Death Life Forever Who Judges Us? HellHeavenPurgatory Christ Will Come Again

WHAT CATHOLICS BELIEVE An introductory booklet series

Life forever

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DeathIn each day’s newspaper we read the names of those who have died. At some point another name will be added to the list. It will be a familiar one. At that moment death won’t be something distant or abstract anymore; it will be present and familiar. It will be my death – or yours.

The prospect of death is distressing to many people – especially those who place their trust in property, money, belongings, security. These things have their place when we are alive and well, especially if we share them with others, but they offer very little support to people who are about to die. If people put all their energy into the accumulation of money and things, or into keeping themselves looking young or being busy they won’t have any energy left to put into the development of their spiritual life – and that fact presents a problem because the moment of death is the moment when the body fades. It’s the time of the spirit.

names of those who have died

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Death takes away our security. It snatches us away from our bank accounts, from our lovely houses and gardens, from the people we have always relied on. Things like poverty or sickness may make us unhappy, but death goes much further. It ends everything. It takes all we have – even our breath and movement. No wonder many people fear death and refuse to think about it. Yet, as they become older, the thought that they will die won’t go away; it haunts their thoughts like a dark secret; it frustrates every effort they make to be truly happy.

They fear death because it can’t be treated and cured; because it is something they can’t fend off (like a blow), or buy off (like a persistent door-to-door salesperson). Death is the last unknown, and people who find their security in things can’t be comfortable with the fact that death removes everything, and can’t be explained away. They also fear annihilation – that despite all their efforts to be somebody in this world they are about to become nobody. For them, death is the end of everything, including themselves.

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Life ForeverTo some extent it is natural to feel uncomfortable about death – there is still so much to do, so many hopes are still unfulfilled. But they often become adjusted to the thought when they are helped to finish their life’s work, and when they move into the process of dying they can do so with courage, dignity and sometimes (quite remarkably) an air of peace.

This remarkable transformation is most readily achieved if the dying person believes that death isn’t the end of life but another beginning. For Catholics, death is the bridge over which we travel to reach the source of true life. They believe that when they die they will inherit a new life, one which will never end.

The Irish wake and the Maori tangi both contain features which remind those present that life and death, death and life, are two sides of the same coin.

You can read what Jesus said about death in St John’s Gospel, Chapter 11. His good friend Lazarus had been buried four days earlier, but Martha, the sister of Lazarus, knew that Jesus had the power to bring him back to life:

Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died, but even now I know that God will grant whatever you ask of him.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ Martha said, ‘I know he will rise again at the resurrection on the last day.

Jesus said: ‘I am the resurrection. Anyone who believes in me, even though that person dies, will live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ ‘Yes, Lord,’ she said, ‘I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who was to come into this world’ (Jn. 11:21-27).

death is the bridge

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When Jesus said ‘Whoever lives and believes in me will never die’ he wasn’t just talking about some theory – at the end of his conversation he called Lazarus to rise from his grave and so brought him back to life. In this incident, but especially in his own rising from death, Catholics find a confident assurance that far from being the end of life, death is its true beginning.

The Promise of Jesus

Jesus came into our world to bring us life. He spoke about that special gift which he held in reserve for his faithful followers:

‘I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full’ (Jn. 10:10).

You have read in earlier booklets how this life isn’t our ordinary human life. It’s the new life first given when we receive the Sacrament of Baptism. This life extends beyond the grave because it is a sharing in God’s life – and God can’t die. Life after death is one of God’s gifts to us, as St John discloses to us in his gospel:

For this is how God loved the world: he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life (Jn. 3:16).

This new life, first given at Baptism, is strengthened by the sacraments and lived in the presence of the community of believers, the People of God. Even the Eucharist, the sacrament which is at the centre of Catholic worship, gifts us with life. Not merely did Jesus refer to it as the bread of life, he also said,

‘… Anyone who eats this bread will live forever’ (Jn. 6:58).

‘Whoever lives and believes in me will never die’

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He was talking to a group of people at Capernaum when he said that. You will find his conversation in St John’s Gospel, Chapter 6. In fact, this whole gospel is filled with the promise and hope of unending life.

