.
- 24:15It is also is it not also most appropriate that
- 24:20the part of the earth where the first man was created,
- 24:23where the Son of God wrought the redemption salvation of men,
- 24:26should likewise be the one where the saints will receive
- 24:29the fullness of the fruits in his passion and death.
- 24:33Will they were where they will take part in his
- 24:36glorious assension, and where Jesus Christ will exact a just
- 24:40judgment on his persecutors and on all those who have
- 24:43refused to wash their souls by the infinite power of
- 24:46his blood. It is for this reason that the prophet
- 24:50Joel exclaims in chapter three, and the Lord shall roar
- 24:54out of Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem again.
- 25:00In the same chapter he says, I will gather together
- 25:03all nations and will bring them into the valley of Josephet,
- 25:06and I will plead I e dispute with them there
- 25:09for my people. Therefore, it is an indubitable truth that
- 25:13the judgment will be held in the value of Josephat.
- 25:18It is useless to object that our view cannot be sustained,
- 25:21and that it is sufficiently refuted by the fact that
- 25:24the value of Josephet occupies a space less extensitive and
- 25:27more confined than most of the alpine valleys, and that
- 25:31consequently it could not possibly hold the thousands of millions
- 25:35of human beings who will have followed one another or
- 25:37will yet follow one another on earth. Saint Paul, in
- 25:41his Epistle to the Thessalonians, results and throws light on
- 25:44this difficulty. He reminds us that on the day of judgment,
- 25:47the resurrected elect will not be massed together on earth,
- 25:50but shall be taken up to meet Christ into the air.
- 25:53Our Lord, Jesus Christ will descend into the region of
- 25:56the air, situated above the value of Josephat, and there,
- 25:59surrounded by his angels, he will sit on the throne
- 26:02of his majesty. Is it not indeed fitting that, by
- 26:06reason of his dignity the judge should be raised above
- 26:09all in an elevated spot from where he could be
- 26:12seen and heard by all men. Is it not equitable that,
- 26:15in consideration of merit and perfection, an honorable place near
- 26:19the sovereign judge should be assigned to the elect who
- 26:22have been released from the laws of gravity and possessing
- 26:25glorious and subtle bodies, would no longer need the earth
- 26:28for support. The reprobate alone would be detained on earth.
- 26:32But as Suarez points out, we should be wrong to
- 26:35imagine them restricted and confined within the narrow limits of
- 26:38the Value of Josepha. Their enormous number will extend so
- 26:42far as necessary into the surrounding area, to the mount
- 26:45of Olives, the Mountain of Zion, the site where Jerusalem stood,
- 26:48and perhaps remote areas. If it is said that the
- 26:51judgment will take place in the value of Josepha, this
- 26:53is because Christ will set up his throne above it,
- 26:56and because his value will be the place in which
- 26:58mankind will begin to symbol by whom by whom will
- 27:04the judgment be executed by Christ Jesus. Not precisely by
- 27:08Christ Jesus as God, who shares the same substance in
- 27:11the same life with his father, but by Christ Jesus
- 27:14inasmuch as he became incarnate in the time, and is
- 27:17called in time, and is called the Son of Man.
- 27:22It is said in Saint John five, for neither does
- 27:24the Father judge any man, but hath given all judgment
- 27:27to the Son, that all men may honor the Son,
- 27:30and say honor the Father. He gave him power to judge,
- 27:34because he is the son of Man. Indeed, as God Jesus,
- 27:38Christ is equal to the Father the expression image of
- 27:41his sovereign power, and possesses co naturally with the other
- 27:45two divine persons the right to judge, which they have.
- 27:48From this point of view, Christ does not have to
- 27:51receive a second investiture, and it is only in considering
- 27:55him as man that Saint John could say that he
- 27:58will be honored by all because of the judicial power
- 28:00conferred upon him by his father. In the following verse,
- 28:03Saint John teaches us that Christ has received the power
- 28:06to restore the dead to life. I shall I say
- 28:09unto you that the hour cometh, and now is when
- 28:12the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God.
