ESCHATOLOGY
(Notes taken from Escatologia by J. Jose Alviar)

Chapter 1:  INTRODUCTION:  THE CHRISTIAN NOTION OF ESCHATOLOGY
1.  The Christian Idea of the Consummation of History
The Judeo-Christian faith makes two affirmations:  (1) History has direction, and is on its way to a fullness.  (2) Its progress is presided over by a loving God.
2.  Peculiarities of Christian Eschatology
The mission of eschatology is to give light which shines through the ephemeral, for us to be able to contemplate the meaning of history from God’s point of view.  Eschatology is called to give a solid basis for men in history to be vigilant and hopeful.
3.  Logic and Structure of This Course
We can trace in broad strokes divine action in history, in 5 fundamental theses:
(1)  Overcoming the “distance” (introduced by sin) between God and his creatures is a “dynamics of coming close” at God’s initiative.  This will culminate in the Parousia, the divine Coming and presence among creatures.
(2)    The divine nearing aims to establish a communion with free creatures.
(3)  This will reach its culmination at the end of history.  Then, the divinizing effects of the divine presence in creatures will be fully manifested:  Man will resurrect and will possess Life, and the rest of creation will be transfigured.
(4)  Creatures would not necessarily receive God-who-comes-near.  In the end, human beings will be segregated into two states which they themselves will have chosen:  either communion, or non-relation with God.
(5)   With his calling to belong for ever to the family of the Trinity (as “son in the Son”), man advances step by step to his goal.  The first milestone in his itinerary is Baptism, the sacrament by which one first participates in the death and Resurrection of Christ.  The process of Christological assimilation continues throughout earthly life, characterized by contrition, purification, sacramental life.  It culminates in a special way with death, which seals the individual’s identification with the Christ of the Pasch.  It is prolonged beyond that moment, because he who dies in Christ shall remain united to him for ever.

FIRST PART:  CONSUMMATED ESCHATOLOGY
Chapter 2:  THE PAROUSIA
In Christian language, the term Parousia is used to refer to the glorious Coming of Jesus Christ at the end of history.  The term derives from the Greek pareimi (= to be present).  Theology is called to recover the understanding of the Parousia as the mystery of God who lovingly seeks the encounter with men. 
1.  The Approach of God to Men in the History of Salvation
In the Old Testament, the notion of Parousia is prepared by three ideas:  One general and basic idea (i.e. God who is “near”) and two more specific (i.e. expectation of the Day of Yahweh, and of the Messiah).
a)  The God of Israel who is “far away” and “near”
Faith in a God who stays close to men is a characteristic element of the religion of Israel.  It is the paradoxical complement of another basic belief:  that of divine transcendence.  At the same time that the Lord is exalted and his sublime majesty and holiness are underlined, the fact that he accompanies men (and especially the Chosen People) is also insisted.  Even when men draw away from God by sinning, God does not abandon them.  This idea of the nearness of God fosters hope for a future perfect presence of God in the midst of the people.
(i)  Expectation of the Day of Yahweh      
This longing for a divine visitation which brings with it complete salvation is condensed in the expression “Day of Yahweh”.  The Day represents the maximum nearing of God to men. On one hand, that Day contains a promise of salvation; but on the other, it also has a terrifying aspect, particularly for the unfaithful.  From the time of the exile, under the guidance of the prophets, a hope develops that is characterized by:  (1) the longing for a future presence of Yahweh that is truly lasting (eternal Kingdom); and (2) the acute consciousness that the saving nearness of God depends on the fidelity of the people to the Covenant.
(ii)  Hope in the Messiah
In parallel with the thematic line of the Day of Yahweh, a second line develops in Old Testament Revelation that links future salvation to a mysterious person: the Messiah or Anointed of Yahweh.  In the apocalyptic book of Daniel, the prophet sees one “like the son of man” who “comes” (twice the verb pareimi is used) “with the clouds of heaven” (Daniel 7:13-14), and who receives from the “Ancient of days” all the “power, and glory, and a kingdom”, in such a way that “all peoples, tribes and tongues” shall serve him.
b)  The Coming of the Son of Man “in the flesh” and “in glory”
New Testament Revelation brings two new elements:  (1) It concentrates the mystery in Christ.  (2) It distinguishes between two Comings, one humble and the other glorious. This look towards the figure of Christ in New Testament texts contains a primary indication of the “internal structure” of eschatology.  The divinity gets near to humanity through the Son made man, the one Mediator between God and men.
2.  The Christian Expectation of the Parousia 
In general terms, five ages could be recognized:
(1)  The Early Church and times of persecution:  A positive vision of the Parousia predominated, as a longed-for event.
(2)  The Patristic Age:  The longing for the Lord’s Return begins to decline.
(3)  From the end of the Patristic times until the Middle Ages:  Interest in final eschatology (the end of the world) continues to decline; the somber aspects of the end gradually capture the attention of believers.  
(4)  The Modern Age (until the 19th century):  There is a general forgetting of eschatology.  
(5)  Contemporary times (from the 20th century):  There is renewed interest to get back the desire for the Parousia.  
3.  The Parousia, in the Professions of Faith and in the Liturgy
a)  The Return of the Lord, in the professions of faith
Reference to the Return of the Lord in glory was incorporated early into the professions of faith.  In modern times, the special attention which Vatican II dedicates to the topic of the Parousia signals its revival.
b)  Presence of the Parousia, in the lex orandi of the Church 
The doctrine of the Return of the Lord has always found a secure “home” in the lex orandi of the Church.  This fact—pertaining to the very life of the Church—has great dogmatic value, because it manifests the unanimous belief of Christians from different places and at different times. 
4.  Theological Reflection:  the Parousia as Culmination of God’s Coming Near His Creatures
a)  Christianity, a “religion of presence”
The doctrine of the Parousia speaks to us about:  (1) a distance between God and creatures; (2) the coming near of the two parties; and (3) a final encounter.  There is in the first place the metaphysical abyss, between the transcendent Creator and his work.  Free creatures, upon sinning, widen the abyss.  In the mystery of rapprochement, we could distinguish two “movements”:  (1) God’s stooping down to creatures (synkatabasis) to open up for them the possibility of communion with Him; and (2) man’s corresponding motion by which he rises to encounter God.  The Parousia represents the climax of the divine-human encounter, and implies mutual interpenetration:  God-in-us; we-in-God.
b)  Love as the essential element of the mystery of the Parousia
There is no explanation for the marvelous divine initiative to get close to his creatures, other than Love.  The only valid response of man, before this God-Love, is to also love.

Digression:  TIME AND SIGNS OF THE PAROUSIA
In New Testament writings we can find three types of statements about the time of the end:
(1)  The Son of Man will come very soon:  Imminence.
(2)  The Son of Man will come by surprise:  Uncertainty.
(3)  The Second Coming will be preceded by signs:  Forebodings. 
1.  Biblical Formulae of Imminence
a)  Two texts from the Synoptics
In Matthew 10:23 Jesus says:  “Amen, I say to you, you will not have gone through the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.”  In Matthew 16:28 (= Mark 9:1) he says:  “Amen I say to you, there are some of those standing here who will not taste death, till they have seen the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” 
(i)  A literal interpretation
The first line of interpretation points to specific historical events that took place very soon after, and which imply some glorious manifestation of the Son of Man, without being the Parousia itself, like the Transfiguration, his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, the Resurrection, Pentecost, destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70, etc.
(ii)  A prophetic and apocalyptic interpretation
A second line of interpretation places these expressions under a prophetic and apocalyptic style.
(iii)  The Christological interpretation
A third line of interpretation stems from a peculiar Christian perspective regarding time.  In Christ, God-with-us, is found the closeness of He who is hoped for.  In this sense, “little is lacking” for the end. 
b)  The eschatological discourse
In the middle of the eschatological discourse, Jesus concludes: “Amen I say to you, this generation will not pass away till all these things have been accomplished.” (Mark 13:30)  Here we can analogously apply the lines of interpretation enumerated above:  
•	The phrase can refer to the end of the material Temple and the destruction of Jerusalem that actually occurred soon after.  
•	It can also be understood as an apocalyptic statement, with its typical notes of imminence and urgency.
•	It can express a “theological” closeness:  With the Coming of Jesus in history, only a closing act is lacking to conclude it.
2.  Biblical Texts of Uncertainty
Other biblical texts refer in different ways to the time of the Parousia.  In his eschatological discourse, Jesus makes reference to the last day saying:  “But of that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.” (Mark 13:32)  God is the Lord of history, and the date of his last act depends on his sovereign authority and not on human circumstances.  Jesus, in order to carry out the salvific plan of the Father, did not need to communicate to men the exact time of the end.  It is precisely the not-knowing that gives rise to an attitude of permanent vigilance.
3.  Forebodings of the End 
a)  Biblical references to the final events
(i)  Spread of the Gospel and of the “anti-gospel”
A principal source containing the forebodings is the eschatological discourse of Jesus.  Basically, reference is made here to two types of events:  (1) the universal spread of the Gospel; (2) the opposition that this message and their carriers suffer in the world:  persecutions, false prophets, etc. 
(ii)  Conversion of the Jewish people  
In Romans 11, St Paul develops extensively the idea of the final recovery of the Jewish people, framing this “mystery” within the perspective of divine fidelity.
b)  Theological significance of the “forebodings”
The following seem to be the essential lessons which these texts teach:  (i) human freedom in relation to God who approaches us; (ii) the struggle between the power of God and the forces of evil; (iii) a particular aspect of salvation history: the Jews.  The “signs of the last days” contribute to maintain the vigilance of each Christian generation in tension. 
4.  The Three Types of Pronouncements Regarding the Time of the Parousia
The texts of imminence tell us that the Lord is always at the door, not so much in the sense of chronological closeness, as in a higher sense:  The messianic era of salvation has already been inaugurated by Christ, and now we wait for the last act (his Return or Parousia).  The texts referring to uncertainty emphasize the ascetical consequences derived from this “closeness” of our Lord:  Each believer should respond by keeping himself open through faith, hope and love.  The forebodings help to maintain the faithful on their toes throughout history.

Chapter 3:  THE KINGDOM OF GOD (I)
The coming close of God which culminates in the Parousia implies his intimate union with creatures, to constitute a mystery of communion.  As divine Son made man, he is the core of the Kingdom as divine-human union.  Christ invites men to unite themselves to his Person, to form with him a “body” animated by the Spirit and loved by the Father.  This structure of salvation absorbs all men who desire to enter, and thus it builds up in history to its completion in the eschaton.  This relational and interpersonal reality constitutes the very essence of the Kingdom.
1.  Biblical Revelation about the Kingdom, as Relation between God and Men
a)  Kingdom, People, Covenant in the Old Testament
From partial hopes with limited scope, a more consistent hope takes shape:  God will stabilize his relationship with men, to form with them an enduring structure of salvation.  The eschatological Kingdom will be the result of the perfect meeting of divine generosity and human correspondence.
b)  The Kingdom of God comes with Christ
The Kingdom (basileia) is undoubtedly a central theme in the New Testament.  It appears 122 times, 90 of which come from the mouth of Christ.
(i)  Revelation of the Kingdom, in the words and deeds of Jesus Christ
New Testament Revelation offers two aspects which are new (relative to the Old Testament):  (1) the announcement of the arrival of the Kingdom; and (2) the centrality of Christ.  The presence of the Kingdom is tied to his Person and works.  The works of Jesus corroborate that the Kingdom has effectively come with him:  the cures, resurrections, teachings and exorcisms; the miracles of abundance; the miracles over nature; the pardon of sins.
(ii)  Christological union in the Kingdom in St Paul
“He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have our redemption, the remission of our sins.” (Colossians 1:13-14)  The sovereignty of Christ is realized in history and in the world, in a veiled but real and efficient way, in the Church and by means of the Church.
(iii)  Christ, beginning of the Kingdom, according to St John 
St John gives relevant ideas about the mystery:  (1) the centrality of Christ; (2) the necessity of faith, Baptism and the Eucharist to belong to the Kingdom; and (3) the interior character of this mystery.  The total triumph of God at the end of time does not suppose the annihilation of the human part of the mystery:  perfect obedience and fidelity to God.
2.  From People to Family of God (Plenitudo Legis Est Dilectio)
The concept of Kingdom has its limitations for expressing in all its depth the mystery of union between the divine and the created.  It seems logical then to have its complement in a second line of biblical Revelation, which we can denote as the “domestic” line.
There are two principal “familiar” categories used by Scripture to express the loving plan of God for men:  spousal covenant and paternal-filial relation.  The second category merits special attention.  We are not dealing here with a simple metaphor, but with an authentic reference to the ontological relation which God wants to establish with men.  Jesus shows to men the possibility of really becoming, in him, adopted sons of the Father.

Chapter 4:  THE KINGDOM OF GOD (II)
1.  Trinitarian Dimension of the Kingdom, in Patristic Doctrine
Progress in this theological direction—Trinitarian, filial—was the collateral effect of intense debate against the subordinationist heresy.  Defense of the divinity of the Son and the Spirit necessitated serious thought about the biblical passages alluding to the “submission” of Christ to the Father, and led to the study of the mystical body to which men are called to form with Christ to finally enter into the intimacy of the Trinity.
2.  The Kingdom of God, in the Magisterium of the Church
Lumen gentium describes the ultimate goal of the People of God in relational terms:  Christ, Shepherd and head, forms a new humanity; he acts through the sacred ministers, who “assemble the family of God as a brotherhood fired with a single ideal, and through Christ in the Spirit they lead it to God the Father.”  Gaudium et spes uses terms markedly personalist when talking about the end of man:  “The dignity of man rests above all on the fact that he is called to communion with God.  The eschatological picture which the Catechism offers is characterized as communion among divine and human persons, with a family structure and a Christological core.  “This perfect life with the Most Holy Trinity—this communion of life and love with the Trinity, with the Virgin Mary, the angels and all the blessed—is called ‘heaven’.”
3.  Theological Reflection:  Kingdom as Mystery of Communion between the Trinity & Mankind
a)  Union with the Trinity in the Kingdom
God’s plan to elevate rational creatures to the status of (adopted) sons, through incorporation into Jesus, implies placing men in a position analogous to that which the Son has relative to the Father:  a relation, not of simple subordination, but of ineffable familiarity.  “Christ has become what we are, to give us the possibility to be what he is.” (St Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, V)
b)  Collective dimension of salvation
God wants to save man, not as an isolated being, but as part of a collectivity.  This plan reveals that the human person is not only de facto capable of relations, but, as imago Dei, is structurally and metaphysically related with other beings.  The parallelism which the Bible and the Fathers establish between the first Adam and the second makes more sense in light of the relational dimension of the person.  The expression “communion of saints” is an expression of the corporate aspect of salvation.