Of course the process of dying may not be comfortable. Those who care for the dying know what pain they experience as a result of their illnesses, how they worry and fret about things they haven’t yet been able to do, people they haven’t been able to see. Even Jesus felt anxiety and grief at the thought of the great suffering which was in store for him, yet his great faith in God, his Father, supported him at that terrible time: ‘In truth, I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise’ (Lk.23:43), he told the man who was dying on the cross alongside him.

Because Jesus rose from death we can have confidence that he has put a bridge in place for us, so that we can cross the space which separates the living and the dead, trusting in the knowledge that we, too, have been invited to live forever.

Who Judges Us?Jesus declared that his faithful followers would be given never-ending life. He also made it clear that we can either accept or reject his teaching. We aren’t forced to be his followers: that’s a choice for us to make. Yet whether we are his followers or not, we will appear before him after we die to give an account of our lives. St Paul reminds us of this:

For at the judgement seat of Christ, we are all to be seen for what we are, so that each of us may receive what he has deserved in the body, matched to whatever he has done, good or bad (2 Cor. 5:10).

Catholics see death as a ‘type of bridge’. What

is your understanding of death?

today you will be with me in paradise

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Over and over again, in the Old Testament and in the New, we find that God condemns sin. Sin is an attitude and an action which rejects God. That’s why sinners can be saved only by being truly sorry for their actions and welcoming God back into their lives.

Catholics believe that our reward or punishment begins immediately after death. Jesus tells us:

‘… That for every unfounded word people utter they will answer on Judgment Day, since it is by your words you will be justified, and by your words condemned’ (Matt. 12:36-37).

It also says that we must give an account of the skill and gifts which God gave us (see Matt. 25:13-46). If you read this passage you will find that Jesus is telling us that there is a judgment after death. Even though we use the word ‘judgment’, we shouldn’t think of this moment as if it were a human court of law. Rather, at the moment of death, each of us has already become what our own good or bad actions have made us. At that time we are related to God in a definite way – either as God’s friend or God’s enemy. We will know which we are, and so we will immediately know what we deserve. This is the time of judgment.

Catholics call this moment ‘the particular judgment’ since it refers to each individual at the particular moment of death (see Lk. 16:22; 23:43). At that time we will see ourselves as we really are, without bluffing or deceiving ourselves. We will know with great clarity how we stand in God’s sight. We will recognise in an instant how well we have loved God, creation and the people with whom we lived. When we made our various choices God respected our freedom. Death makes the choice final. With death there are no second thoughts. Our choice, made and remade over and over again during our lives, can’t be altered.

we will immediately know what we deserve

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It’s a simple matter – did we believe that Jesus is God’s Son? Did we live as he told us to? The answer to that question will decide what happens to us. Every moment of our lives determines how we will be judged. For us, the prospect of unending life or unending death is settled here, in the house, in the street where we live.

God’s Justice and Mercy

God is just and merciful and any suffering we have after death is the result of the choices we make and persist in until we die. If we have a pattern of doing evil deeds all our lives then we have chosen to be God’s enemies. Those who die without repenting for their actions have made a very clear choice – they don’t want to be with God, in God’s loving presence, either in life or in death.

Catholics confess their sins and their sorrow for sin in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. By God’s mercy their sins are forgiven and they become empowered by the life of the spirit. They also become used to expressing private prayers asking for forgiveness and seeking reconciliation with God.

Until the actual moment of death God’s incredible mercy permits us to express our regret and sorrow for our sins. If we do so we can join the ranks of those who have been saved from punishment by the suffering and death of Jesus. We and they will then receive a life which never ends. Other people, the ones who reject God, will endure unending suffering.

God is just and merciful

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HellJesus often spoke about hell – and spoke about it in fearful terms. In St Mark’s gospel, for example, he gave a warning which must cause everyone to think twice about their actions:

‘And if your hand should be your downfall, cut it off; it is better for you to enter into life crippled, than to have two hands and go to hell, into the fire that can never be put out. And if your foot should be your downfall, cut it off; it is better for you enter into life lame, than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. And if your eye should be your downfall, tear it out; it is better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell where their worm will never die nor their fire be put out. For everyone will be salted with fire’ (Mk. 9:43-49).

In a chilling paragraph Jesus described the sentence which would be given to those who are damned:

‘Go away from me with your curse upon you, to the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels’ (Matt. 25:41).