- 28:15This passage makes clear that the power to resurrect conferred
- 28:18upon the Son of Man is a consequence of his
- 28:21capacity as judge. It is essential for the exercise of
- 28:24judicial authority that he who is invested with it should
- 28:27have a means of summoning the guilty and bringing him
- 28:29up before his tribunal. As the judgment has to be
- 28:34executed over man, observes Saint Thomas, it must be adapted
- 28:37to their capacities. It must take account to the demands
- 28:41and inclinations of their nature. Man, however, is composed of
- 28:45a soul and a body. He apprehends spiritual and invisible
- 28:48things only through the agency of tangible things. That being
- 28:51so is not essential that man should be judged. Is
- 28:54it not essential that man should be judged by a man,
- 28:57by a being who appears in the flesh, whose face
- 29:00he can see, whose voice he can hear? Rightly, Saint
- 29:02John tells us, and he hath given him power to
- 29:06do judgment because he is the son of God. Furthermore,
- 29:10if we study things after our way of thinking, must
- 29:13not the judge be seen by all men? Some into
- 29:17his bar Now, inasmuch as he has a human form,
- 29:20Christ will be seen by the just and the wicked simultaneously.
- 29:24In as much as he has a divine form, he
- 29:26can show himself to the elect alone. Lastly, God the
- 29:28Father has entrusted the judgment to Jesus Christ as man
- 29:32in a spirit of kindness, in order to temper the
- 29:34brilliance of this awesome manifestation, and so to soften its
- 29:39severity and rigor. For the Church tells us in her liturgy,
- 29:42what horror will invade the mind when the strict judge,
- 29:46who would be kind, shall have few venial faults to find? All? Right?
- 29:53If Christ were to appear in the aspect of a
- 29:56superior and altogether celestial nature, what human being would be
- 30:00able to would manage to bear the weight of his
- 30:04majesty and the fire of his gaze. He will peer
- 30:07then with a face and form which he had during
- 30:09his mortal life. He will have his cross and other
- 30:12marks of his humiliations precede him. He will let the
- 30:15scars of the wounds of his feet and hands be seen.
- 30:21The reprobate will no longer dare to oppose His justice,
- 30:24and the good and their term will feel drawn to
- 30:26him in a deeper trust. The heart of Saint Paul
- 30:29was filled with joy and hope as he reflected that
- 30:32Christ was to be as judge. He felt all the
- 30:35fears and distrust vanished. Who shall accuse against the Elect
- 30:38of God? He said, God is he that justified? Who
- 30:43is he that shall condemn Christ? Jesus that died, yeay,
- 30:46that is risen also again, who is at the right
- 30:49hand of God, who authors also maketh intercession for us.
- 30:54As for the manner of this second coming, it will
- 30:56be like the first. It will be the same Christ,
- 31:00the same man, and his features and appearance will be
- 31:02the same as during his mortal life. It will be
- 31:05enough for those who lived and spoke with him to
- 31:07set eyes on his person or to recognize him. However,
- 31:10the second manifestation will not come in weakness and humiliation,
- 31:14but in majesty and glory. Saint Matthew's Gospel says, I
- 31:17say to you here after you shall see the Son
- 31:19of Man sitting at the cloud, sitting at the right
- 31:22hand of the power of God, and coming in the
- 31:24clouds of heaven. In other words, Jesus Christ will appear
- 31:29surrounded by the pomp and a peril of divine kingship.
- 31:32The glorified elect and the multitude of angels will form
- 31:35a resplendid court around his throne, such as no mind
- 31:38could portray those who have fought with the greatest constancy,
- 31:41who have followed him the most closely in his area
- 31:45arena of his sufferings, will be the nearest to his person.