Chapter 5:  THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD
We can distinguish two essential elements contained in the dogma of the resurrection:  (1) the identity between the person who lives in history and he who resurrects, as well as the transformation of this person; and (2) full communion with Christ which the resurrection implies:  For the just, it is to-resurrect-in-the-Lord.  The resurrection will be the work of the Most Holy Trinity, like the Resurrection of Jesus.
The “how” of the resurrection could be a balance between two schools, seeing that:  (1) the survival of a spiritual core has a crucial role in the resurrection of the human subject, and (2) the present body is not totally irrelevant to the body that will resurrect.  

Chapter 6:  THE NEW HEAVENS AND THE NEW EARTH
“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” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1060).  This point of faith indicates the profound solidarity between human creatures and inferior creatures:  Basically, the two groups constitute one unity, in such a way that man does not exist without a cosmic setting, and the material universe has in man its most sublime point of contact with God.  In the final analysis, it is the global unity that will be saved, elevated, transformed by God.
1.  The Cosmos, Part of the Historia Salutis
a)  Solidarity between man and the rest of creation, in the Old Testament
The human being appears as a most special work of the Creator (formed by divine action), at the same time that it pertains to the earth (taken from it).  He is placed by Yahweh in the garden for him to till it and take care of it (cf. Genesis 2:15).  Isaias 65:17-21 speaks of a new creation:  “For behold I create new heavens, and a new earth.”
b)  Regeneration of the world in Christ
The expectation of eschatological salvation which includes cosmic renewal continues in the New Testament, and is formulated in various ways:  as palingenesia (= regeneration); as apokatastasis (= restoration); as ouranoi kainoi kai ge kaine (= new heavens and a new earth, equivalent to the Old Testament phrase).
2.  Continuity/Discontinuity Between the Present World and the New World
Tradition echoes the doctrine of universal renewal, insisting on two principal points:  (1) Against spiritualist currents, it defends the transfiguration of material creation, not its annihilation.  (2) It gives reasons of convenience for the adaptation of the universe to the glorious situation of men and the total presence of God at the end of time.
a)  Transformation, not annihilation
Even though Christian writers of early times sometimes give the impression of a depreciative attitude to the world when they express a longing for the prompt return of the Lord, Christians in fact quickly and clearly stay away from dualist currents (of the Gnostics, etc.) which see with pessimist eyes matter in general and the human body in particular.  Contrary to the Gnostic theory of two gods—one revealed in the Old Testament as a god of ire, and another revealed by the New Testament as a god of goodness—Christian Tradition defends a strongly unitary view of the Creator of the created universe.
b)  A home apt for the resurrected
With regard to the reasons of convenience for the palingenesia, writers of Christian antiquity cite the congruence which the transfigured state of man demands.  St Augustine cites an additional reason for the mystery of the eschatological transformation of the cosmos:  Only a transfigured world would be able to manifest the brightness of the presence of God.
3.  The Magisterium of the Church Regarding the New Heavens and the New Earth
The appearance of many magisterial declarations in modern times is due to the proliferation of worldly utopias (e.g. the Marxist proposition) which propose the goal of a worldly paradise as an alternative to Christian hope for an eschatological Kingdom.  Also, the Church of the 20th century sees the need to respond to certain pessimistic and spiritualist currents which put in doubt the salvific relevance of human activity in a world and a history affected by sin.  The thesis here is not that of an invalidation or future annihilation of the present world, but its future purification and transfiguration.
4.  Theological Reflection:  The Palingenesia as Redemption of the Cosmos
God, world and man are three realities that have been somehow separated by sin.  Man, upon breaking his original link with his Creator, causes the formation of an abyss, not only between his person and God, but also—being responsible for the cosmos—between the world and God.  The final state of man will be to live in Christ by the work of the Spirit, and the final state of the cosmos will be to participate through resonance in the transfiguring power flowing from the Person of the Son to men. 

Chapter 7:  THE UNIVERSAL JUDGMENT
We profess in the Creed that Jesus Christ “will come again… to judge the living and the dead”.
1.  Divine Judgment, in the Old Testament
The development of the idea of a Final Judgment is set within a wider framework of Old Testament concepts:  (1) The functions of governance and judgment are united in the person of the sovereign.  (2) God is not indifferent to the moral conduct of men.
2.  The Judgment United to the Parousia, in Tradition 
The idea of a universal Judgment in the Patristic age is extensively intertwined with the expectation of the Parousia:  When Christ returns, he will bring with him complete retribution for each one.
a)  A mystery of retribution
St Clement of Rome assures us:  “God is faithful to his promises, and just in his judgments.”  The reason is basically theological:  Justice, understood as an attribute of God.  Furthermore, the notion of perfect justice seems to demand a “waiting” until the end of history, so that the balance considers all the consequences in time of human actions. 
b)  A mystery of discrimination
The Fathers speak of the judgment of God as capable of producing either one of two final sentences:  either eternal salvation or eternal condemnation, according to each one’s deeds.  The doctrine occasions a mixture of hope and fear, of longing and anxiety.
c)  The mystery of revelation
The Fathers emphasize the convenience quoad homines of a complete revelation at the end of history of the value of persons and events.  
3.  The Last Judgment, in the Symbols of Faith
The affirmation that “he shall come to judge the living and the dead” already appears as the conclusion of the Christological article in the first creeds, being the echo of apostolic preaching.  The 4th Lateran Council (1215) adds a phrase:  “he shall give to each one according to his works”.
4.  Theological Reflection:  The Judgment, Corollary of the Parousia
a)  God’s coming close, the differentiation among men
The final mystery contains a discriminatory dimension (between the wheat and the chaff, between the sheep and the goats).  God’s coming close to his creation will finally result in a differentiation among free creatures.  God’s coming close to men throughout history, in fact, acts like a sword dividing hearts.
b)  Primacy of salvation over condemnation
Theologians affirm with reason that the double prospect (salvation/condemnation) contained in the revelation of the Judgment is not “symmetrical”.  Salvation has more weight, since that is the original objective of the divine economy.
c)  The last judgment as revelation of the meaning of History.
The final Coming of the divine King will bring a clear order to creation, by which each creature will occupy its definitive place within the whole.  The King “will put everything in its place”, even in the mind of his creatures, making them know exactly—as He knows—the value of persons and works.
d)  Christological dimension of the Judgment
This does not simply mean that Christ will exercise his authority over men as God and Redeemer.  It tells us exactly how God works out the salvation of men:  Christ configuring them to himself, sending them his modeler Spirit, presenting them to the Father.  Christ will not only be the Judge, but also the Criterion for the Judgment.

Chapter 8:  ETERNAL LIFE
“I believe… in life everlasting.” (Apostle’s Creed)  “We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.” (Nicean-Constantinopolitan Creed)  With these few words we try to express the object of the hope of every human being.  In reality, with these terms we try to say much (in a certain sense, everything):  union with God and the saints, the fullness of corporeal and spiritual existence, an experience of joy and peace… that await the just at the end of time.	
1.  Richness of Biblical Revelation about Eternal Life
Our scriptural survey groups the principal categories by which the mystery is formulated according to the following order:
(1)  “Local” expressions, which simply serve to indicate “to be where God is”:  heaven, paradise, promised land, house of the Father, heavenly Jerusalem, heavenly temple, etc.
(2)  More formal expressions:  to be with God, to be with Christ
(3)  Expressions which add the aspect of intimate colloquium: to see, to know God.
(4)  Expressions which indicate the fullness that comes with union with God:  eternal life, banquet, etc.
2.  Divine Communication and Divinization of Man
The Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms the following aspects of the mystery:
•	The essence of eternal life as communion;
•	The central place of Christ in this mystery;
•	The aspect of vision and divinization, in the mystery of communion;
•	The concomitant consummation of the deepest dimensions of man.
3.  Theological Reflection:  Communion with God as Essence of Eternal Life
From the mystery of communion between human persons and the divine Persons flows the dimensions of happiness in heaven:
•	The assimilation of man to the Person of the Word implies a divinization.
•	Insertion in the Son gives a greater participation in his intimate knowledge of the Father.
•	Incorporation in Christ brings with it solidarity with other just men also.
•	Intimate union with God produces in the creature joyous effects:  fullness, Life, etc. 
a)  A God who gives Himself
The essence of that which we call heaven or blessedness is not so much the permanence in a physical place, but a “stay” of another kind:  staying in God.  It is God with us, we in God.
b)  Trinitarian dimensions of the mystery
Human fulfillment does not consist simply in the contemplation of the divine unitary essence, but in contemplating the different relations of the three divine Persons according to the order which the Father, Son and Holy Spirit live within themselves.
c)  The transformation of man united to God
The repercussions in the creature caused by the Trinitarian presence are:  
•	elevation and divinization of the poor creature; 
•	joyful knowledge of divine intimacy, and understanding of things which are deep inside God; 
•	joy and fruition of love; 
•	experience of vital fullness, spiritually and corporeally (feelings and senses included);
•	in sum, superabundant satisfaction and happiness.
d)  The profound sense of heaven as reward
Eternal life consists in abiding in the interior of God.  The loving dialogue requires a prepared correspondent, made in some way connatural with the Trinity.  Who can eternally contemplate the Father, if not someone who has already learned to love him in this life as his son?  Our stay on earth is a verum spatium (moment of truth).  Our moral efforts here, now, acquire an “eschatological value” to the extent that they make us better or less prepared to live Life-without-end, with him who is All-Holy, and with all the saints. 

Chapter 9:  ETERNAL DEATH
“Life” and “Death” are two faces (albeit unsymmetrical) of just one mystery:  the response of the free creature to God-who-comes-near.  The contrast in biblical expressions shows that they are diametrically opposed existential situations.  The union of man with God is the logical conclusion of the salvific plan; to be lost is the thing most contrary to the divine intent. 
1.  Eternal Death as the Reverse of Eternal Life, in Sacred Scripture
As in the case of eternal life, we find in the Revelation about eternal death a great variety of formulations, all of them expressions of different facets in the mystery.  Evidently, there is a certain parallelism between the formulations about eternal life and eternal death:
Heaven // abyss or the depths of the sheol; 
to be within (the eschatological Jerusalem) // to be outside (in Gehenna, outside the walls); 
to be with Christ // “depart from Me”; 
house of the Father, “children of the Kingdom” // not to inherit the Kingdom; 
to see, to know God // “I do not know you”; 
joy // weeping and the gnashing of teeth. 
a) Geographic terms
The difference and separation between the two states (salvation and perdition) is made clear using graphic expressions. 
(i)  The “deep places” in the Old Testament:  The deepest place in the sheol.  Gehenna.  
(ii)  Hades, abyss and Gehenna in the New Testament
b)  Exclusion from God’s presence
As counterpart to the formulations for “eternal life” (e.g. “to see” or “to know” God, “to be with” Christ, etc.) we find in the Bible expressions which formally indicate a mystery of exclusion from the company of God and the just. 
c)  Eternal death
As it happened with the idea of “life”, the theo-logical dimension of “death” (i.e. its dimension of non-relation with God) expanded with time until it became the fullest expression of the mystery of definitive separation from God. 
d)  Other Biblical expressions  
A last group of expressions describes the consequences of separation from God as:  inextinguishable or eternal fire; worm that does not die; weeping; gnashing of teeth; darkness; shame; lack of rest.
2.  The Reality and Duration of Hell 
The Catechism of the Catholic Church summarizes the dogma of the existence of hell thus:  “The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity.  Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, ‘eternal fire.’  The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs.” (no. 1035)
3.  Theological Reflection:  Hell as the Creature’s Shunning God
a)  Hell as the absence of God (God lost by man)
Hell is above all the free creature’s shunning God who comes to him.  In Trinitarian terms, it is to repel or “sadden” the Spirit (cf. Ephesians 4:30) who wants to live in the person in order to conform him to the Son and bind him intimately with the Father.  Seen in this way, hell is man’s creation, not God’s. 
b)  Theories that deny the existence of hell
There have been theories which deny the reality of hell.  The most widespread are based on two principal arguments:  (1) The infinite love, mercy and power of God make the possibility of “failure” in his plans to save mankind unthinkable.  (2) The existence of creatures lost for ever seems incompatible with the full happiness of the angels and saints.  The thesis of “the impossibility of condemnation of anyone” falls apart when we consider a particular dogmatic fact:  the fall of some angels, and their consequent state of permanent enmity with God.  The alternative proposition that “hell exists but is empty” is simply false because devils exist.
c)  Poena sensus (pain of sense)
The theological concept of eternal death as an existential situation, self-inflicted by man himself, allows us to avoid a sadistic view of the sufferings of the damned as extrinsic punishments violently inflicted by an avenging God.  It seems more correct to think of the sufferings of the condemned as the necessary effect of their chosen separation from God, i.e. as an internal dimension of the divine absence:  It is he himself who allows chaos to reign in his existence, in the disordered function of his intellect (since he thinks only of himself) and will (since he loves only himself and not others).

SECOND PART:  INITIATED ESCHATOLOGY
Chapter 10:  EARTHLY LIFE (Baptism and Post-Baptismal Life)
The history of the incorporation of each man to Christ and his Pasch happens in successive steps.  It already begins in the mortal life of the individual with the reception of Baptism.  Thanks to the sacramental ablution, the subject dies to sin and begins to possess a new life, experiencing in this way his first configuration with the Lord who has died and is risen.  This is what we confess with joy in the Creed:  “I believe in the forgiveness of sins.”
A new horizon is then opened before the creature, of progressive insertion into the Person and Life of Christ.  Such progress is possible, in the first place, thanks to the sacraments—especially the Eucharist—which works in the Christian a deeper configuration with the Lord; and thanks also to the progressive struggle of the believer to avoid sin and to participate more fully in the sanctity of Christ.  Post-baptismal life then becomes Christian existence (man’s increasingly intense appropriation of supernatural life—the Life of Christ—initially infused by Baptism); or, also, Paschal existence (his deepening insertion into the death and Resurrection of the Lord, with each sacramental participation, each conversion, each act of contrition, each time he begins again).
1.  The Hope of Renewal, in the Bible
The hope of a renewed existence is already found in the Old Testament, particularly in the traditions which imply faith in God who is the Liberator of the people, Creator of the world, and Fount of life.  These lines of hope converge in the New Testament in the Person of Jesus.  
a)  Old Testament Revelation of God who is Liberator, Creator and Giver of Life
The sacrament of Baptism—together with its mystical counterpart, the Pasch of Jesus—is prefigured in the Old Testament in many and diverse ways.  We recall here three traditions which, in a special way, serve as preparation for the New Testament mystery of renewal in Life in Christ:  (1) the “Exodus” tradition; (2) the “creation” tradition; and (3) the “resurrection” tradition.
b)  The Pasch of Jesus Christ, fount of new life for men
The lines of hope of the Old Testament lead to Jesus, who by himself leads the way from the darkness of the sepulcher to the light of the morning of the Resurrection.  The Pasch of Jesus appears in New Testament texts as the fount from which springs a radically new life for men, with Baptism and the Eucharist as the principal channels through which this life reaches men in history.
2.  Patristic Doctrine about the Insertion of Man in the Pasch of the Lord
The first generations of Christians followed the Christological-Paschal line indicated by New Testament Revelation.  In their writings forcefully appear:  (1) belief in an authentic Christification which sacramental initiation works out in the subject, by which (2) a holy life is demanded of the neophyte, and (3) a glorious inheritance is promised to him.
3.  Theological Reflection:  Initiation of the Pasch in the Earthly Life of Man
The sacrament of Baptism inserts man into the Paschal mystery of Jesus.  This insertion into the Pasch brings with it identification with its Protagonist, who is Christ.  “To die” through Baptism means not only to die to sin, but also “to die to oneself”, to give up the “I” so that Christ may occupy the center of the person:  it is no longer I that live, but Christ who lives in me.  The baptized is led to continually “actualize” the Pasch of the Lord throughout his earthly existence.  To receive the sacraments (especially the Eucharist), to die to sin and egoism, to practice penance and mortification, to undergo conversion as many times as necessary, to progress in virtue and holiness… are other “milestones” in the eschatological-Paschal journey of the Christian.  Christian eschatology would show to man, not only the meaning of death (to-die-in-Christ; to die hopeful), but also the meaning of earthly life as spatium (time) to carve the Christological mark in his personal existence.