There are many other parts of the New Testament in which Jesus referred to the fact that evil-doers would be punished. In a passage in John’s Gospel, for example, John the Baptist puts this in plain language:

‘Anyone who believes in the Son has eternal life, but anyone who refuses to believe in the Son will never see life: God's retribution hangs over him' (Jn. 3:36).

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus tells us that any sacrifice or suffering is better than the sentence of everlasting damnation. On other occasions his stories drove home to his hearers the results our choices bring about.

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What is Hell like?

The Catholic Church has always warned its followers about the tragic possibility of unending death. The Bible speaks often of endless punishment in very plain terms and warns against deliberately doing evil since that destroys life within us now and leads to endless death. Those who refuse to believe in hell refuse to take God seriously; they also refuse to take their own freedom and responsibility seriously. If we are to understand our part in God’s plan we must try to understand the nature of hell.

Catholics believe that if we sin seriously we willingly shut ourselves out of the state of unending happiness which God invites us to share. If we don’t become sorry for our sins before we die we’ll never come into God’s presence. Serious sin is the beginning of this condition which can only be likened to an endless death.

It isn’t God’s fault that we should suffer after death. It’s our own free choice made while we are alive. God has a merciful and loving plan which excludes no one, but if we choose not to adopt it then God can’t be blamed. It’s our own choice if we go to hell instead of heaven. We make that choice each time we commit a serious sin. Pope John Paul II made this point in one of his talks when he said ‘… it is the ultimate consequence of sin itself which turns against the person who committed it. It is the state of those who definitively reject the Father’s mercy, even at the last moment of their life.’

When people try to imagine hell they may think of smoky fires and black-tailed devils with pitchforks. This is childish, silly, and just plainly ridiculous. There can be no flames in hell, because there is nothing to burn and nothing to fuel the burning. When the New Testament writers or artists throughout the centuries used these kinds of descriptive pictures they were really trying to tell people that those who go to hell truly suffer – and one of the most painful

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forms of suffering they could think of was a never-ending death by burning. (They may have recalled the fires that burned day and night in the rubbish dump outside the walls of Jerusalem.)

In fact, the pain of hell is the pain of separation from God. In this sense it’s the pain of failure – failure to achieve the only objectives worth having. We fail God, who made us and Jesus Christ, who suffered and died that we might live; we even fail ourselves for we were created to know and love God forever – and hell makes it impossible for us to do any of these things. Catholic scholars call this first punishment ‘the pain of loss’. Just as our final sharing in the life and love of God is a complete, full and perfect life, so our final separation from God is endless death. We can find happiness only in God, in our love for God and in God’s love for us. When we sin we reject God so that we can go our own way. If we always act selfishly, go our own way, and have no true love in our lives then we may be destined for hell.

Part of the suffering of hell is remorse, the knowledge that it’s our own fault that we have rejected God. The choice was ours alone – and we made the wrong one. It must be a bitter sadness for people to know that their situation could have been so vastly different.

There is a further pain, one which is caused by ‘the eternal fire’. It has already been said that this ‘fire’ can’t be like the fire we know. But it does represent a form of suffering. A number of the stories Jesus told are about people who are to suffer an unending death by burning. The parable of the weeds tells how the farmer separates weeds from his wheat and burns them. The lesson is that evil-doers will be treated in the same way (see Matt. 13:41-42). That ‘fire’ may not be ordinary fire, but it is obviously the cause of a suffering which no one would want to endure.

We are saved from hell by the actions of Jesus, who

the pain of separation from God

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suffered and died and rose again from death so that we may be set free from the chains of sin and death and the prospect of hell. As Pope John Paul II said, quoting St Paul’s letter to the Romans:

… For what you received was not the spirit of slavery to bring you back into fear; you received the Spirit of adoption, enabling us to cry out, ‘Abba, Father!’ (Rom. 8:15).

The chief pain of hell is the exclusion of the human person from the loving presence of God. Forever!

HeavenGod wants us to reach our full stature, to achieve unending life with him after our death. He willed that we should come to it by our own free cooperation. God loves and calls every person in every time and place. A hunger for goodness and love and justice and peace has been planted in our hearts so that we may be drawn to him. Every one of us is important to God.