- 31:49Then shall the just stand with great constance, he says
- 31:52the Book of Wisdom, against those that have afflicted them
- 31:55and taken away their labors. We can imagine the regrets
- 31:59and despair of the damn by the virtues the picture
- 32:01which the same inspire all inspired author draws of them. These,
- 32:05seeing it, shall be troubled with terrible fear, and shall
- 32:08be amazed at the suddenness of their unexpected salvation, saying
- 32:12within themselves repenting and groaning for anguish and spirit. These
- 32:16are they whom we had some time and derision, and
- 32:19for a parable of reproach, we fools esteem their life madness,
- 32:24and their in without honor. Behold how they are numbered
- 32:26among the children of God, and their laudism on the saints.
- 32:30Therefore we have erred from the way of the truth,
- 32:33and the light of justice hath not shined unto us,
- 32:36and the Son of understanding hath not risen upon us.
- 32:40The apostles, martyrs, doctors, and thousands of justs who have
- 32:44fought for the honor of God and for the interests
- 32:46of the faith will unite with their leader in proclaiming
- 32:49the truth of his sentences and the equity of his judgments.
- 32:53The judgment is rightly called universal because it will be
- 32:56exercised over all members of the human race, because it
- 32:59will cover every crime, every misdemeanor, and every and because
- 33:02it will be definitive and irrevocable. In the first place,
- 33:07the last judgment will be exercised over all members of
- 33:09the human race. The men of every nation, every tribe,
- 33:14every tungue will appear at it. There will be no
- 33:17more distinction of wealth, wealth, birth, or rank among them.
- 33:22Those whose names were Alexander, Caesar, or Caesar and Diocletian
- 33:26will be jumbled together with herdsmen who at this moment
- 33:29are grazing their flocks on unknown, deserted shores, where the
- 33:32ashes of these masters of the world life scattered. Men
- 33:35will then be ruled by concerns other than those of
- 33:38curiosity and empty admiration, far more serious spectacles, who hold
- 33:44their gaze and attention the figure of the world will
- 33:47have passed away. The victories of the great captains, the
- 33:50works conceived by genius. The enterprises and great discoveries will
- 33:55be deemed mere shams in child's play, just as in
- 33:59the theaters, Saint John Christosen, when an actor goes off
- 34:02the stage, it is not because of the part he
- 34:04has played that people admire him. They praise near the
- 34:07fact that he has imitated the personality of a king,
- 34:10nor the fact that he has acted a lackey or
- 34:13a beggar. Rather, they praise his skill, and they applaud
- 34:16only at the perfection with which he has played his part.
- 34:19So at the last judgment, a king will not be
- 34:21honored because he was a king, an eloquent orator, a minister,
- 34:25and a great statesman. All these honors and distinctions which
- 34:29the world holds in such high esteem will be deemed
- 34:32of no merit and of no value. Men will be
- 34:35praised solely for their virtuous and good works. Secondly, this
- 34:39judgment is called universal because it will cover every crime
- 34:42and offense. Only then will human history begin, and the
- 34:47clarity of which the light of God, all the crimes
- 34:50public and secret, which have been committed in every latitude
- 34:53and in every age will be seen clearly and in detail.
- 34:57The whole life of each human being will be laid bare.
- 35:00No circumstance will be omitted, No action, word, or desire
- 35:05will remain unknown. We shall be reminded of the different
- 35:08periods we have gone through. The lustful man will have
- 35:10as disorderly living and libertine speeches set out before him,
- 35:15the ambitious man his deviousness and machiavelian ways. The judgment
- 35:20will unravel and bring out all the strands and the
- 35:23duplicity of those intrigues so cleverly hatched. It will set
- 35:27out in their true light all those base repudiations of principles,
- 35:31those craven acts of complicity, which men invested with public
- 35:34authority have sought to justify, whether by invoking the specious
- 35:38pretext of reason of state, or by covering them up
- 35:41with the mask of piety, piety or disinterestedness disinterestedness. There
- 35:47we go, the Lord, says Saint Bernard. The Lord says
- 35:51Saint Bernard, There we go will reveal all those abuses
- 35:54which people concealed from themselves, all those unknown dissipations, as
- 35:58planned crimes were. The Only thing lacking was the actual commission.
