This is my latest column for the East Tennessee Catholic. If you would like to read others, you can go to the Diocese of Knoxville website, find the link to the East Tennessee Catholic, find the link for “columns” and pick “Bob Hunt.”

The reasons include revealing for all to see the fullness of God’s justice and glory

By Deacon Bob Hunt

In the Book of Revelation 5:1-5, John describes a vision of a new heaven and new earth that represents the culmination of God’s kingdom. The old order has passed away. The sea is no more. The sea here represents the dwelling place of the beast, the place of darkness and chaos. It will be gone, for in this new heaven and new earth there will be no chaos and no darkness, and the forces of evil will have no sway. In John’s vision, the holy city, Jerusalem, comes down from heaven. This is where God dwells among His people in the temple. God will dwell in that city with His people, in the new heaven and new earth that will be a part of God’s redemptive plan.

When we die, we will come before Jesus our judge for the particular judgment. This is where we stand before Christ, and He judges us as righteous or unrighteous. If we follow Christ and remain faithful to Him, take up our cross and follow Him, unite our sufferings with His, and put our hope in the joy of the resurrection, then Christ will judge us as righteous and bring us into His heavenly abode where, along with the Blessed Virgin, the saints, and angels, we will await the consummation of God’s plan of redemption. We will see God face-to-face in what is called the beatific vision.

At the end of time, there will be the Last Judgment. Of the Last Judgment, the Catechism of the Catholic Church says in paragraph 1038: “The resurrection of the dead, ‘of both the just and the unjust’ (Acts 24:15), 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’ (John 5:28-29).” Christ will come in glory at this time, with all His angels, and He will separate the righteous from the unrighteous. The unrighteous will go to eternal punishment, and the righteous to eternal life (Matthew 25:31, 32, 46).

Why, if there is a particular judgment when the eternal destiny of each is revealed, will there be a Last Judgment? Three reasons: First, to reveal for all to see the fullness of God’s justice and glory. At the Last Judgment, the Catechism says in paragraph 1040: “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 [God’s] Providence led everything toward 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.”

Second, at the Last Judgment, the full implications and consequences of the good and evil we have done will be realized. The impact of our good deeds, as well as our evil acts, on our children, our spouses, our friends and loved ones, the Church, and the larger community down through the years will be fully revealed to us. Finally, at the particular judgment, our souls alone will stand before Christ in judgment. But we are body and soul. At the Last Judgment, our bodies will have been resurrected, united once more with our souls. It is fitting that as body and soul, as full persons, we be judged at the Last Judgment.

John’s Gospel tells us that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14a). God was present in Jesus of Nazareth as the Incarnation of the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. He came among us as one of us, like us in all things except sin. When He ascended into heaven, He promised that He would send the Holy Spirit to guide us in all things necessary for our salvation and gave us the promise, “I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20b).

Just so, at the end of the age, God will dwell among us: “Behold, God’s dwelling is with the human race. He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will always be with them [as their God]” (Revelation 21:3). In God’s dwelling with His people, in the new Jerusalem come down from heaven, God “will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death or mourning, wailing or pain, [for] the old order has passed away” (Revelation 21:4).

Christ speaks of His glory. “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him” (John 13:31). In the Scriptures, the Lord’s glory is a manifestation of His presence, and Jesus as Son of Man refers to Himself as the one who comes down from heaven to reveal the Father, and the one who is sacrificed for the world’s salvation. So, here we have again the promise of God’s presence. God the Father is glorified in Christ’s act of loving obedience and sacrifice, and the Father will glorify Christ by raising Him from the dead and sitting Him in glory at His right hand.

But before all of this, Christ must prepare His disciples, to prepare us, for the time when He will be physically absent, from the time of His death on the cross until His resurrection, and then again from the time of His ascension into heaven until His second coming. To prepare His disciples, Jesus gives us a new commandment: love one another (John 13:34). As Jesus loves us, we are to love one another. This radical love is manifested in obedience to the will of the Father out of love for God, and in imitation of Jesus’ self-giving sacrifice on the cross out of love for others. This radical love is to be the defining characteristic of a disciple of Jesus. How can we love as Jesus loved? By participating in His sacrifice.

At every Mass, the one sacrifice of Christ is made present on the altar, so that those gathered may participate in that sacrifice. We come to the altar bringing our sins and our failures but also our renewed dedication to the life of Gospel joy. We place that on the altar of Christ as we remember His sacrifice and receive Him into ourselves, becoming more like Christ as we do so. We then take the Christ we have become out into this world so sorely in need of Him. We are the presence of Christ in this place, in this time.

This is what it means to love one another: to be the presence of Christ in this world. If we are conscious of who we are in this world, conscious of our mission to be Christ in this world, then the glory of God will be revealed through us. We can then have confidence that, when Christ comes again and we stand before Him in judgment, He will have prepared for us our place in that new heaven and new earth.

Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.