Our hopes are fulfilled in heaven. Once again we need to consider our images for it is childish to think of heaven as a place in the sky among billowy white clouds where angels float around playing soothing music on harps, while we have all our human desires satisfied as if we were on a never-ending and very expensive holiday.

The Book of Revelation speaks of heaven in more general terms, concentrating not upon heaven so much as what will happen to those who come into God’s presence:

They will never hunger or thirst again; sun and scorching wind will never plague them, because the lamb who is at the heart of the throne will be their

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shepherd and will guide them to springs of living water; and God will wipe away all tears from their eyes (Rev. 7.16-17).

Our True Home is Heaven where God is

The Bible reveals that heaven is our true home. St Paul said,

For we are well aware that when the tent that houses us on earth is folded up, there is a house for us from God, not made by human hands but everlasting, in the heavens (2 Cor. 5:1).

Heaven is where God is; it’s where he wishes us to be after we die. If we enter heaven we will be in God’s loving presence forever.

To enable this to happen God sent his Son into the world to save us, and it is only against the background of heaven and hell that the life and death of Jesus has its full meaning. God has gone to extraordinary lengths to make heaven available to us and has given us every reason why we should choose it instead of hell. He has also given us the Church to guide us and the sacraments to help us. If we fail, it isn’t God’s fault. It’s our own.

What is Heaven Like?

Heaven can’t be understood by the human mind or described by human language. But we can begin to attempt to understand something about it through a beautiful piece of poetry which is in the Book of Revelation:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; the first heaven and the first earth had disappeared now, and

it’s where he wishes us to be after we die

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there was no longer any sea. I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride dressed for her husband. Then I heard a loud voice call from the throne, ‘Look, here God lives among human beings. He will make his home among them; they will be his people, and he will be their God, God-with-them. He will wipe away all tears from their eyes; there will be no more death, and no more mourning or sadness or pain. The world of the past has gone’ (Rev. 21:1-4).

This sounds like a perfect place. But heaven isn’t a place. It’s a state of being, a relationship. As Pope John Paul II said, heaven isn’t ‘a physical place in the clouds, but a living personal relationship with the Holy Trinity. It is our meeting with the Father which takes place in the risen Christ through the communion of the Holy Spirit.’

In that relationship there is no sadness and death, only beauty and peace.

In heaven we shall know ourselves more accurately and see more clearly how we were created by God to share the life of Father, Son and Spirit.

At this present time we live among sacraments and signs; if we believe and hope and love we already have the seed of that new life within us. It is our joy now to share the life which God gives us, and praise him freely, helping to make his kingdom present on earth. St John made that point. But he also explained that there is an even greater destiny to come:

My dear friends, we are already God's children, but what we shall be in the future has not yet been revealed. We are well aware that when he appears we shall be like him because we shall see him as he really is (1 Jn. 3:2).

It’s a state of being, a relationship

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The Joy of Heaven

The chief joy of heaven results from being in God’s loving presence. But there is also a further cause of joy. We all get satisfaction out of knowing. The human mind is made to reach out for truth. But only God can really satisfy us for he is truth itself. In heaven we will be face to face with God and then our intelligence will be fully satisfied.

St Paul puts it like this:

Now we see only reflections in a mirror, mere riddles, but then we shall be seeing face to face. Now I can know only imperfectly; but then I shall know just as fully as I am myself known (1 Cor. 13:12).

The same letter also speaks of What no eye has seen and no ear has heard, what the mind of man cannot visualise; all that God has prepared for those who love him (1 Cor. 2:9).

These references by St Paul show that it isn’t possible for us to imagine what heaven is like. But we know that when we are there we shall be made pure of our faults, in an environment of love and peace which will never end. The goodness which we showed to others while we were alive will be made perfect with God in heaven.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church summarises the Church’s teaching about heaven in the following words: ‘Heaven is the blessed community of all who are perfectly incorporated into Christ’ (CCC 1026).

but then I shall know just as fully as I am

myself known

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PurgatoryThe only people who go to hell are those who say a definite ‘no’ to God in this life. The only ones who go to heaven immediately at death are those who say an unhesitating ‘yes’ to God in this life. In contrast, there are some who die in the grace and friendship of God but are burdened with small sins or who have never done suitable penance. They never gave a definite answer to God. They quibbled and gave only grudgingly. They aren’t ready to enter the presence of God because they aren’t yet perfect – and only those who are perfect are worthy to be in God’s presence. The Catholic Church teaches that their final purifying takes place in Purgatory. Once we understand its meaning and purpose we realise that it is yet one more instrument of God’s mercy, because it’s possible for a soul to be purified after death provided that the person has not died in a state of hostility to God.