Chapter 11:  DEATH (I)
The phase post mortem et ante resurrectionem of the individual is surrounded in mystery.  Revelation gives us some guiding light: 
(1)	Although death (in a sense) is natural to man, faith teaches us that it is a consequence of sin.
(2)	For a Christian, death is the means to participate in the Pasch and to incorporate himself more fully in the Lord.
(3)	Death does not end the existence of man.  But it does end the time of personal preparation for definitive communion with God.
(4)	Mox post mortem (right after death), the individual enters a state of definitive soteriological character (either salvation or perdition).
(5)	For someone who would die in the grace of God but without possessing complete sanctity there is reserved further purification.
(6)	Affirmations (4) and (5) above have as a corollary the notion of a particular judgment.  
1.  The Negative Aspect of Death, in the Old Testament
a)  Death, consequence of separation from the Living God
Death is contrary to the original divine plan for creation.  In fact, it also goes contrary to man’s longing.  
b)  The appearance of hope in spite of death
In the Old Testament:  Death that awaits every man does not necessarily imply a total disaster.  And this is for two reasons:  (1) because personal existence continues in some way after death; and (2) because certain types of death have value before God and have a reward.  
(i)  The notion of subsistence
Gradually, the hope for total victory over death appears.  Victory over death is expressed in two forms.  The more important form is the resurrection of the dead.  The second speaks of a spiritual principle of man, the soul (psyche), which, after separating from the body upon death, is capable of subsisting.  
(ii)  Value of the death of the just man
Early Jewish thinking considered early death as a punishment from God. But in the second part of the book of Isaias, the death of the Servant of Yahweh which Chapter 53 narrates has an eminently positive value:  It is a holocaust of expiation and reconciliation that makes the Servant deserve eternal glory.  To offer one’s own life in sacrifice means to transport one’s own death to the level of God, in some way removing it from its old association with sin.  
2.  The Change of Sign of Death, Worked Out by Christ
a)  Old and new doctrine about death, in the Synoptics
There are in the Synoptics texts that echo the old association of death with sin.  For example, the use of the term nekros to refer to the sinner is noteworthy.  Nevertheless, the key idea is one of victory: Jesus conquers both sin and death.  He forgives sins, works resurrections, and above all himself resurrects after dying.  His Paschal mystery is the fulfillment of the hope of the Old Testament:  On one hand, his death is pleasing to God and useful to men.  On the other, it is a death which ends in glorious resurrection.  It can be affirmed that Christ, with his Pasch, liberates death itself from the somber dominion of sin.
b)  The triumph of Christ over sin and death, according to St Paul
St Paul offers a deep teaching regarding the mysterious connection between sin and death which ends up in a joyous note:  Christ has already triumphed over both powers.
c)  The Life brought by Christ, according to St John
In St John we find, in the first place, statements regarding the lordship of Christ over death.  The ultimate reason of such lordship is this:  As divine Word, he has the fullness of Life; he has it always in the bosom of the Father.  In this context, the death of Jesus is understood as exaltation, for it serves as a launching pad for his definitive victory.  His passage through death on his way to the Resurrection is part of the manifestation of his absolute sovereignty.  The disciple of the Lord can, in his turn, follow the same steps of the One who was dead and is now alive.

Chapter 12:  DEATH (II)
1.  Death as Passage to the Retribution and Union with Christ, in Tradition and the Magisterium
The first generation of Christians centered much of their thought around the Parousia and the end of the world, since there was no experience yet of the long waiting for the Return of the Lord.  However, as time went by and the first disciples died, the question of the destiny of the dead naturally started to occupy their minds.  Christian reflection then followed two preferential lines:  one which developed especially during times of persecution that considers death—above all death through martyrdom—as a new link with Christ and a participation in his Paschal mystery; and the other which also had a long development that sees a mystery of subsistence and retribution beyond death. 
a)  Death as a means for union with Christ
In the eyes of Christians, this identification with Christ converts martyrs into valid intercessors before God.  The prayers and liturgical practices related to the martyrs that we have since the earliest times reveal a faith that there are saints definitively incorporated into Christ, who lovingly watch over those who still live on earth.  
b)  Death as the beginning of definitive retribution
The great majority of ancient writers refer to retribution in one way or another immediately after death for all men.  The reasoning of these ancient writers reveals something important:  Even though they use the idea of the subsistence of the soul after death, they do not accept the Hellenic approaches.  Confronted with the Platonic ideal of eudaimonia (adopted by the Gnostics), of a soul totally liberated form matter, Christian thinkers prefer to maintain the unfinished character of retribution which affects only the spiritual part of man.
Already in modern times, Vatican II offers in the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium a picture of post mortem retribution with notable “relational” characteristics.  Chapter 7, no. 48 reminds us that judgment and retribution for each man occurs right after death; no. 49 deals with the present union between the Church triumphant, Church suffering and Church militant, and describes the blessedness of the saints even before the resurrection.
The teaching of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992) about death can be summarized as follows:  
•	Death is a mystery.
•	It is a mystery rooted in the mysterium iniquitatis.
•	Christ, upon assuming death itself, changed its (negative) sign.
•	For the Christian, to die has a positive value:  physical death completes Baptism’s “dying with Christ”.
•	Death opens up to Life.
•	It is also possible for death to lead to a negative destiny:  hell.
•	It can be said, therefore, that retribution starts after death.
•	Death closes the time that the individual disposes to decide his definitive destiny.
•	Only at the end of time will retribution acquire its complete form.
2.  Theological Reflection:  Death, Anthropologic Mystery Illuminated by Christ
a)  Relational, Christological and Paschal dimension of death
Eschatology sees the final fullness as a consummation of the potency of relation between the divine Persons and created persons.  Very significantly, the Catechism of the Catholic Church refers to death as “The Christian’s Last Passover”.  With this Christological-Paschal view, the believer sees the opportunity that is offered him to personally face death as Christ did—filially and confidently—to thus convert his own dying into a definitive seal of his Christiformation, the sure guarantee of his glorious resurrection.
b)  The particular judgment 
(i)  The particular judgment as a corollary of the doctrine of retribution mox post mortem
The Catechism of the Catholic Church says:  “Death puts an end to human life as the time open to either accepting or rejecting the divine grace manifested in Christ.  The New Testament speaks of judgment primarily in its aspect of the final encounter with Christ in his second Coming, but also repeatedly affirms that each will be rewarded immediately after death in accordance with his works and faith.” (no. 1021)
In recent times the theory of the final option has been proposed (cf. L. Boros, 1962) which affirms that with death (release from the limitations inherent in earthly existence) there would be the possibility for the first totally personal act of man.  It errs in undervaluing the equally decisive character of the accumulation of free decisions taken throughout one’s earthly life.
(ii)  Towards a Christological and Trinitarian concept of the particular judgment
The only real assessment that can be made of a mortal life is with reference to Christ.  Did the individual cultivate or not his union with the Lord?  Did he obey or place obstacles to the motions of the Spirit of the Son?  Did he shape his personal life as a filial Amen, or as a Non serviam to the Father?
c)  One single life; definite character of earthly life, versus reincarnation theories
The Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms:  “Death is the end of man’s earthly pilgrimage, of the time of grace and mercy which God offers him so as to work out his earthly life in keeping with the divine plan, and to decide his ultimate destiny.  When ‘the single course of our earthly life’ is completed, we shall not return to other earthly lives:  ‘It is appointed for men to die once.’  There is no ‘reincarnation’ after death.” (no. 1013)

Digression:  THE ONGOING DEBATE ON INTERMEDIATE ESCHATOLOGY
From the point of view of the dead, who has already left the river of time:  Is there also for him, “subjectively”, a phase between the end of his earthly life and the moment of his resurrection, i.e. a “waiting”?  What does it mean when we talk of an interim state, a separated soul, a post mortem purification stage?
1.  History of the Question
The modern debate regarding intermediate eschatology started in the first decades of the 20th century from scholars and theologians in the Protestant camp, beginning with Karl Barth (1922).  For these scholars, God is the Absolutely-Other:  His way of existing (eternity) is totally distinct from ours.  Upon dying, we leave our temporal level and are admitted into divine eternity.  Therefore, the human person, upon passing the shadow of death, is immediately placed before the Lord on the Day of the Parousia, the Judgment, and the resurrection.  The International Theological Commission considers the propositions suppressing intermediate eschatology, or the two-phase concept of history, as dissonant with legitimate theological pluralism.
2.  Critical Examination of the Postures
a)  Aspects of positive theology
The Catechism of the Catholic Church uses the following language:  “The Church teaches that every spiritual soul is created immediately by God—it is not ‘produced’ by the parents—and also that it is immortal:  it does not perish when it separates from the body at death, and it will be reunited with the body in the final Resurrection.” (no. 366)
b)  Aspects of speculative theology
We could say that the man who dies sets one foot in eternity, but continues with the other foot in history while history is not yet finished:  The deceased accompanies the drama of the living (cf. parable of the poor man Lazarus) and of the world for as long as the global history of salvation goes on.  Certainly, the deceased man shares in the Life of God and participates in his eternity, but he is limited in this participation.  The creature maintains his own (finite) manner of possessing his existence, unfolding it in a succession of “before” and “after”.  It does not seem correct to imagine that the experiences of death and resurrection would actually be simultaneous.  Any study of this matter would have to respect essential points of Christian faith, such as:  
•	the mysterious relationship between the present mortal body and the glorious body; 
•	the Assumption of Mary, anticipation of our own glorification; 
•	the usefulness of praying for the dead; 
•	the need for total purification before entering into eternal rest in the Lord; 
•	the unity and mutual relationship between the individual judgment and the universal judgment.

Chapter 13:  PURIFICATION BEYOND THIS WORLD
“Those who die in God’s grace and friendship imperfectly purified, although they are assured of their eternal salvation, undergo a purification after death, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of God.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1054)  The doctrine of “Purgatory” contains two dogmatic affirmations:  (1) the existence of a purification stage through which all those who die in the grace of God but without being fully ripe for divine communion have to go; and (2) the usefulness of the prayer of the living for the dead who are in their purification stage.
1.  Scriptural Basis of the Doctrine of Purification after Death
a)  The necessity for purification before Holy God, in the Old Testament
(i)  Divine Sanctity, human purification
In the Old Testament, we find an insistence on three ideas which underlie the notion of post mortem purification:  (1) Only Yahweh is holy, and only holy ones can get close to Him:  Due to this truth, man feels and suffers a need for purification.  (2) It is Yahweh who purifies; but man should desire purification and ask for it with the help or mediation of others.  (3) Man reaches salvation not only individually, but forming part of a community.
(ii)  Prayer for the dead in 2Machabees
In 2Machabees, we notice an important development in Old Testament Revelation.  It tells us how, after a battle, Judas and his soldiers find little idols in the clothes of the fallen Jews.  Judas prays with his soldiers “asking that their sin be completely pardoned.”  We can therefore affirm that by the end of the Old Testament period we already find formulated the belief that the living, fulfilling a role of solidarity and intercession, could somehow make up for the purification which the dead failed to do in life.  
b)  Progressive and communitarian character of human sanctity, in the New Testament
Jesus takes up again the primordial reasoning of the law of sanctity: “Be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48)  Only the clean of heart shall see God (cf. Matthew 5:8).  The writings of the New Testament also deepen our understanding of the communitarian aspect of salvation:  Christ, the hagios, clean, without stain of sin, offers himself as the Lamb to take away the sin of mankind, fulfilling the prophecy of Isaias of the suffering Servant and Savior.  Christians, as members of a priestly people, participate in the priestly action of Christ, offering their persons in union with the Lord as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.  The more one is united to Jesus and becomes a son of the Father, the more he participates in the intercessory power of Christ before the Father, and—as intimate friend of God—is able to intercede for others. 
2.  History of the Dogma of Purification Beyond This World
a)  The ancient tradition of praying for the dead
The Patristic idea of post mortem purification is born, not so much out of speculation, as from the real perception of different degrees of sanctity in Christians.  From here arise spontaneously, since the earliest times, two different practices:  the invocation of the martyrs and other great saints; and intercessory prayer for the other dead.  At the beginning of the 3rd century, Tertullian speaks of the practice of praying for the dead as something received by Tradition (and, therefore, very old).
b)  Development of the doctrine of post mortem purification in the Fathers
The thinkers of the school of Alexandria propose the peculiar theory of a fire which is applied to dead sinners to obtain their regeneration, converting even the impenitent (theory of the apokatastasis).  Clement of Alexandria believes that this fire is applied only to sinful souls, “applying it to the unrepentant against his will”.  In the final analysis, this would imply that hell is temporal.  Origen, successor of Clement in the school of Alexandria, speaks also of a “fuego sabio” (wise fire) which produces varied effects:  depending on the cases, it can burn, cleanse, or delight.  
c)  The divergent perspectives of the East and the West
Both the Greek Church and the Latin Church coincide in the basic idea of a possible stage of purification beyond this world.  Divergences did not arise until the 13th century, when the Greeks start to show discomfort regarding certain aspects in the development of Latin theology.  Among them is the linguistic transition (since the 12th century), from the adjective purgatorius (purgatorius ignis), to the subject purgatorium which connotes a place (since the Greeks would rather speak of a state or situation).  Still, Pope Innocent IV in a 1254 letter believes that the Greeks coincide with the Latin Church in the substance of the doctrine.
d)  Luther’s rejection of Purgatory, and the response of Trent
The basic ideas of Luther that lead him to finally reject the doctrine of Purgatory are:  (1) sola Scriptura (Luther declares that there is no mention of the doctrine of Purgatory in Sacred Scripture); and (2) sola gratia, sola fide (If the justice of the Son imputed to us is more than enough to save us, if we sinful men have no capacity to obtain salvation for ourselves and for others, what is the point of speaking of imperfect sanctity in the believer?  And what is the point of speaking of the value of any action of the living in behalf of the dead?)  
The Council of Trent reaffirms the existence of Purgatory and deals with the practice of offering suffrages for the dead.  If we see this in the context of a global defense of the Church as “mystery-in-the-institution”, we would understand that the defense of indulgences is a defense of “solidarity in salvation”, the solidarity of the saints with the imperfect, of the living with the dead.  In this way, the question of indulgences (a tragic divisive point for Christians in the 16th century) becomes linked to an immense mystery:  the salvation by God of men, with men.
e)  Purification beyond this world and the communion of saints, in the contemporary Magisterium
The experience of real imperfection of sanctity in the life of particular Christians, together with the conviction that nothing imperfect can be admitted to the divine company, leads naturally to the practice of imploring God to admit the deceased to his presence.  Such a pious activity is, basically, the expression of a filial desire—in union with Jesus—addressed to the Father.  Simply, the children of God dare to ask, and they know they are heard. 
3.  Theological Reflection:  Purgatory as Mystery of Final Maturation
a)  The gradual character of sanctity, a process which can remain unfinished during earthly life
Given that no one with the shadow of moral imperfection can be united to Holy God, the question spontaneously arises:  What happens to the imperfect who die?  Church Tradition formulates the answer in terms of a purifying stage after mortal life.  The doctrine of Purgatory simply means that the process of perfection, if it is not completely fulfilled in this life, can be continued and consummated after death for those who die as friends of God.  The purgatory state, understood as a mystery of final maturation, is very consistent with the holiness, justice and mercy of God.
b)  Theological and personal dimension of purification beyond this world 
Charity infused in the creature by the Holy Spirit produces the ardent desire to be pleasing to the Father, like the Son.  A suffering of love arises in the individual who dies united to Christ but who sees himself still imperfectly configured to him and therefore unfit to stand before the Father.   We are dealing, then, with a pain of delay, analogous to the nostalgia of Christians for the Parousia. 
c)  Communitarian dimension of the mystery, solidarity in salvation: the mystery of the communion of saints
The Kingdom, still in its incipient state, is a united community of salvation.  It begins with the Incarnation, and grows throughout history with the incorporation of more and more men.  The Person of Jesus is like an anchor fixed inside the Trinity which permits all men to access the divine intimacy:  first during earthly life through Baptism; and after death which for the just is a dying-in-Christ.  From his seat at the right hand of the Father, Jesus intercedes for the living and the dead.  And those who are associated with him pray together with him:  The members who are still on earth pray with him for the dead, while the saints who are already definitively incorporated to him pray for the living, in an organic mystery of charity.  We find ourselves immersed in a great transpersonal and supra-temporal network of charity.

