215. When will this judgment occur?
(Comp
215) This judgment will come at the end of the world and only God knows the day
and the hour.
“In brief”
(CCC 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). (CCC 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.
To deepen and explain
(CCC 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 (Cf. Song 8:6). (CCC 1041) The
message of the Last Judgment calls men to conversion while God is still giving
them "the acceptable time,… the day of salvation" (2 Cor 6:2). 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" (Titus 2:13; 2 Thess 1:10).
On reflection
(CCC 314) We firmly believe that God is master of the world
and of its history. But the ways of his providence are often unknown to us.
Only at the end, when our partial knowledge ceases, when we see God "face
to face" (1 Cor 13:12), will we fully know the ways by which - even
through the dramas of evil and sin - God has guided his creation to that
definitive sabbath rest (Cf. Gen 2:2) for which he created heaven and
earth.
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