The belief in Purgatory which Catholics have is firmly grounded on what the Bible teaches about God’s judgment and the real nature of punishment for sins that have been forgiven. In Purgatory we are made clean by sorrow for past sins and by an intense longing for God. We don’t see God face to face and are sadly aware that God alone can give happiness and fulfilment. Once we have been cleansed of selfishness and the effects of sin we will join the other holy ones in God’s presence in heaven. It is therefore a place of hope and expectation. In fact Catholics speak about the holy souls in Purgatory. For many of us it will be necessary preparation so that we may be with God forever.

We don’t see God face to face

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The Suffering of Purgatory

The precise nature of the suffering of Purgatory has never been stated officially by the Church but the greatest pain must be the result of separation from God. The soul realises that it is the cause of the obstacles that keep it from God but it must also be enlivened by its awareness that it will eventually be purified and enabled to enter God’s presence in heaven (see 1 Cor. 3:11-15, 1 Pet. 1:7).

Prayers for the Dead

It’s because we believe in Purgatory that we pray for the dead, a custom which brings great consolation to Catholic people. (We know that those we love can be helped by our prayers.) From the beginning, it has been a Christian practice to pray for the dead. Even before the time of Jesus some of the Hebrew people offered such prayers, though Jesus never referred to the matter.

We read in the Second Book of Maccabees, that it was an action altogether fine and noble, prompted by his belief in the resurrection (see 2 M. 12:43-45) to pray for those who have died, and since it’s unnecessary to pray for those in Heaven and useless to pray for those in hell, the comment can only apply to others – the ones whom we say are in Purgatory. Catholics continue this practice today and

pray that God will speedily bring those who have died to Heaven. We often pray ‘Eternal rest give to them, O Lord’, and there is a daily prayer in the Mass for the souls in Purgatory.

‘Eternal rest give to them, O Lord’

Do you believe there is a relationship between our choices in this life and life after death?

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Christ Will Come Again At the end of the world Jesus will come again in glory. He came once in poverty and suffering two thousand years ago. On that occasion, by his life, suffering, death and resurrection he conquered sin and death and founded the kingdom of God upon earth. That kingdom will reach its final glory at the end of time when Jesus comes again, as he promised, as Lord and Judge:

‘For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and then he will reward everyone according to his behaviour’ (Matt. 16:27).

At the time of his ascension to his Father, after his rising from the dead, his followers were told,

‘This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will come back in the same way as you have seen him go to heaven’ (Acts 1:11).

And in the Profession of Faith (a formula prayer which Catholics use to state their faith) they say ‘He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead…’

At this second coming then Jesus will appear in power and glory to judge all humankind. This judgment is about our choice – our being for or against Jesus Christ. He will then pass judgment not only on individuals but on the whole world. We will see him not merely as the Lord of individuals but as the Lord of history and of the whole human race. Then we will understand God’s plan for the world; we will see why he allowed sorrow and suffering. The whole meaning of life will be made known to us and our final acceptance or rejection of God’s love will be made known to all. Jesus, always present in his Church, will reveal himself in glory.

we will understand God’s plan for the world

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The Judgment

Can we belong to the kingdom of God forever? If we love and serve God in this life as well as we can, and if we follow his commandments and perform works of mercy he tells us that he will say to us,

‘Come, you whom my Father has blessed, take as your heritage the kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world’.

If, however, we have rejected God and his love, we will hear him say,

‘Go away from me, with your curse upon you, to the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels’ (see Matt. 25:34 and 41).

At the last day there will be heaven and hell – final acceptance or rejection forever. The judge confirms the choice we have already made in this life.

What happens to this earth at that time we don’t know. Nor do we know the exact time when Jesus will come again. He made that point plain to his followers, so it is useless speculating about it:

… ‘It is not for you to know times or dates that the Father has decided by his own authority…’ (Acts 1:7).