ESCHATOLOGY
(Notes taken from Escatologia by J. Jose Alviar)

Chapter 1
INTRODUCTION:  THE CHRISTIAN NOTION OF ESCHATOLOGY
The word eschatology is derived from the Greek term eschaton (= the last) + logos (= doctrine).  It is equivalent to the Latin expression formerly used for the title of texts on this subject:  De novissimis (novissimum = the last).  Literally, it means the doctrine about the end, both of the life of the individual and of the world.  More precisely, it is the believing reflection on the mystery of the consummation that God has reserved for humanity and for the cosmos.
1.  The Christian Idea of the Consummation of History
By the word “consummation” we refer, not to a mere finishing of human life or universal history, but to a richer reality:  the reaching of a goal and the finishing of a history which has been anticipated from beginning to end.
The Judeo-Christian faith makes two affirmations:  (1) History has direction, and is on its way to a fullness.  (2) Its progress is presided over by a loving God.
2.  Peculiarities of Christian Eschatology
The Bible usually uses special language to talk about the future prepared by Yahweh for his people.  In the first place, we find prophecy.  This mode of speaking, which arose very early in the history of Israel, is collected progressively as a special vehicle expressing the divine promises.
Prophecy is not principally the prediction of future events.  It fulfills a deeper role in the economy of salvation.  Its affirmations about the acts of Yahweh—to save, to judge—are inseparably linked to admonition.  Prophecies have the primordial objective of recharging the people, moving them to conversion, to thus prepare them for salvation.
With the passage of time, from prophecy is born a special line:  the apocalypse.  Apocalyptic language makes frequent recourse to visions and descriptions of cosmic and catastrophic phenomena to explain that the final acts of God will undo the present imperfect disposition of things.
The mission of eschatology is to give light which shines through the ephemeral, for us to be able to contemplate the meaning of history from God’s point of view.  From this perception of the goal prepared by God for creatures, an impulse springs which serves to keep men joyfully awake, hoping for the second Coming of the Lord.  Eschatology, in the end, is called to give a solid basis for men in history to be vigilant and hopeful.  This is the decisive test of a valid eschatology:  if it truly rouses the human heart.
3.  Logic and Structure of This Course
According to Christian faith, we live immersed in a history of salvation which is directed to its culmination.  In this sense, faith (and by extension, theology) helps us know the ultimate sense of the totality:  not only of its material-formal principles—of “how” reality is—but also of its original beginning and final goal:  of his experience-in-God.  Eschatology is nothing more than coherent reflection about the final state to which God leads his creation.  It is theology.
The history of consummation starts with creation, and its later course is marked by two events, namely, the entry of sin into the world, and the Redemption.  These mysteries, occurring within created time, profoundly affect later history.  The first creates an abyss between God and his creatures; the second makes a new bridge between them.  From all eternity, the divine goal is to establish a full communion with his creatures.  And it will come with the glorious Return of Jesus Christ.
With these colors it is possible to trace in broad strokes divine action in history, in 5 fundamental theses:
(1)  Overcoming the “distance” (introduced by sin) between God and his creatures is a “dynamics of coming close” at God’s initiative.  This will culminate in the Parousia, the divine Coming and presence among creatures.  From this perspective of “Emmanuel”, we can say that over the entire history of salvation a logic of rapprochement prevails.
(2)  The divine nearing aims to establish a communion with free creatures.  God progressively unites men to himself and among themselves, as people, as spouse, as family.  Such union implies an elevation of man, from the status of slave to that of son (cf. Romans 8:15), from servant to friend (cf. John 15:15), granting him an ontological capacity to take part in a life of intimate knowledge and love with the three divine Persons.
(3)  This will reach its culmination at the end of history, when the number of the members of the body of Christ—God’s family—is complete.  Then, the divinizing effects of the divine presence in creatures will be fully manifested:  Man will resurrect and will possess Life, and the rest of creation will be transfigured.
(4)  Creatures would not necessarily receive God-who-comes-near.  Free creatures can go to their encounter with God, or shun him.  God’s coming close to man then produces a fundamental differentiation in the human universe (as Revelation about the Judgment affirms).  In the end, human beings will be segregated into two states which they themselves will have chosen:  either communion, or non-relation with God.
(5)   With his calling to belong for ever to the family of the Trinity (as “son in the Son”), man advances step by step to his goal.  The first milestone in his itinerary is Baptism, the sacrament by which one first participates in the death and Resurrection of Christ.  The process of Christological assimilation continues throughout earthly life, characterized by contrition, purification, sacramental life.  It culminates in a special way with death, which seals the individual’s identification with the Christ of the Pasch.  It is prolonged beyond that moment, because he who dies in Christ shall remain united to him for ever (allowing the possibility that he may need more purification first) and shall resurrect, as Christ did, on the last day.  However, sinners who die unrepentant would remain excluded from Trinitarian communion and Life, for all eternity.
These five theses outline Christian eschatology.  And they also determine the logic and structure of this course.