- 36:02Those pretended virtues and those forgotten secret sins blotted out
- 36:06from memory will appear suddenly like enemies darting out from
- 36:10an ambush. Without doubt, there are men so hardened and
- 36:14evil that the thought of this terrible manifestation has little
- 36:17effect upon them. Being familiar with crime, they treat it
- 36:20as a subject of amusement and boasting, and without they
- 36:24fondly imagine that they will assume the same effrontery at
- 36:28the judgment, And by their cynical, arrogant attitude, they defy
- 36:31the majesty of God and the conscience of the human race. Vain, hope, Sin, Sin, Nope,
- 36:40one more time. Sin will no longer be viewed from
- 36:46the opinion of carnal man, ready to excuse the most
- 36:49violent outbursts because they do not harm any neighbor, either
- 36:52his goods or his life. The foulness and disorder of
- 36:55sin will be revealed in the ineffable clarity of the
- 36:58light of God. Sinces Saint Thomas will be judged as
- 37:02God himself judges it. Three main classes of men will
- 37:06draw attention to themselves. The first will be the sons
- 37:09of justice and Light, whose merits and good work will
- 37:11be extolled and given public approbation, and praise by the perspicacious,
- 37:16infallible judge, whose testimony can admit of no error or contradiction.
- 37:21The second class will be the sons of Voltaire, the
- 37:24leaders of free thought and the Revolution, who at the
- 37:27present time are hatching dark and sacrilegious plots against Christ
- 37:31and his Church. And my word, I'm sure father Armagnon
- 37:34could not even imagine what would happen in the next
- 37:37few decades. From my word Bolsheviks to the Chinese, to
- 37:46the Spanish and the Mexican revolutions and the holocausts, world
- 37:56wars just horrible. And when you think about it, they
- 38:00will be terror stricken, and they will tremble with unspeakable
- 38:03horror when they see appear in his glory and omnipotents him,
- 38:07whom they had wished to crush, whom they had stigmatized
- 38:10by calling him enemy, full and infamous one. They will
- 38:14utter a final scream of rage and malediction, crying out
- 38:18like Julian the Apostate, Thou hast conquered Galilean in the
- 38:22third category of men will be given special attention to
- 38:27at the judgment. The third category of men, to whom
- 38:32will be given special attention at the judgment, will be
- 38:36composed of the sons of pilot, the worshippers of the
- 38:38golden calf, and the chameleons of wealth and power. Clouds
- 38:42without water, as Saint Jude calls him, drifting along with
- 38:45every opinion and doctrine, with no other religious or political
- 38:49compass than that of their own ambition, always ready to
- 38:52ride rough shot of their conscience and their principles, speculating
- 38:56on the blood of souls for the lack of gold,
- 38:58and delivering up Christ like the Roman money lender, in
- 39:01order to purchase the honors and goodwill of the master
- 39:04of the moment. This hideous repellent type recurs continuously with
- 39:09the same characteristics bloyes for sure, at every period of
- 39:12crisis and social unrest. Saint John his Gospel, has popularized
- 39:16this architect of lying in cowardness cowardice in a figure
- 39:20of speech for every popular forever popular and living in
- 39:24which all are pilots in legislation and government who sell
- 39:28the just man for the sake of procuring favors and
- 39:31lucrative honors, will be eternally recognized. Such men as these
- 39:35will learn at the judgment that is not so expedient
- 39:39serve two masters. They will curse the straw caesars to
- 39:42which they rendered that which they refuse to render to God,
- 39:45and will exclaim therefore we have aired aired ergo ever
- 39:53around us. Finally, the last judgment is called universal because
- 39:58it is definitive and irrevocable. The judgment is irrevocable because
- 40:03there is no level of jurisdiction higher than God's, and
- 40:06there can be no appeal from absolute justice to relative
- 40:09and limited justice, so there will be no reinstatement, no
- 40:15partial or complete amnesty. Divine sentences are irreformable. And he
- 40:20who sees all things, who has foreseen the crux and
- 40:23conclusion of human destiny and the eternal decrees of predestination,
- 40:27is not a being likely to go back on his judgments.