What we are certain of is that God wishes us to take this life and his teaching seriously. Life has meaning and purpose and we must live it to the full. We must aim always at respecting and improving this world and planet so that all people can live a fully human life.

The judge confirms the choice we have already

made in this life

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The Resurrection of the Body

When Jesus returns our bodies will rise again and be given back to us. But how will the process deal with burial, cremation or loss or destruction of the body? St Paul addresses the matter:

Someone may ask, ‘How are dead people raised, and what sort of body do they have when they come?’ How foolish! What you sow must die before it is given new life; and what you sow is not the body that is to be, but only a bare grain, of wheat I dare say, or some other kind; it is God who gives it the sort of body that he has chosen for it, and each kind of seed its own kind of body. … It is the same too with the resurrection of the dead: what is sown is perishable but what is raised is imperishable; what is sown is contemptible but what is raised is glorious; what is sown is weak but what is raised is powerful; what is sown is a natural body, and what is raised is a spiritual body (1 Cor. 15:35-38, 42-44).

The clear promise of the resurrection of the body runs right through the New Testament. In addition, the Catholic Church’s teaching about human nature, about the greatness of our hopes and about the power of the resurrection of Jesus helps Catholics understand why they, too, will rise again. On one occasion, speaking to the crowds in Jerusalem, Jesus said,

‘Do not be surprised at this, for the hour is coming when the dead will leave their graves at the sound of his voice: those who did good will come forth to life; and those who did evil will come forth to judgment’ (Jn. 5:28-29).

St Paul constantly links our belief in the resurrection of the body with our belief in the resurrection of Jesus:

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… Realising that he who raised up the Lord Jesus will raise us up with Jesus in our turn, and bring us to himself – and you as well (2 Cor. 4:15-17).

He also wrote to the Corinthians in his first letter;

… If Christ has not been raised, your faith is pointless and you have not, after all, been released from your sins’ (1 Cor. 15:17).

All Christian life, even our life now, is a sharing in the resurrection; but our rising with Jesus will be fulfilled in the resurrection on the last day. It is then that his promise will be fulfilled:

Jesus said, ‘I am the resurrection. Anyone who believes in me, even though that person dies, will live, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ (Jn. 11:25-26).

It is a distinctively Christian belief. Some of the ancient religions believed in some form of immortality, but the belief that the whole person, both the human body and the soul, is meant to live with God forever belongs especially to Christianity. From the beginning the Church has always insisted that all, both the just and the unjust, will rise again.

Here again Jesus has given us no unnecessary details. We may assume that what happened to Jesus in his glorious resurrection will happen to all of us, just as it has already happened to Mary, the Mother of Jesus.

Because we are human, a union of body and soul, we are saved as humans. As full human persons we will express the glory of God forever. Our risen bodies will be made perfect, and there will be a perfect harmony in us so that there will be no suffering or decay. Of this we are certain. St Paul expresses his belief with an excitement which he can’t hold back:

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Now I am going to tell you a mystery: we are not all going to fall asleep, but we are all going to be changed, instantly, in the twinkling of an eye, when the last trumpet sounds. The trumpet is going to sound, and then the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed, because this perishable nature of ours must put on imperishability, this mortal nature must put on immortality. And after this perishable nature has put on imperishability and this mortal nature has put on immortality, then will the words of scripture come true: Death is swallowed up in victory (1 Cor. 15:51-54).

The New Creation

It is the Church’s work (and ours as members of the Church) to prepare the world for the second coming of Jesus and to tell everybody the Good News of salvation. We are called to extend God’s kingdom by inviting others to accept his loving reign. The Church, the People of God, and all people are on a pilgrimage to their eternal home. We can spread the kingdom of God by deepening Christ’s life in us and by helping others. The fulfilment of all this will be seen on that day when he gathers his new kingdom, and hands it over to his Father.