FIRST PART:  CONSUMMATED ESCHATOLOGY
Chapter 2
THE PAROUSIA
In Christian language, the term Parousia is used to refer to the glorious Coming of Jesus Christ at the end of history.  The term derives from the Greek pareimi (= to be present).  This word was used in the ancient Hellenic world to refer to the visit of personages of royalty or of divinity.  It was used to express, in the first place, the presence and, in a derivative manner, the act of coming of an important personage, bringing goods with him and starting a new era for the people.  In Christianity, this term soon acquired a specific meaning.  It does not refer to just any coming, but above all to the second Coming or Return of the Son of God made man, at the end of time, as stated in the Nicean-Constantinopolitan Creed:  “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead”. 
The revelation of a God that comes close to man is the surprising element of the biblical teachings on divine transcendence.  Already in the Old Testament, man learns to hold on to the paradoxical hope that the God of heaven would “come down” from heaven to help him and save him.  Such “logic of the divine Coming” crystallizes in the Old Testament expectation of the ‘Day of Yahweh’.  It finds its continuation and climax in the New Testament, with the Incarnation of the divine Word.  The history of the divine coming to mankind does not end there; for after the Ascension of Christ to the right hand of the Father, Christians long constantly for his Return.  It could be said that underlying the attitude of expectation found in the Old and New Testaments, and despite a certain degree of reverential fear, there is a loving nostalgia in the human creature for the divine presence.   
Our historical review of the doctrine of the Parousia through the centuries will show how, to the extent that the unitive or affective aspect of the Parousia is lost, the mystery becomes an object of worry, of simple curiosity, or even of disinterest among believers.  For, then, attention goes to secondary aspects, like the date and signs of the end of the world.
Theology is called to recover the understanding of the Parousia as the mystery of God who lovingly seeks the encounter with men. 
1.  The Approach of God to Men in the History of Salvation
In the Old Testament, the notion of Parousia is prepared by three ideas:  One general and basic idea (i.e. God who is “near”) and two more specific (i.e. expectation of the Day of Yahweh, and of the Messiah).
a)  The God of Israel who is “far away” and “near”
Faith in a God who stays close to men is a characteristic element of the religion of Israel.  It is the paradoxical complement of another basic belief:  that of divine transcendence.  At the same time that the Lord is exalted and his sublime majesty and holiness are underlined, the fact that he accompanies men (and especially the Chosen People) is also insisted (cf. Amos 2:9-11; Osee 11:1; Micheas 6:4; Jeremias 2:6).  Sacred history, which the Old Testament narrates, shows a God who is always attentive and close to man, from the very beginning.  Even when men draw away from God by sinning, God does not abandon them.  All of history seems like the drama of a “distance” provoked but men but overcome by God.
The theophanies to the Patriarchs related by Genesis stress the way God accompanies men in the course of history.  In a particular way, the narration of the Exodus reflects the experience of a divinity who “comes down” to save his people and who embraces them in a Covenant.  Israel considers itself the dwelling place of the Divine Presence, in its worship, in its sacred places, and in its living members.  Its motto is:  Yahweh is in our midst.  The divine closeness is valued as the reason for Israel’s greatness:  “Is there any nation so great that it has its gods so near as Yahweh, our God, is to us whenever we invoke him?” (Deuteronomy 4:7)
Certainly, the closeness of the Lord is affected by the sins of men.  In fact, the different national disasters which Israel suffers are taken as signs that God has left Israel alone because of its iniquities.  The main task of the prophets is to instill in the people’s consciousness that the presence maintained by the Lord is tied to the fidelity of Israel to the Covenant.  And yet it can be said that, in general, the divine dynamics of approaching is shown in the Old Testament as more insistent and stronger than the distancing because of sin.  Even in those moments when God seems to be abandoning his people, in reality he stays close.  This idea of the nearness of God fosters hope for a future perfect presence of God in the midst of the people.
(i)  Expectation of the Day of Yahweh      
In the soil of faith in God who does not stay away from men, but rather helps them, germinates a concrete line of hope.  The happenings which accompany the people throughout its history provoke a longing for divine intervention (as in the Exodus) which definitively improves the situation of the people.  This longing for a divine visitation which brings with it complete salvation is condensed in the expression “Day of Yahweh”.  The Day represents the maximum nearing of God to men.
Initially, this term seems to have very positive connotations.  The Chosen People were hoping to see divine punishment inflicted upon the peoples who were attacking Israel.  They trusted in the fact that they were the Chosen People.  The prophets are charged to tone down this expectation.  As early as in the 8th century B.C. Amos admonishes:  “Woe to them that desire the day of the Lord:  to what end is it for you?  The day of the Lord is darkness, and not light.” (Amos 5:18)  He and other prophets before the exile, seeing how the people continued counting on their privileged status and neglecting their fidelity to the God of the Covenant, include a note of threat in their prophecies.  They affirm that Yahweh will bring judgment and will punish transgressors, without exempting the members of the house of Israel (cf. Osee 4:1; Micheas 1:3-5; Isaias 13:9-14).  The dark colors which they add to the Day of Yahweh paint an ambivalent picture.  On one hand, that Day contains a promise of salvation; but on the other, it also has a terrifying aspect, particularly for the unfaithful.
This second aspect is often described in frightening terms.  Sophonias describes “a day of wrath, a day of tribulation and distress, a day of calamity and misery, a day of darkness and obscurity, a day of clouds and whirlwinds.” (Sophonias 1:15)  This mixture of positive and negative notes which is already found in the pre-exile authors will become a permanent note of the biblical message regarding the Day of Yahweh.  The mystery comes with a double dimension, consolation and fear.
In reality, the prophetic warnings have a limited effect on the people, who persist in their course of infidelity.  When the great national calamities come at last—destruction of the northern kingdom, Babylonian attack of Jerusalem, fall of the city and destruction of the Temple, deportation—these catastrophes are taken with a religious meaning, i.e. they are seen as a divine visitation and judgment.  In moments of national humiliation during the deportation to Babylon, the voices of the prophets of the exile are heard bringing a message of consolation.  They say:  It is true that God has punished the people; but he has not forgotten nor abandoned them.  “Can a woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son of her womb?  And if she should forget, yet will not I forget thee.” (Isaias 49:15)  In their prophecies, the Day of Yahweh appears with an accent placed on the positive aspect.  The prophets assure that in the future Yahweh will reestablish Israel, and he will punish their enemies.
Thus, in the midst of the exile, there germinates the expectation of a better future.  Although this hope initially moves within the confines of an intra-historical and earthly horizon—looking forward to national reconstruction and earthly glory—it progressively opens up to a transcendent horizon.  It can be said that from the time of the exile, under the guidance of the prophets, a hope develops that is characterized by:  (1) the longing for a future presence of Yahweh that is truly lasting (eternal Kingdom); and (2) the acute consciousness that the saving nearness of God depends on the fidelity of the people to the Covenant.
The prophets of that time paint a picture of a future which is radically different from their present situation:  abundance, universal peace and, above all, perfect knowledge of God not only by Israel but by all nations (cf. Ezechiel 36:30-38; Zacharias 9-14; Joel 3-4).
At the same time, the longing for a definitive salvation acquires the aspect of a moral demand.  The prophets predict not only liberation from external enemies, but also from sin.  They include in their preaching about the coming of Yahweh a call to conversion and to holiness.  They say:  God promises to reunite, pasture and instruct his sheep…, but also to judge it (cf. Jeremias 31:31-34; Ezechiel 34); he promises to dwell for ever with the sons of Israel… but on the condition that they do not desecrate his Holy Name (cf. Ezechiel 43:6-10).  Sanctity, then, is necessary. 
The promise of salvation on the Day of Yahweh does not support, therefore, a naïve confidence.  In fact, it can be affirmed that in the prophecies of the post-exile prophets, the connection between hope in the Day of Yahweh and the message of the Judgment is each time further reinforced:  Yahweh will come like fire (cf. Joel 2:3); to devour the impious (cf. Malachias 3:19) and to purify the lukewarm (cf. Malachias 3:2-4); only the just will be able to stand before the divine tribunal (cf. Malachias 3:17; Joel 3:5).  All peoples, including the Chosen People, will pass through the divine sieve.
(ii)  Hope in the Messiah
In parallel with the thematic line of the Day of Yahweh, a second line develops in Old Testament Revelation that links future salvation to a mysterious person: the Messiah or Anointed of Yahweh.  This expectation already appears in the blessing of Jacob to Judah (cf. Genesis 49:8-12) and in the prophecies of Balaam (cf. Numbers 24:7,17-19) which allude to a future universal sovereign.  Psalms 2 and 110 more precisely mention the unique relationship with God of the Anointed, who embodies the perfect and sublime king.  In Isaias there is a solemn prediction of his miraculous birth and his name: “Behold a virgin is with child and is about to give birth to a son, and his name will be Emmanuel.” (Isaias 7:14)  The name used here by the prophet refers, once again, to a unique divine presence in the person of the Messiah.
The expectations expressed in the vision of a descendant of David who inaugurates an eternal and glorious kingdom will become completely clear by the end of the Old Testament period.  In the apocalyptic book of Daniel, the prophet sees one “like the son of man” who “comes” (twice the verb pareimi is used) “with the clouds of heaven” (Daniel 7:13-14), and who receives from the “Ancient of days” all the “power, and glory, and a kingdom”, in such a way that “all peoples, tribes and tongues” shall serve him.  This mysterious person has celestial attributes, and comes in order to establish “an everlasting kingdom”; “his kingdom shall not be destroyed”.  So, in this later book of the Old Testament, we see the two lines converging (i.e. hope in the Messiah, and the longing for the Day of Yahweh).         
b)  The Coming of the Son of Man “in the flesh” and “in glory”
New Testament Revelation continues the hope in a saving Coming of God.  It brings, in turn, two new elements:  (1) It concentrates the mystery in Christ.  (2) It distinguishes between two Comings, one humble and the other glorious. 
The names that appear in Matthew’s narration of Jesus’ conception are significant.  The first name, which the angel indicates to Joseph, is “Jesus”, which means “Yahweh saves”.  Such a name is interpreted not only in the sense that Yahweh will save through him, but also that God himself “shall save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21)  It is a primary indication of the messianic function of the child to be born of Mary.  After that appears a second name, which points to the messianic prophecy of Isaias:  “Emmanuel, which is, interpreted, ‘God with us’.” (Matthew 1:23)  It is a very telling term for the divine “presence”.
Jesus himself alludes to the special mystery found in his Person, when he compares himself with the Temple of Jerusalem, a special sign of God’s presence among the people:  “I tell you that one greater than the Temple is here.” (Matthew 12:6)  And also when he identifies himself as the “Spouse” whose presence among his disciples is reason for their not fasting (cf. Mark 2:9-20).
The first Coming of the “Son of the Most High” (Luke 1:32) could be considered as a subdued epiphany.  For many, this humble way of manifesting himself or “kenosis” is disconcerting.  Its paradoxical character is especially clear in the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, mounted on a humble colt and at the same time acclaimed by the people as the “son of David”.  This “kenosis” is characteristic of the salvific divine presence, which will be perpetuated by the followers of Jesus Christ until the end of time.      
In contrast, Christ speaks clearly about his other Coming, in the future.  This second Coming will have clear characteristics: 
•	Unlike the first, it will be triumphant.  Besides, the Return of the Son of Man will be as visible as lightning, and no one will fail to see it (cf. Matthew 24:26-28; Luke 17:23).
•	With his Coming, the Son of Man will complete salvation and will close human history (cf. Mark 13).  In this sense, it will bring about the “end of the world” (cf. Matthew 24:3).
•	The Coming is described with apocalyptic colors:  “But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give her light, and the stars of heaven will be falling, and the powers that are in heaven will be shaken.  And then they will see the Son of Man coming upon clouds with great power and majesty.” (Mark 13:24-26)  “The Son of Man will send forth his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all scandals and those who work iniquity, and cast them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping, and the gnashing of teeth.  Then the just will shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.” (Matthew 13:41-43)
•	In the same apocalyptic tone, the nearness of the last day is sometimes affirmed.
These features have a dual interest.  On one hand, they depict a final act with grandiose strokes, like a mystery that comes down from “above”.  They show that history will be closed by an intervention of God that will renew humanity and the cosmos, rather than by a purely human activity.  On the other hand, they show the Son of Man coming with authority and power.  They emphasize the triumphant character of his Return.
An important aspect of these descriptions of the last day is the fact that the Son of Man is at the center.  The figure of the Ancient of days in the vision of Daniel gives way to the Son:  it is the Son who occupies the center of attention in the final acts of salvation history. 
St Luke’s book of the Acts adopts a perspective centered in Christ:  The Lord came; he will come back.  The narration of the Ascension shows to what extent hope was centered on the Return of Jesus:  “And while they were gazing up to heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white garments, and said to them:  ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up to heaven?  This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven, shall come in the same way as you have seen him going up to heaven’.” (Acts 1:10-11)  The strong nostalgia for Someone whose presence they had greatly enjoyed is palpable.  And they hope to see Jesus again, coming down from heaven in glory.  The “eschatological impatience” is thus formulated in Christological terms.  The anticipated Coming of the Lord is more acute precisely because a first taste of divine intimacy had been given to the disciples.
Also, for St Paul, God’s getting close to men takes place at the zenith of history with the Incarnation of the Son:  “But when the fullness of time came, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the Law.” (Galatians 4:4)  Given that the “fullness of the divinity” resides in the body of Christ, salvation consists in uniting oneself to Him in order to participate of his divine Life:  “For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and in him who is the head of every Principality and Power you have received of that fullness.” (Colossians 2:9-10) 
According to St Paul, the divine presence will have its culmination on the last day, with the glorious Return of Christ.  The ancient longing for the Day of Yahweh is now transformed into the desire for the Day of the Lord.  This “Christological transition” is especially clear in 1Corinthians 15.  
For St Paul, the great Day will be the day of the Return of the Lord Jesus:  no longer in a humble way as in his first Coming, but with majesty as Kyrios (Lord) in glory and power, in order to establish his definitive Kingdom. 
The same could be said of the writings of St John.  The fourth Gospel tells us how the divine Word comes down from his eternal place with the Father in order to suffer his passion and death, to later resurrect and go back to his place with the Father.  The Book of Revelation presents a glorious Christ coming down from heaven in order to defeat the forces of evil and inaugurate his eternal Kingdom (cf. Apocalypse 22:20).
Therefore, in the writings of St John the longing look is fixed on Jesus Christ.  As incarnate Word, as Beloved whose return is hoped for: “And the Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’” (Apocalypse 22:17)  “Amen!  Come, Lord Jesus!” (Apocalypse 22:20)  “It is true, I come soon!” (Apocalypse 22:20)
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This look towards the figure of Christ in New Testament texts contains a primary indication of the “internal structure” of eschatology.  The divinity gets near to humanity through the Son made man, the “one Mediator between God and men” (1Timothy 2:5).  This Christ-Son union is found both in the first Coming and in the second, and specifically constitutes the dynamics of God’s coming near to men.
2.  The Christian Expectation of the Parousia 
The expectation of the Parousia in the Church has a rich history behind it.  Its evolution has to do as much with the external circumstances of the various historical periods, as with the deepening of faith in the mystery.
In general terms, five ages could be recognized:
(1)  The Early Church and times of persecution (up to the peace of Constantine, Edict of Milan, 325):  A positive vision of the Parousia predominated, as a longed-for event.
Expressions of the nearness of the Parousia seem more to be expressions of uncontained longing; nostalgia becomes expectation.
Nostalgia for the Lord shines not only in the writings, but also in the deeds of the first Christians.  It moves them to live a Christian lifestyle:  of detachment, austerity and chastity; of serenity in the midst of persecutions; of courage in the face of martyrdom.  Eschatological hope gave, therefore, a unique quality to the modus vivendi of Christians, stirring up admiration among pagans and attracting new converts. 
 (2)  The Patristic Age (i.e. the time of the Fathers of the Church such as St John Chrysostom, St Augustine, and many more, up to the 7th century):  The longing for the Lord’s Return begins to decline.
Certain catastrophic events (such as the fall of the Roman Empire) momentarily revive the attention of many people to the idea of the end of the world.  Some thought that our Lord would come at this time, and then the world would end.  Since this did not happen, interest in eschatology begins to decline.
Furthermore, the great debates on the Trinity and on Christology, and the task of answering heretics such as Arius and Nestorius, took away much of the interest in eschatology that existed in previous centuries.   
(3)  From the end of the Patristic times (up to the 8th century) until the Middle Ages (up to 15th century Renaissance):  Interest in final eschatology (the end of the world) continues to decline; the somber aspects of the end gradually capture the attention of believers.  
The Second Coming of our Lord is often expected with some trepidation and fear, and for many it becomes a very disturbing thought.
(4)  The Modern Age (from the 15th century until the 19th century):  There is a general forgetting of eschatology.  
Eschatological expectation does not disappear altogether, but its presence is weakened in wide sectors of modern society.  The distrust of reason towards revealed truths, faith in unstoppable progress, and the birth in the 19th century of a secular vision of existence blind men to everything that refers to a divine act what would close history.
(5)  Contemporary times (from the beginning of the 20th century):  There is renewed interest to get back the desire for the Parousia.  
In the Protestant world, the debate revived by the theology proposed by Barth, Moltmann and Bultmann are used for reflection about the eschatological message of Jesus.  In the Catholic world, there is a renewal nourished by the “return to the sources” which recovered fundamental themes of hope present in the Bible and in the Fathers.  The theme of the Parousia reappears in ecclesial expressions of faith and piety, above all, in the magisterial documents of Vatican II.
3.  The Parousia, in the Professions of Faith and in the Liturgy
a)  The Return of the Lord, in the professions of faith
Reference to the Return of the Lord in glory was incorporated early into the professions of faith.  Before its inclusion in the Constantinopolitan Creed (381), it already appeared, for example, in a letter of Eusebius to his diocese of Caesarea (325), in the teachings of St Cyril of Jerusalem (348); and in a document of Epiphanus, bishop of Salamina (374).
The added expression “his kingdom will have no end” appears at about this time (4th century).  It is an expression that emphasizes the definitive and triumphal character of the second Coming.  In this way, the mystery called the Day of Yahweh is illuminated as the Parousia of Jesus. 
Diminished interest in the Parousia from the 4th century onwards is seen in the infrequent mention of this mystery in professions of faith and magisterial documents.   
In modern times, the special attention which Vatican II dedicates to the topic of the Parousia signals its revival.  Chapter 7 of the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium invites believers to look beyond the present Church, forward and above, to the final goal, in order to “look for ‘the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ’ (Titus 2:13).” (no. 48)  The Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et spes reminds us that the present works of men are ordained to the new heavens and the new earth, which will appear “when Christ presents to his Father an eternal and universal kingdom ‘of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace.’  Here on earth the kingdom is mysteriously present; when the Lord comes it will enter into its perfection.” (no. 39)
b)  Presence of the Parousia, in the lex orandi of the Church 
Despite its ups and downs in Christian writings, the doctrine of the Return of the Lord has always found a secure “home” in the lex orandi (regulation of public prayer or liturgy) of the Church.  This fact—pertaining to the very life of the Church—has great dogmatic value, because it manifests the unanimous belief of Christians from different places and at different times. 
First of all, let us consider the Lord’s Prayer taught by Jesus to his disciples and recited by all Christian generations without interruption.  The Didaché stipulates its recitation three times a day (cf. Did VIII).  The importance of the Our Father in the prayer life of the faithful is manifested in the existence of long treatises by writers like Origen, Tertullian, Cyprian, Gregory of Nissa, Theodore of Mopsuestia, St Ambrose, and St Augustine (among other works, Enchiridion, XXX, 114-116). 
In this prayer we explicitly petition “Your kingdom come”.  Certainly, in some ages various aspects of the “kingdom of God” (= divine dominion over the universe; over the saints on earth; over the blessed in Heaven) are emphasized.  Nevertheless, it is without doubt that the principal meaning of this petition is eschatological, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church asserts:  “In the Lord’s Prayer, ‘thy kingdom come’ refers primarily to the final coming of the reign of God through Christ’s return.” (no. 2818)
Furthermore, the ardent exclamation “Come, Lord Jesus!” has always been kept in the official prayer of the Church, particularly in Eucharistic liturgy.  
The convergence among liturgies of times so old and of places so distant and diverse, both western and eastern, cannot be ignored.  This agreement eloquently shows continuity in time, as well as geographic universality, of the belief and expectation in the second Coming of Christ.
4.  Theological Reflection:  the Parousia as Culmination of God’s Coming Near His Creatures
a)  Christianity, a “religion of presence”
When reflecting on the Parousia, we should take care not to be distracted.   The question of the date and signs of the end are interesting, no doubt (and in fact, throughout the centuries much has been said about these themes).  Nevertheless, we should remember that these are rather peripheral aspects of the final mystery.  We should go straight to the core of the revealed message.  In the end, the doctrine of the Parousia speaks to us about:  (1) a distance between God and creatures; (2) the coming near of the two parties; and (3) a final encounter.
There is in the first place the metaphysical abyss, between the transcendent Creator and his work.  (When affirming this ontological distance, Christians profess the distinction between the world and God, thus avoiding pantheism.)  The distance is so great between the infinite Being and the finite being, that some currents of thought even postulate, exaggeratedly, total incommunicability between the two worlds:  we would have a God absolutely distant (for example, the divine watchmaker of the deists) and inaccessible (for example, the “totally other” God of the followers of K. Barth).
To this first distance is added an ethical distance.  Free creatures, upon sinning, widen the abyss, introducing a very deep wedge into their relationship with God, the All-Holy (panagios).
The Christian doctrine of the Parousia says that there is something which prevails over the “distance” between God and creatures.  It tells us about the latent energy in the divine economy which tends to bridge the abyss.  It affirms the surprising truth that God does not want to remain far away, and takes the initiative to get close to us, to cover the immeasurable metaphysical and ethical distance.  (This luminous conviction is a critical element of Christian hope.)
In this mystery of rapprochement, we could distinguish two “movements”:  (1) God’s own initiative that reveals his Love and Mercy, a merciful stooping down to creatures (synkatabasis, according to Christian Tradition) to open up for them the possibility of communion with Him; and (2) man’s corresponding motion by which he rises to encounter God. 
The Parousia represents the climax of the divine-human encounter, and implies a certain suppression of the distance between Creator and creature:  not in a pantheistic sense, but rather in the sense of mutual interpenetration:  God-in-us; we-in-God.
b)  Love as the essential element of the mystery of the Parousia
There is no explanation for the marvelous divine initiative to get close to his creatures, other than Love.  Since God is Love (cf. 1John 4:8), he has an infinite openness and generosity which in history is seen in a “dynamics to come close”.  God “stoops down” to men; or in Trinitarian terms, the Father sends the Son and the Holy Spirit to men, in order to attract them to Himself. 
The only valid response of man, before this God-Love, is to also love.  To “encounter” God in the deepest sense, to establish with Him a true Covenant, it is necessary to love Him.  The “greatest commandment” was already announced in the Old Testament:  “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with they whole soul, and with thy whole strength.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5)  Jesus Christ repeats this commandment (cf. Mark 12:29-30), and centers it in his Person.  “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” (John 21:16-17)  To be his disciple is, above all, to love him (cf. Luke 14:26-27).
Love creates in the Christian a singular attitude: it converts him into a being that longs for God’s face.  This is natural, for those who love each other desire to see each other.
Therefore, more than fear of or worry about the last day, the loving desire to cling firmly to the Lord should predominate in the heart of the believer, as with Mary Magdalene on the morning of the Resurrection.  Theology should enliven love and hope in Christians, to nourish in the end a spes caritate informata (hope informed by love).