- 40:30What he has said, he will fulfill what he has done.
- 40:33He will confirm what he once desired will remain eternally fixed,
- 40:38for heaven and earth will pass away, but the word
- 40:39of God will not be subject to any error or change.
- 40:44These great truths make little impression on us because the
- 40:47day of their fulfillment is only a faint prospect set
- 40:50in the distant future, and because we finally imagine that
- 40:52between now and the time when they are fulfilled, we
- 40:55shall mitigate their severity. It is still true that the
- 40:58deliberations of these great sizes, as sizes assizes, the sizes
- 41:10I'm not familiar with that word, still lie ahead of us.
- 41:13But the preliminary examination has begun, and it continues. It
- 41:18is written in the eyes of the Lord are upon
- 41:20the just, But the countenance of the Lord is against
- 41:22them that do evil things. He the love of iniquity,
- 41:25hateth his own soul. Just as in our times, the
- 41:29telegraph has become a marvelous means of communication among men.
- 41:33Can you imagine Father Armagnon sitting there now listening to
- 41:36a podcast or city a text instantaneously transmitting our orders,
- 41:42in our every word from one point of space to another,
- 41:45where the rapidity of lightning. So there is likewise a
- 41:48divine telegraph. Each of our thoughts the very moment it
- 41:51is conceived. Each of our words, as soon as it
- 41:54is uttered, is immediately transcribed in indelible letters with frightening accuracy.
- 41:59Into that mentioned the sacred liturgy, where it is said
- 42:04something in Latin, I'm not going to try to pronounce. Yeah,
- 42:08So let us not then be intimidated by Okay, I'll try,
- 42:15because he doesn't give a translation of it. Tounk leber
- 42:19scriptus preferator in quot totem contentator, unnamedndous judic ketner. Okay,
- 42:28everything's written down, everything's gonna be judged. Everything that's basically
- 42:32what that means. Okay. And this is why I avoid
- 42:34reading the Latin, because my Latin is not perfect, and
- 42:37I tend to sum things up whether than translate word
- 42:42by word. Let us not then be intimidated by the
- 42:45arrogance and dark threats of the wicked. We who at
- 42:48this moment are subject to violence and oppression, whose rights
- 42:50are unrecognized and tramp underfoot, and who exposed to the
- 42:55ruses and machinations of faithless men sot for the odious
- 42:59x sesses of despotism and force. If God is silent,
- 43:03and seems at this moment to be asleep, he will
- 43:06unfailingly awaken in his own time. We repeat, the examination
- 43:10has begun, the files of evil men are complete, the
- 43:13witnesses have been summoned, and the evidence has been requisitioned.
- 43:17If the most solemn hearing of all has been adjourned,
- 43:21it is for a short period only. The story is
- 43:24told of a proud and valiant, high minded prince of
- 43:27Brittany who was defeated and taken prisoner by a fierce rival,
- 43:30and sent to languish in a dark dungeon, where he
- 43:32was kept short of air, breath, and sunshine. His inn
- 43:36was not long coming. Amixed horror, and under the pressure
- 43:39of a coldly calculated, slow torture. On the point of
- 43:43his death, the victim addressed a summons to his murder
- 43:46in these terms, I appeal against your violence and your
- 43:49barbarism to the Supreme Protector of the oppressed, And in
- 43:52the year and day I shall summon you to appear
- 43:55with me at his divine tribunal. When that day came,
- 43:58the murderer did, indeed passed from life to death. We
- 44:02are not a prophet and should not venture to summon
- 44:07at such short notice all wicked men, the pamphleteers of
- 44:10free thought, the instigators of unjust laws, those who violate
- 44:15the honor and liberty of the family, and the rights
- 44:17and virtue of children. But those men who defy God
- 44:21and to ride his threats, will one day have an
- 44:24absolute will one day have a minute and rigorous account
- 44:29to render to His justice is an absolute certain truth,
- 44:33and sooner or later they will settle that account on
- 44:36the day of solid solemn reparation. The wicked, who called
- 44:40the just fools, who glutted themselves and their tortures and tears,
- 44:43like starving men devouring bread, will learn to their costs
- 44:47that God does not suffer himself to be mocked. That
- 44:49there will be no impunity or license for the benefit
- 44:52of crime and evil. All wrongs will be strikingly addressed.