The whole of history is a preparation for that day. As generation follows generation people have joined themselves to Jesus to be his forever. They became his people, the People of God – and that’s sometimes true also of good people who weren’t aware that they had this special relationship with him. In this new kingdom we will see God face to face. All of the saved who win the everlasting life which he planned for them will see him as their God. This was the vision St John had of the Church in eternity which has already been quoted to you. It’s in the Book of Revelation, Chapter 21. And, as all Christians do, St Paul had this expectation:

After that will come the end, when he will hand over the kingdom to God the Father. . . (1 Cor. 15:24).

dead will be raised imperishable

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Come, Lord Jesus

Jesus earnestly invites us to this life. Even though we understand it so poorly, even though it’s hard to imagine and describe it, this brief outline should convince us of the beauty of his teaching about eternity. It’s full of hope. It makes sense of life and gives meaning to our existence. It gives purpose to our efforts. It encourages us by its beauty and the unity it gives to all creation. It answers those questions which are planted deep in the hearts of everyone: ‘Where do we come from? Why are we here? Where does life lead us?’

Creation came from God. It’s God’s will that creation should lead us home to him, so that we may share his glory forever. This is the basis of our confidence in life and in death and it’s the reason for the confidence of the Church as it waits for the Second Coming of Christ, our Saviour. This confidence is expressed in the last passage of the Bible where God’s invitation is made yet again:

The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ Let everyone who listens answer, ‘Come!’ Then let all who are thirsty come: all who want it may have the water of life and have it free (Rev. 22:17).

This same confidence is found in the last words of the Bible, words which the Church will repeat until the time when they become a reality:

‘I am indeed coming soon. Amen; come, Lord Jesus. May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all. Amen.’ (Rev. 22:21).

Has your understanding of the Catholic Faith been enhanced through the reading of these booklets? Do you still have some unanswered questions? Write to us or seek out someone who can help you answer them.

Thank you.

come, Lord Jesus

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Becoming a CatholicIf you are thinking of becoming a Catholic you are very welcome to do so, but before making any final decision you must be clear in your mind about two points:

1) Do you believe that the Catholic Church is the Church founded by Jesus Christ?

2) Are you willing to accept its doctrinal and moral teaching as your guide for the remainder of your life?

Discussion with a priest may help clear up any difficulties on one or both of these points.

Obviously a person who wishes to become a Catholic must have some instruction in the Catholic faith before being received into the Church. There’s a programme to be gone through, in which the teaching of the Church is examined, sometimes in a group setting. People are then prepared to receive the first of the sacraments. At the end of this period of preparation, if the priest and community thinks the candidates are ready and desire it, they will be received into the Church.

Where possible, this reception takes place in the local parish. And it will take place in the presence of the community of believers, preferably at Easter time, when the Church gathers throughout the world to celebrate the death and rising of Jesus – just as the new member has died to one way of life and risen to another.

Anyone who wishes to know more about the Catholic Church can go to a priest or parish official for information. Priests won’t be surprised that people come to them with this request, and won’t try to persuade them to become Catholics. Faith is a free gift from God which comes with prayer and thought and humility. Nobody can be forced to have faith but by information and example people can become receptive to it. Ultimately your faith is a matter between you and God, but if you become a Catholic you would live out that faith in the community of the Church.

they will be received into the Church

www.catholicenquiry.nz

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May the Lord bless you and keep you:

The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you:

The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

Amen.

Nihil obstatRev Merv Duffy SM, S.T.D. Imprimatur+John A. Cardinal DewArchbishop of Wellington8 December, 2015

Text: John Weir Biblical text: New Jerusalem Bible, Darton, Longman and Todd, 1985

Cover numeral design: Koru pattern Illustration: Adam ErringtonDesign: Cluster Creative

Not for public sale.

Life Forever The outline of the Cross on a grave is a Christian symbol of hope. “… for your faithful, Lord, life is changed, not ended.” Just as Jesus offered his life for all people on the Cross and rose from the dead in glory, Christians believe that their death ‘in Christ’ is the gateway to eternal life with God.

Did you know?

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The Catholic Enquiry Centre Phone: 04 385 8518 Email: info@catholicenquiry.nz Website: www.catholicenquiry.nz

This booklet is part of an introductory booklet series on what Catholics believe

1 Life of Faith 2 God Speaks to Us 3 Jesus Christ 4 The Catholic Church 5 God’s Life in Us 6 The Mass 7 Sacraments of Healing 8 Marriage 9 Life of a Christian 10 Life Forever