Digression
TIME AND SIGNS OF THE PAROUSIA
The core of the Revelation on the Parousia consists in God’s coming close to his creatures.  The first generation of Christians rejoiced at this surprising truth, since they felt consoled and strengthened by the saving company of Christ in history, as they longed for a fuller form of his presence.  
In New Testament writings we can find three types of statements about the time of the end:
(1)  The Son of Man will come very soon:  Imminence.
(2)  The Son of Man will come by surprise:  Uncertainty.
(3)  The Second Coming will be preceded by signs:  Forebodings. 
At first sight, these three affirmations may seem irreconcilable.  But they converge at a profound vision.
1.  Biblical Formulae of Imminence
a)  Two texts from the Synoptics
In Matthew 10, Jesus sends his disciples to different places in Palestine, to preach the Kingdom.  In v. 23 Jesus says:  “Amen, I say to you, you will not have gone through the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.”  In Matthew 16:28 (= Mark 9:1) he promises a lasting reward to those who sacrifice their lives for him, and he adds:  “Amen I say to you, there are some of those standing here who will not taste death, till they have seen the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” 
Not counting extreme interpretations which suppose a grave error in the concept of Kingdom on the part of Jesus, three currents in Catholic interpretation can be seen, which are not necessarily opposed to each other, and potentially complementary:
(i)  A literal interpretation
The first line of interpretation points to specific historical events that took place very soon after, and which imply some glorious manifestation of the Son of Man, without being the Parousia itself.  Thus, throughout history, different scholars point to events like the Transfiguration (that momentarily showed Christ’s divinity); his triumphal entry into Jerusalem (with the recognition by the people of the messianic identity of Jesus); the Resurrection (initiating in Christ’s Person the new creation); Pentecost (the descent of the Spirit to vivify the community of eschatological salvation); destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70 (a sign of the visitation and judgment by God); etc.
(ii)  A prophetic and apocalyptic interpretation
A second line of interpretation places these expressions under a prophetic and apocalyptic style.  Surely, both styles—refined traditions in Israel—were popular during Jesus’ times.  Both incorporate a note of imminence in their formulations.
(iii)  The Christological interpretation
A third line of interpretation stems from a peculiar Christian perspective regarding time.  In Christ, God-with-us, is found the closeness of He who is hoped for:  He is the eschatos.  With his Coming in the Incarnation and with his glorious Resurrection, he has already brought history to its last stage.  Only the concluding act is missing:  the Return of the Lord.  In this sense, “little is lacking” for the end.   This way of seeing time, more qualitative than quantitative, makes the closeness of the Parousia less “about the calendar” and more “theological”. 
As one can see, this third interpretation can be related to the previous prophetic-apocalyptic interpretation.  The idea of a “theological closeness”¸ based on the work of Christ, gives the sensus plenior (fullest sense) to the formulas of nearness which are found in the prophecy and apocalypse of the Old Testament.   
b)  The eschatological discourse
In the middle of the eschatological discourse (cf. Matthew 24-25) there is another reference to the time of the end.  When the disciples express admiration for the magnificence of the Temple, Jesus speaks of the future destruction of the building like the end of the world.  He concludes, in the version of St Mark: “Amen I say to you, this generation will not pass away till all these things have been accomplished.” (Mark 13:30)
Here we can analogously apply the lines of interpretation enumerated above:  
•	The phrase can refer to the end of the material Temple and the destruction of Jerusalem that actually occurred soon after in the year 70 A.D., and which was in fact understood by many Christians as an act of divine judgment.  
•	It can also be understood as an apocalyptic statement, with its typical notes of imminence and urgency.
•	It can express a “theological” closeness:  In this case it would mean that, with the Coming of Jesus in history, only a closing act is lacking to conclude it.  Then the fusion of the descriptions of the end of the Temple and of the world can be understood more profoundly, in the sense that the two events integrate into one and the same mystery:  the “dying” of everything created to give way to the regenerated world:  the Temple, destroyed; Jesus, who has died; the world, dissolved. 
The three lines of interpretation complement each other.  On one hand, some elements of the prophecies of Jesus did happen very soon after:  his victory over death, the destruction of the Temple, etc.  But, on the other, the mystery of “imminence” does not seem to end there, having a further dimension:  the beginning, already in history, of the mystery of final salvation. 
As an echo of the Lord’s pronouncements, we can find in the rest of the New Testament books many references to the nearness of the end:  1Thessalonians 4:13-18; James 5:8; 1Peter 4:7; Apocalypse 22:20…
•	We cannot absolutely exclude the possibility that these lines have a literal meaning.  In this case, it should be asked if this idea formed part of the rule of faith of the first Christians, or if it was rather a simple way of expressing their intense longing for our Lord.  Historical data point more to this second possibility.  In fact, there was no crisis at all among the early Christians upon seeing the “delay” in the Parousia.  Christians have lived the experience of the lateness in the Parousia with all naturalness.  The notes of urgency and of patience have coexisted in Christian preaching throughout history, and continue to coexist.
•	As a second possibility, these urgent texts could be understood as declarations made in the prophetic or apocalyptic style, with a strong dose of exhortation.
•	Finally, as a third possibility, we can think that these texts refer to a “theological” closeness to the end:  only one more step is lacking—the Parousia—to complete the last stage of salvation history.  As St Paul says:  “…and they were written for our correction, upon whom the final age of the world has come.” (1Corinthians 10:11)
2.  Biblical Texts of Uncertainty
Other biblical texts refer in different ways to the time of the Parousia.  The date, according to them, is secret, known only to God:  neither the angels nor the Son knows it.
•	In his eschatological discourse, Jesus makes reference to the last day saying:  “But of that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.” (Mark 13:32)
•	With a similar tone, Jesus answers the Apostles who ask him: “‘Lord, wilt thou at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?’ But he said to them, ‘It is not for you to know the times or dates which the Father has fixed by his own authority’.” (Acts 1:6-7)
These passages, which we could term “nescience” (not-knowing), contain a profound message:  God is the Lord of history, and the date of his last act depends on his sovereign authority and not on human circumstances.  Salvation is a gratuitous divine act, which will always get men by surprise.
Regarding the “ignorance” of the Son, Catholic interpretation is summarized by the Catechism of the Catholic Church thus:  “What he admitted to not knowing in this area, he elsewhere declared himself not sent to reveal (cf. Mark 13:32; Acts 1:7).” (no. 474)  In other words, Jesus, in order to carry out the salvific plan of the Father, did not need to communicate to men the exact time of the end. 
As can be deduced from the above quoted texts, it is precisely the not-knowing that gives rise to an attitude of permanent vigilance.  
With different parables and comparisons, Jesus insists on the importance of being vigilant, as in Luke 12:35:  “Let your loins be girt about and your lamps burning.”  (cf. Matthew 24:43-44; 1Thessalonians 5:1-2; 2Peter 3:10)
These texts about the uncertainty of the time complement those on its imminence.  The feeling of imminence becomes relative, because space is left for delay.  The resulting message is:  Every Christian generation could be the setting for the Parousia; therefore it must remain alert, and live permanently prepared for the Coming of the Lord.
St Paul, even though he mentions the Parousia often in his long letters, predominantly underlines the eschatological transformation already worked out in the believer and in the Church by virtue of the Paschal mystery.  Thus, he values the time between initiation and consummation as a time for authentic participation in the Life of the risen Christ.  This way of looking at the intermediate time qualifies the expectation of the Return.  It does not suppress the tension in the heart of the believer, but sweetens it.
3.  Forebodings of the End 
Finally there are particularly enigmatic passages in the New Testament which mention certain events or signs as precursors of the Parousia. 
Let us see the biblical quotations first, and their interpretation later.

a)  Biblical references to the final events
(i)  Spread of the Gospel and of the “anti-gospel”
A principal source containing the forebodings is the eschatological discourse of Jesus (cf. Mark 13; Matthew 24-25; Luke 21:5).  Basically, reference is made here to two types of events:  (1) on one hand, the universal spread of the Gospel; (2) on the other, the opposition that this message and their carriers suffer in the world:  persecutions, false prophets, etc.  In the end, the saving force of God (i.e. the Gospel) would be met with rebelliousness. 
Other New Testament books develop this picture of struggle.  St Paul, in his second letter to the Thessalonians, to correct the impression (probably provoked by his first letter) that the Parousia was very near, affirms that a great tribulation should precede the end.  This time of trial, he says, will be provoked by a mysterious person who will mislead many to apostasy:  “…for the day of the Lord will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and is exalted above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he sits in the temple of God and gives himself out as if he were God.” (2Thessalonians 2:3-4) 
St John, for his part, will refer to this anti-evangelical power with another name, Antichrist:  “Dear children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that Antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have arisen; whence we know that it is the last hour” (1John 2:18); “Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ?  He is the Antichrist who denies the Father and the Son.” (1John 2:22)
In the Apocalypse (13) the final tribulation is described in grandiose form.  In them, the forces of evil are represented by different figures:  the Dragon; the Beast which receives power from the Dragon and adoration from “all the inhabitants of the earth whose names have not been written in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain” (v. 8), and whose mysterious number is 666 (v. 18). 
(ii)  Conversion of the Jewish people  
In Matthew 23:39 we find a prophecy from the mouth of Jesus who, crying at the sight of the city of Jerusalem, declares:  “For I say to you, you shall not see me henceforth until you shall say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’” 
In Romans 11, St Paul develops extensively the idea of the final recovery of the Jewish people, framing this “mystery” within the perspective of divine fidelity.   It is true, he says, that God permitted the blindness of the Chosen People.  But he did so as part of a wise plan of salvation which reaches all men.  The rejection by the Chosen People leads to the widening of the divine invitation to all peoples.  But this does not leave the Jews completely out of the salvific plan.  The conversion of Israel is foreseen in the divine plan:  “a partial blindness only has befallen Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles should enter, and thus all Israel should be saved.” (Romans 11:25-26)  With this recovery, a single and complete community of salvation will finally be formed with Jews and Gentiles.
b)  Theological significance of the “forebodings”
The texts which we have cited above have been the object of various interpretations throughout history.  Some interpreters have tried to derive from the passages precise information about the identity of the Antichrist, or the exact date of the end, etc.  Nevertheless, the insistence of Jesus on human ignorance about the time, together with the enigmatic language used, advise an attitude of great prudence before these texts.  
The following seem to be the essential lessons which these texts teach:
(i)  Human freedom in relation to God who approaches us
In the first place, the texts call attention to the fundamental role of human freedom:  God approaches us, but creatures can embrace or reject him.  This divine-human dialogue unfolds throughout history, becoming more intense as God comes nearer and nearer.  Thus, the seed of the Gospel spreads continuously with the missionary work of the Church, addressing mankind and provoking in hearts conversion or rebellion, as the case may be.
(ii)  The struggle between the power of God and the forces of evil
Before the saving plan of God, there is the possibility of rebelling.  The spread of the Gospel, in fact, faces this opposition, this non-acceptance of the universal lordship which God and his Christ want to establish.  Although divine triumph has substantially already taken place in the Pasch, the combat is still extended in history (becoming more intense as the moment of the consummation of God’s plan approaches). 
Opposition against God takes countless forms:  in persons, groups, institutions or ideas; in political, economic, religious or ideological fields.  As the Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “The Antichrist’s deception already begins to take shape in the world every time the claim is made to realize within history that messianic hope which can only be realized beyond history through the eschatological judgment.” (no. 676)  Under multiple forms, the Antichrist incites men throughout history to adore false gods:  power and dominion, worldly possessions and knowledge, success and fame.  Because of its attraction, many fall into apostasy.  Up to the final moment of history the Enemy will even seem to prevail, but this will be used so that the glorious Christ would make manifest the deception of all idolatry.  When he shows himself in all his splendor and attraction, he will knock down, like puppets, the pomp of the devil and the “world”.
(iii)  A particular aspect of salvation history: the Jews
The history of the Jewish people constitutes a special facet in the mystery of salvation.  The divine plan, which has a universal dimension, does not forget the Jews, not even when they reject the Messiah.  Thanks to God’s fidelity, these people continue being included in the economy of salvation, so much so that St Paul presents their final conversion as the final step of the plan of salvation.   As the Catechism of the Catholic Church comments:  “The ‘full inclusion’ of the Jews (Romans 11:12) in the Messiah’s salvation, in the wake of ‘the full number of the Gentiles’ (Romans 11:25), will enable the People of God to achieve ‘the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ’ (Ephesians 4:13), in which ‘God may be all in all’ (1Corinthians 15:28).” (no. 674)  The essential message is that the balance of salvation will be positive:  The Redemption will have—to the extent that creatures will correspond—a universal reach, affecting all mankind, Jews and Gentiles.  The perfection of the divine work demands the recovery of humanity as an organic unity. 
*         *         *
The so-called “forebodings” of the Parousia are, therefore, an enigmatic allusion to aspects of the drama of salvation, which are already present in the historical stage previous to the second Coming.  It seems more correct to view these “signs” not as reserved to the time just before the end, but as embracing the development of all history, from Jesus’ first Coming until his Return.  Their tight link with the mystery of the Kingdom makes them partake of the character anticipated in them (“the intertwining of the now and the later”, as J. Ratzinger says).  In some way, the “signs” are materialized before the gaze of each Christian generation, such that it would be impossible to affirm their complete realization in any given historical moment.   They are already, and not yet.
With this note of “permanent presence”, the signs are “signs of the last days.”  They contribute to maintain the vigilance of each Christian generation in tension.  At the same time, their enigmatic character prevents their being unduly used as criteria to know the precise moment of the end.  More than simple objects of curiosity, they appear as healthy reminders placed permanently before our pilgrim eyes. 
4.  Complementary Character of the Three Types of Pronouncements Regarding the Time of the Parousia
The texts of imminence tell us that the Lord is always at the door, not so much in the sense of chronological closeness, as in a higher sense:  The messianic era of salvation has already been inaugurated by Christ, and now we wait for the last act (his Return or Parousia) which will round off history.  In this sense, the imminence of the Parousia is an expression of a core mystery:  the divine coming close and the divine presence overcoming the distance between God and creatures.
The texts referring to uncertainty emphasize the ascetical consequences derived from this “closeness” of our Lord:  Each believer should respond, before the mystery of God-who-is-nearing by keeping himself open through faith, hope and love.  “Be vigilant!” is, then, the watchword.
The forebodings help to maintain the faithful on their toes throughout history.  The spread of the Gospel, the trials due to the manifestations of the Antichrist, the apostasy of some, and the recovery of the Jews are, all of them, signs that a great drama is unfolding—divine invitation, human fidelity/infidelity—and it will only conclude on the day of the Parousia.