- 44:55The blood of Able which washed the earth will gush
- 44:58out Urkane and raised an accusing voice against him. Saint
- 45:02Peter will demand an account of Nero for the torture
- 45:04which he sentenced him. Mary Stewart will call down divine
- 45:09vengeance upon the head of Elizabeth of England her murder.
- 45:12All the saints will cry out with one voice to God.
- 45:16It will be a great court of appeal to which
- 45:18an immense number of cases famous on earth will be rendered,
- 45:21no referee, no referred, Sorry, there was a smear in
- 45:28the ink referred, where an infinite number of judgments which
- 45:32fear ambition or self interest of dictated comn will be
- 45:35irrevocably annulled. Which a word in a word providence against
- 45:40which fools blaspheming on earth with the accusations that it
- 45:43was harsh, unjust, and blindly partial, will provide complete justification
- 45:47for its ways. As it is written, the story is
- 45:52told of a man in Germany who lived by himself
- 45:54and was held in renown on account of his holiness
- 45:56and his works. He cured the sick, restored the science
- 46:00the blind, and drew the people of the surrounding areas
- 46:02to his dwelling. The Emperor Otto determined to go visit him.
- 46:06Captivated by the words of wisdom which flowed from the
- 46:08saint's lips, his admiration knew no bounce. Father, He said,
- 46:13ask of me what you please, and we're at half
- 46:15my kingdom. You will receive it. The saint's expression became
- 46:19solemn and majestically. He raised his hand, crowned as it were,
- 46:22with a diadem of nobility and virtue, placing his hand
- 46:25upon the Emperor's breast, he solemnly replied, Prince, I have
- 46:29no use for your crown and your treasures, but I
- 46:33ask of you one favor that, amidst the pomp and
- 46:35fascination of your omnipotency, Majesty, you should withdraw each day
- 46:39for a few moments into the hidden recesses of your heart,
- 46:42in order to reflect upon an account which will you
- 46:45will one day render to God for his saint Clement,
- 46:47the Pope says, who shall be able to sin if
- 46:52he always places before his eyes the judgment of God,
- 46:55which will certainly be exacted at the end of the world.
- 46:59At the end of the world. Let us likewise say
- 47:03with the prophet, I thought upon the days of old,
- 47:07and I had in mind the eternal years. Let us
- 47:11judge ourselves rigorously, and we shall not be judged. Let
- 47:14us live with the Lord Jesus all the days of
- 47:16our lives, and then we shall be freed from all fear,
- 47:19for there is no condemnation upon those who dwell with
- 47:21the Lord. There is now therefore no condemnation to them
- 47:25that are in Christ Jesus. And I believe yes, that
- 47:30does wrap up our segment on the resurrection and the
- 47:35final judgment. I hope you've enjoyed as much as I have.
- 47:41I do apologize that my Latin's not better. I just
- 47:43I'm not confident in my pronunciation. And if I said
- 47:47the wrong word, and somebody misunderstood that would not be
- 47:50a good thing. So I try to skip the Latin
- 47:53where I can go to an English translation, or just
- 47:56kind of sum it up without getting too specific. I
- 47:59hope things right. You'll have a great week, and remember
- 48:05the next time they come knocking at your door and
- 48:08tell you that the end is near and you need
- 48:10to repent, you need to tell them the end is
- 48:13near in the great chronology and history of time. But
- 48:16until you and everybody in your religion becomes Catholic, it's
- 48:20not here yet. So now, let me explain to you
- 48:23the truth of the Catholic Church and why you should
- 48:26repent and convert, and then we can gradually bring things
- 48:31about and say together. Even so, come Lord Jesus, You'll
- 48:35have a good one, and I'll talk to you next time.