Chapter 3
THE KINGDOM OF GOD (I)
The coming close of God which culminates in the Parousia implies his intimate union with creatures, to constitute a mystery of communion.  The Christian refers to this mystery of final koinonia—the goal of the history of salvation—when he uses the word Kingdom.  He professes in the Creed:  “Jesus Christ… will come again… and his Kingdom will have no end”.  And he also prays in the Our Father:  “Our Father… your Kingdom come”.
The plan of God to unite to himself a human community appears more clearly each time in Old Testament Revelation.  The Lord goes progressively bonding to himself a group of men, a people.  He protects them and promises them all kinds of good, in exchange for their obedience and loyalty.  He outlines in this way a salvific divine-human structure with hierarchical and contractual characteristics, developing in the history of the people of Israel, but leading—according to the prophets—to a transcendent reality at the end of time.
In the New Testament economy, this mystery is concentrated and is realized in the Person of Christ.  He is the supreme gift of God to men, and at the same time the head of a humanity which is offered in oblation to God.  He unites, then, the descending and ascending dimensions of the mystery.
As divine Son made man, he is the core of the Kingdom as divine-human union.  And he reveals his intimate structure as following, not the mere subject-sovereign relationship, but the familiar Son-Father relation.  Furthermore, Christ invites men to unite themselves to his Person, to form with him a “body” animated by the Spirit and loved by the Father.  This structure of salvation absorbs all men who desire to enter, and thus it builds up in history to its completion in the eschaton.
This relational and interpersonal reality constitutes the very essence of the Kingdom.
1.  Biblical Revelation about the Kingdom, as Relation between God and Men
a)  Kingdom, People, Covenant in the Old Testament
Expectation of the establishment of an eschatological Kingdom crystallizes gradually in the Old Testament.  From partial hopes with limited scope, a more consistent hope takes shape:  God will stabilize his relationship with men, to form with them an enduring structure of salvation.  This divine plan, condensed in the word malkut (kingdom), is revealed progressively in the Old Testament as a specific relationship—hierarchical and contractual—between God and man.  The Kingdom of God appears, then, in the dynamics within the Old Testament economy.
As a whole, Old Testament Revelation presents a message of hope formulated in terms of the sovereignty of Yahweh.  God already exercises his sovereignty in history, but he will exercise his lordship more fully in the future, above all with respect to free creatures.  “Kingdom” means, then, a specific mystery of relation which God wants to establish with men.  The eschatological Kingdom will be the result of the perfect meeting of divine generosity and human correspondence.
b)  The Kingdom of God comes with Christ
The Kingdom (basileia) is undoubtedly a central theme in the New Testament.  It appears 122 times, 90 of which come from the mouth of Christ.  The fact that it appears so frequently in the New Testament, and from the mouth of Jesus himself, indicates that it is an important element in the preaching of the Lord.
(i)  Revelation of the Kingdom, in the words and deeds of Jesus Christ
New Testament Revelation offers two aspects which are new (relative to the Old Testament):  (1) the announcement of the arrival of the Kingdom; and (2) the centrality of Christ.
John the Baptist, the prophet who preceded the public appearance of Jesus, announces the imminent coming of the Kingdom.  His preaching is an urgent call to conversion:  “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew, 3:2)  Jesus, when he started to preach, announced that the longed-for age of salvation has already come:  “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand.” (Mark, 1:15)  “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:21)  “But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” (Matthew 12:28)
The presence of the Kingdom is tied to his Person and works.  “And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for thou hast found grace with God.  Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and shalt bring forth a son; and thou shalt call his name Jesus.  He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he shall be king over the house of Jacob forever; and his kingdom there shall be no end.”  But Mary said to the angel, “How shall this happen, since I do not know man?”  And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee; and therefore the Holy One to be born shall be called the Son of God.”  (Luke 1:30-35)
The works of Jesus corroborate that the Kingdom has effectively come with him:
•	The cures, resurrections, teachings and exorcisms signify the defeat of sorrow, of death, of ignorance, of the devil (in other words, all kinds of evil, physical and moral):  “Go and report to John what you have heard and seen:  the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead rise, the poor have the gospel preached to them.” (Luke 7:22)
•	The miracles of abundance (multiplication of the loaves and fishes) evoke the plenitude of the messianic age.
•	The miracles over nature (the calming of the tempest, the walking over water) confirm divine power over the cosmos.
•	The pardon of sins reveals the intervention of divine power also in hearts.  (This kind of action is especially important, even though less visible, because it shows the profound reach of divine power:  It conquers sin and transforms man from within).
(ii)  Christological union in the Kingdom, in St Paul
In the letters of St Paul we can see a centering of the mystery of the Kingdom in the Person of Christ:  “He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have our redemption, the remission of our sins.” (Colossians 1:13-14)
The Church, present community of vital union with Christ, is in the Pauline concept the initiated form of the Kingdom of Christ and the Father:  “And all things he made subject under his feet, and him he gave as head over all the Church, which indeed is his body, the completion of him who fills all with all.” (Ephesians 1:22)  The sovereignty of Christ is realized in history and in the world, in a veiled but real and efficient way, in the Church and by means of the Church.  There is, then, a correlation between the present mystery of the “body of Christ” and that of the “sovereignty” of God.
(iii)  Christ, beginning of the Kingdom, according to St John 
St John, even though he uses the expression “Kingdom” infrequently, gives relevant ideas about the mystery:  (1) the centrality of Christ; (2) the necessity of faith, Baptism and the Eucharist to belong to the Kingdom; and (3) the interior character of this mystery.
As with St Paul, St John clearly affirms that belonging to the eternal Kingdom can begin already, now:  
•	For those who believe in Jesus:  “Whoever beholds the Son, and believes in him, shall have life everlasting, and I will raise him up on the last day.” (John 6:40)  
•	For those who are reborn in the baptism of water and the Spirit:  “Unless a man be born again of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” (John 3:5)  
•	For those who are nourished by his Eucharistic body and blood:  “He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has life everlasting.” (John 6:48-58)
The total triumph of God at the end of time does not suppose the annihilation of the human part of the mystery.  This can be seen from the description of the eschatological Jerusalem:  “And the city has no need of the sun or the moon to shine upon it.  For the glory of God lights it up, and the Lamb is the lamp thereof…  And there shall not enter into it anything defiled, nor he who practices abomination and falsehood, but those only who are written in the book of life of the Lamb.” (Apocalypse 21:23,27)  These verses, alluding to the sanctity of life of the inhabitants of the eschatological city and the presence of an interior guide, point to the human part of the eschatological Kingdom:  perfect obedience and fidelity to God.  The fact that St John places this description of sanctity at the end of his book suggests that, for him, perfect harmony between human wills and God’s Will will constitute the greatest wonder of the eschatological world.
2.  From People to Family of God (Plenitudo Legis Est Dilectio)
In our review of the history of Revelation about the Kingdom of God, we have appreciated a growing shade of intimacy.  The relation between God and men seems more and more a matter of love rather than violence.  The Kingdom which God wants to establish in the world is not something imposed from outside, but an inner reign.  In this sense, the concept of Kingdom has its limitations for expressing in all its depth the mystery of union between the divine and the created.  It seems logical then to have its complement in a second line of biblical Revelation, which we can denote as the “domestic” line.
There are two principal “familiar” categories used by Scripture to express the loving plan of God for men:  spousal covenant and paternal-filial relation.  The first, taken from the highest form of human communion, appears early in the Old Testament (Yahweh, faithful Spouse [cf. Osee 2:22] and jealous God [cf. Exodus 20:5; 34:14]).  It takes shape in prophetic preaching, as eloquent expression of God’s design for men (interior Covenant [cf. Jeremias 31:33], eternal Covenant [cf. Ezechiel 16:60]), and culminates in the New Testament with the arrival of Christ, Spouse (cf. Mark 1:19; Matthew 9:15; Luke 5:34; Matthew 25:1) who becomes engaged to humanity in the Church.
The second “domestic” or “familiar” category, which is principally formulated in terms of paternity/ filiation (in Hebrew [Aramaic] ‘abl ben [bar], in Greek pater/hyios o teknos) merits special attention.  We are not dealing here with a simple metaphor, but with a strict formulation, an authentic reference to the ontological relation which God wants to establish with men.  It can be understood—above all in the New Testament—as the supreme form of the Revelation about the vital union between God and men.
Jesus reveals himself as Son of the Father (cf. Matthew 10:32-33; 11:25-30; 16:13-17,27; 18:35; 25:34; Mark 12:1-12; 13:32) in the strict sense and not merely metaphorically.  Furthermore, Jesus shows to men the possibility of really becoming, in him, adopted sons of the Father.
At the same time that he talks of the reality of divine filiation at the present moment, Jesus alludes to its more complete realization in the future.  He promises to them:  “In my Father’s house there are many mansions.  Were it not so, I should have told you, because I go to prepare a place for you.” (John 14:2-3)  
The tension between the present and future, contained in the filial mystery, appears clearly in 1John.  On one hand, it is affirmed there that the condition of sons is already a serious reality in Christians.  “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are.” (1John 3:1)  But on the other hand, it is averred that the fullness of this state is still to come:  “Beloved, now we are the children of God, and it has not yet appeared what we shall be.  We know that, when he appears, we shall be like to him, for we shall see him just as he is.” (1John 3:2)  It is evident that full identification with the Son will not happen until the last day.  Then will be realized, in a way much more than what we can imagine now, the definitive form of the relation of men with God.

Chapter 4
THE KINGDOM OF GOD (II)
1.  Trinitarian Dimension of the Kingdom, in Patristic Doctrine
As a summary of Patristic reflection about the Kingdom, we can say that it is not defined simply in terms of the creature’s subjection to God, but as something deeper:  the mystery of the living union between divine persons and human persons united in turn to Christ.  The salvation of man consists in being joined, through Christ, to a structure of vital communion with the Trinity, a structure which has already started to develop in history, and which will be completed on the last day.  Its essential element—filiation to the Father, in the Son, through the Holy Spirit—is present in the present stage of salvation as well as at the end.
Progress in this theological direction—Trinitarian, filial—was not pursued in recto; rather it was the collateral effect of intense debate against the subordinationist heresy.  Defense of the divinity of the Son and the Spirit necessitated serious thought about the biblical passages alluding to the “submission” of Christ to the Father, and led to the study of the mystical body to which men are called to form with Christ to finally enter into the intimacy of the Trinity.
2.  The Kingdom of God, in the Magisterium of the Church
Lumen gentium describes the ultimate goal of the People of God in relational terms:  Christ, Shepherd and head, forms a new humanity; he acts through the sacred ministers, who “assemble the family of God as a brotherhood fired with a single ideal, and through Christ in the Spirit they lead it to God the Father.” (no. 28)  In its consummated form, the Church maintains its structure as a family reunion with the Trinity, centered in the Son, sustained by the Spirit:
“Christ lifted up from the earth, has drawn all men to himself (cf. John 12:32).  Rising from the dead (cf. Romans 6:9) he sent his life-giving Spirit upon his disciples and through him set up his Body which is the Church as the universal sacrament of salvation.  Sitting at the right hand of the Father he is continually active in the world in order to lead men to the Church and, through it, join them more closely to himself; and, by nourishing them with his own Body and Blood, make them partakers of his glorious life.” (no. 48)
Gaudium et spes uses terms markedly personalist when talking about the end of man:  “The dignity of man rests above all on the fact that he is called to communion with God.  The invitation to converse with God is addressed to man as soon as he comes into being.  For if man exists it is because God has created him through love, and through love continues to hold him in existence.  He cannot live fully according to truth unless he freely acknowledges that love and entrusts himself to his creator.” (no.19)
Gaudium et spes adds a Christological aspect, when it affirms that “In reality it is only in the mystery of the Word made flesh that the mystery of man truly becomes clear.  For Adam, the first man, was a type of him who was to come, Christ the Lord.  Christ the new Adam, in the very revelation of the mystery of the Father and of his love, fully reveals man to himself and brings to light his most high calling.” (no. 22)
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992) fully assumes and incorporates this perspective, when it describes the divine plan for men.  As in Lumen gentium, it places the start of the salvific plan in the loving intention of the Father:  “‘The eternal Father… chose to raise up men to share in his own divine life,’ to which he calls all men in his Son.  ‘The Father… determined to call together in a holy Church those who should believe in Christ.’ [Lumen gentium, no. 2]” (no. 759)  The goal, then, is to incorporate men to the filial existence of Christ.  “This ‘family of God’ is gradually formed and takes shape during the stages of human history, in keeping with the Father’s plan.” (no. 759)
Thus, the eschatological picture which the Catechism offers is characterized as communion among divine and human persons, with a family structure and a Christological core.  “This perfect life with the Most Holy Trinity—this communion of life and love with the Trinity, with the Virgin Mary, the angels and all the blessed—is called ‘heaven’.” (no. 1024)
3.  Theological Reflection:  The Kingdom as Mystery of Communion between the Trinity and Mankind
a)  Union with the Trinity in the Kingdom
We can say that New Testament Revelation shows the interior bond of the communion which God wants to establish with human beings.  His plan to elevate rational creatures to the status of (adopted) sons, through incorporation into Jesus, implies placing men in a position analogous to that which the Son has relative to the Father:  a relation, not of simple subordination, but of ineffable familiarity.  “Christ has become what we are, to give us the possibility to be what he is.” (St Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, V)
The telos of history is this:  a filial humanity, work of the Holy Spirit, extension to men of the filiation of the Son (or the formation of the Totus Christus, according to St Augustine).
b)  Collective dimension of salvation
Revelation about the Kingdom/family of God stresses an essential aspect of the divine economy:  the corporate realization of salvation.  Soteriology embraces a reality wider than individual beings.  God wants to save man, not as an isolated being, but as part of a collectivity.  This plan reveals that the human person is not only de facto capable of relations, but, as imago Dei, is structurally and metaphysically related with other beings.  His being has a natural relation with uncreated and created beings.  The human person participates—at his level—in the mystery of Being-Relation which subsists in the divine Persons.
The parallelism which the Bible and the Fathers establish between the first Adam and the second makes more sense in light of the relational dimension of the person.  To the first man is assigned, in the Genesis story, a role which transcends his personal history and which concerns all humanity (and the same can be said of Eve, mother of all the living).  In like manner, the divine plan for the redemption of men passes through the formation of a collectivity, headed by Christ.  Salvation is realized by incorporation into a community of disciples.  (The expression “communion of saints” is an expression of the corporate aspect of salvation).

Chapter 5
THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD
Let us now consider the transfiguration of creatures in the eschatological mystery.  
“In the resurrection God will give incorruptible life to our body, transformed by reunion with our soul.  Just as Christ is risen and lives for ever, so all of us will rise at the last day” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1016).  The hope of the resurrection took form slowly in the Old Testament, but finally came to constitute the central part of the expectation of the Jewish people.  The Good News, centered on the Risen One, teaches that man has to wait for the resurrection, not as a mere glorification of the individual or of a people, but as the perfect form of union and identification with the divine Son, who was incarnated, has died, and is risen.  
We can distinguish two essential elements contained in the dogma of the resurrection:  (1) the identity between the person who lives in history and he who resurrects, as well as the transformation of this person; and (2) full communion with Christ which the resurrection implies:  For the just, it is to-resurrect-in-the-Lord.
In contemporary times, two ecclesial documents (the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium of Vatican II and the Catechism of the Catholic Church) offer good syntheses about the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead.  Above all, they place this mystery within the big picture of salvation history and communion between God and men.
In Lumen gentium (no. 48) we see the following two assertions:
•	The resurrection of the dead is not an isolated mystery, but an integral part of a grandiose picture:  
•	historic-economic (history goes on until “the time of renewal of all things”), 
•	cosmic (the entire universe is destined to be “perfectly reestablished”), 
•	ecclesial/communitarian (the Church by which we are “in Christ Jesus” is called to its “full perfection”), and 
•	Christological-pneumatological (Christ “has drawn all men to himself”, sends them his “life-giving Spirit” to incorporate them into “his Body”, to “join them more closely to himself”, to “make them partakers in his glorious life” and “children of God” already in the present life.  This dynamics will lead to the glorious manifestation of Christ, together with those who are with Him, “like to God”:  at the end of the world “those who have done good will rise, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment”; Jesus “will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body”).  
•	Consequently, the transfiguration of human nature is understood as inseparably united to the mystery of the interaction of the divine Persons with human creatures.  In other words:  The resurrection is immersed in the mystery of the communion of men with the Trinity.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms:  
•	The theological root of the resurrection:  the resurrection of the dead at the end of time represents the culmination of the “creative, saving and sanctifying action” of God. (no. 988)
•	The resurrection has a strictly mysterious character, because it is based on a supernatural divine action:  the “‘how’ exceeds our imagination and understanding.” (no. 1000)
•	There is an intrinsic Trinitarian character in the mystery:  the resurrection will be the work of the Most Holy Trinity, like the Resurrection of Jesus:  God the Father will resurrect us with Jesus by the Spirit. (no. 989)  “We shall rise like Christ, with him, and through him.” (no. 995)  The resurrection concludes the mystery of “participation in the death and Resurrection of Christ”, of “belonging to the Body of Christ”, in the end, of “being ‘in Christ’”, which begins during earthly life with the infusion of the Holy Spirit in Baptism and which is nourished by the Eucharist. (nos. 1002 & 1003)
The “how” of the resurrection
This question (about the manner of the resurrection) has involved the intellectual efforts of Christians throughout the centuries.  Much has been discussed about how God can reconstruct the human person in all its vital dimensions at the end of time.  There is unanimous agreement in what is fundamental:  that the identity of the person who has lived on earth will be maintained, at the same time that there will be a transformation consistent with the new conditions of the eschatological world.  However, the way of understanding personal identity varies.  Explanations swing between two extremes:  Some (e.g. those of Origen and St Gregory of Nissa) place the accent on the soul that survives and which serves as ontological substratum for the reconstruction of the body, while others (e.g. those of St Justin and Athenagoras) emphasize the identity between the body of earthly life and the body that resurrects on the last day.  
It seems that the correct explanation would be a balance between the two extremes:  to admit that the survival of a spiritual core has a crucial role in the resurrection of the human subject, and to maintain that the present body is not totally irrelevant to the body that will resurrect.
At this point, we must admit that we are in a gray area, where it is necessary to make some accommodation.  It is certain that Revelation gives us precious information about the resurrection of the dead; but it does not allow us to totally figure out the “mechanism” of the mystery.  What is most important is to contemplate the resurrection as an integral part of the mystery of salvation, i.e. a dimension of our full communion with Christ (and with the Trinity).

Chapter 6
THE NEW HEAVENS AND THE NEW EARTH
“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” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1060).  The cosmic setting will be purified, renewed, transfigured by the perfect presence of God.  When the divine sovereignty shines on all the corners of the universe, what St Paul said will become a reality:  God “all in all” (1Corinthians 15:28).  
This point of faith indicates the profound solidarity between human creatures and inferior creatures:  Basically, the two groups constitute one unity, in such a way that man does not exist without a cosmic setting, and the material universe has in man its most sublime point of contact with God.  In the final analysis, it is the global unity that will be saved, elevated, transformed by God.
1.  The Cosmos, Part of the Historia Salutis
a)  Solidarity between man and the rest of creation, in the Old Testament
The Old Testament hope for a new creation was born in a wider doctrinal context:  belief in the solidarity of man with the rest of creation.  
In Genesis 2:4-25, it is stated that God formed man (‘adam) from the dust of the earth (‘adamah).  Thus, the human being appears as a most special work of the Creator (formed by divine action), at the same time that it pertains to the earth (taken from it).  Man:  creation of God, at the same time born of and belonging to the world, introduced into the world not from the outside but from the inside.  And from the beginning he receives a mission which closely ties him to the earth:  He is placed by Yahweh in the garden for him to till it and take care of it (cf. Genesis 2:15).
The prophets also move within this “cosmic logic” that closely links man and cosmos.  Frequently, their prophecies (cf. Amos 9:13, Ezechiel 36:1-15) speak not only of a future salvation of men, but also of a renewal of his dwelling.  Isaias 65:17-21 speaks of a new creation:  “For behold I create new heavens, and a new earth.”
b)  Regeneration of the world in Christ
The expectation of eschatological salvation which includes cosmic renewal continues in the New Testament, and is formulated in various ways:  
•	In Matthew 19:28 (in the promise of Jesus to his disciples who will have followed him to his victory on the last day), as palingenesia (= regeneration); 
•	In Acts 3:21 (when referring to the Return of the Messiah), as apokatastasis (= restoration); 
•	In 2Peter 3:13 and Apocalypse 21:1 (when referring to the last day), as ouranoi kainoi kai ge kaine (= new heavens and a new earth, equivalent to the Old Testament phrase).
2.  Continuity/Discontinuity Between the Present World and the New World
Tradition echoes the doctrine of universal renewal, insisting on two principal points:  (1) Against spiritualist currents, it defends the transfiguration of material creation, not its annihilation.  (2) It gives reasons of convenience for the adaptation of the universe to the glorious situation of men and the total presence of God at the end of time.
a)  Transformation, not annihilation
Even though Christian writers of early times sometimes give the impression of a depreciative attitude to the world when they express a longing for the prompt return of the Lord, Christians in fact quickly and clearly stay away from dualist currents (of the Gnostics, etc.) which see with pessimist eyes matter in general and the human body in particular.
In the final analysis, this vision of continuity/discontinuity rests on faith in one God who is responsible for the creation of the material world and of the spiritual world.  Contrary to the Gnostic theory of two gods—one revealed in the Old Testament as a god of ire and the author of matter, and another revealed by the New Testament as a god of goodness and the creator of the spiritual world—Christian Tradition defends a strongly unitary view of the Creator of the created universe.
b)  A home apt for the resurrected
With regard to the reasons of convenience for the palingenesia, writers of Christian antiquity cite the congruence which the transfigured state of man demands.  In the end as well as in the beginning, man cannot be without his cosmic setting.  For the perfect blessedness of resurrected just men, a fitting dwelling is required.
St Augustine cites an additional reason for the mystery of the eschatological transformation of the cosmos:  It is not only so that it would be fitting for men, but also so that it would be fitting for God who in the end will be all in all.  In the eschatological world, “wherever we would look we would see, with the greatest clarity, God present and the Lord in all, even in material beings, through the bodies which we would have and through the bodies which we would see.” (De civ. Dei, XXII, 29)  Here we have an interesting theological reason:  The ultimate stage of creation will have to reflect the supreme divine presence.  Only a transfigured world would be able to manifest the brightness of the presence of God.
3.  The Magisterium of the Church Regarding the New Heavens and the New Earth
In the centuries before contemporary times, we practically do not have any magisterial document which deals in detail with the new heavens and the new earth.  It was from the 19th century onwards, especially in the 20th century, when explicit and detailed pronouncements about this topic were formulated.  On one hand, the appearance of many magisterial declarations in modern times is due to the proliferation of worldly utopias (e.g. the Marxist proposition) which propose the goal of a worldly paradise as an alternative to Christian hope for an eschatological Kingdom.  Facing such currents of thought, the Church finds it necessary to defend the transcendent character of its hope:  The new world, it affirms, will be above all the result of the sovereign act of God, and not the exclusive nor principal accomplishment of human efforts.
On the other hand, the Church of the 20th century sees the need to respond to certain pessimistic and spiritualist currents which put in doubt the salvific relevance of human activity in a world and a history affected by sin.  Furthermore, it feels moved to make contributions of valid theology about the world and about work.  Consequently, various magisterial documents of the 20th century deal with a certain, even mysterious, continuity between this world which men are tilling with their work, and the future eschatological world.  The thesis here is not that of an invalidation or future annihilation of the present world, but its future purification and transfiguration.
4.  Theological Reflection:  The Palingenesia as Redemption of the Cosmos
God, world and man are three realities that have been somehow separated by sin.  Man, upon breaking his original link with his Creator, causes the formation of an abyss, not only between his person and God, but also—being responsible for the cosmos—between the world and God.  The material universe, created to manifest divine perfection and which man ought to develop for the glory of God according to the original divine plan, becomes infected—contaminated—by the sin of man, and fails to satisfactorily fulfill its “revelatory/sacramental” function.  And this largely because man, called to be the wise lord of inferior creatures, behaves in a tyrannical way towards them.  He uses them without respecting their true nature, and consequently works in them a separation from their Creator.
In the eschaton, the mystery of renewal will have its consummation and complete (human and cosmic) form in Christ:  Not only will man in all his dimensions—spiritual, material, etc.—be transfigured, but the same divine action flowing from Christ to his human nature and to all men in general will reach the cosmos, converting it into a habitat fit for the glorified saints.  In other words, the final state of man will be to live in Christ by the work of the Spirit, and the final state of the cosmos will be to participate through resonance in the transfiguring power flowing from the Person of the Son to men.  The final result of this transforming flow will be perfect harmony between the risen ones and their cosmic setting:  the latter would serve as a worthy dwelling place for the saints.  

Chapter 7
THE UNIVERSAL JUDGMENT
We profess in the Creed that Jesus Christ “will come again… to judge the living and the dead”.  With this we affirm that God takes his free creatures seriously and weighs the moral value of each one, in such a way that at the end of time all men without exception will be clearly separated into two basic groups:  those who are in communion with Him, and those who are forever separated from Him.
1.  Divine Judgment, in the Old Testament
It is convenient to set the idea of the Final Judgment within a wider framework of Old Testament concepts, particularly the following concepts:
•	In the old Middle East, the functions of governance and judgment are united in the person of the sovereign.  So, to the extent that hope in the Kingdom of God develops, this united vision (where to judge is part of the exercise of lordship) leads also to the development of the idea of a Final Judgment.
•	God is not indifferent to the moral conduct of men.  This is one of the mother ideas of the Old Testament.  Therefore, discrimination between good and evil, and retribution, are part of divine activity.
In this ideological ground germinates the conceptual association between the God of Israel and the act of judgment.
2.  The Judgment United to the Parousia, in Tradition 
The idea of a universal Judgment in the Patristic age is extensively intertwined with the expectation of the Parousia:  When Christ returns, he will bring with him complete retribution for each one.
a)  A mystery of retribution
From the first centuries, Christians profess the belief that God will render perfect justice:  He will grant to good and evil an exact recompense.  St Clement of Rome assures us:  “God is faithful to his promises, and just in his judgments.”  The reason is basically theological:  Justice, understood as an attribute of God.
Furthermore, the notion of perfect justice seems to demand a “waiting” until the end of history, so that the balance considers all the consequences in time of human actions. 
b)  A mystery of discrimination
The Fathers speak of the judgment of God as capable of producing either one of two final sentences:  either eternal salvation or eternal condemnation, according to each one’s deeds.  The doctrine occasions a mixture of hope and fear, of longing and anxiety.
Through the various shades which writers of Christian antiquity have introduced, a common thought prevails:  the non-uniformity, in God’s eyes, of free creatures; or alternatively, the moral differentiation which created freedom inevitably produces and which becomes permanent at the end of history as two mutually exclusive states (salvation or perdition).

c)  The mystery of revelation
The Fathers emphasize the convenience quoad homines of a complete revelation at the end of history of the value of persons and events.  They assert that all will be judged in the presence of all, so that the authentic value of persons and their works would be seen.  The full revelation of the sanctity or of the sinfulness of men will serve to corroborate the truth of divine justice and holiness.  Such a global clarification—not possible in the present stage of human history—will become a vindication of God and the just.
3.  The Last Judgment, in the Symbols of Faith
We look especially to the symbols of faith (creeds) to prove the constancy of the Church’s faith in the final judgment.  The affirmation that “he shall come to judge the living and the dead” already appears as the conclusion of the Christological article in the first creeds, being the echo of apostolic preaching.  
The 4th Lateran Council (1215) adds a phrase which further defines the result of the Judgment:  “he shall give to each one according to his works”.  In reality, this addition represents a mere elaboration of the affirmations of previous creeds.  It will remain in later formulations of the profession of faith, e.g. in the 2nd Council of Lyons (1274):  “he shall come to judge the living and the dead, and shall give to each one according to his works, whether good or bad.”
4.  Theological Reflection:  The Judgment, Corollary of the Parousia
We find in the Bible and in Tradition the firm conviction of an eschatological Judgment.  Certainly the mystery has been formulated—at least in part—using anthropomorphic language, taking images from human judgments.  This legal imagery has to be well understood, to extract from them the substantial message.  What is the doctrinal core of the revelation about the Final Judgment?  Let us try to summarize this in four statements.
a)  God’s coming close, the differentiation among men
In the first place, there is an aspect of segregation.  The final mystery contains a discriminatory dimension (between the wheat and the chaff, between the sheep and the goats).  In other words, God’s coming close to his creation will finally result in a differentiation among free creatures.  St Augustine refers to an irreversible division between the saved and the damned, between the lovers of God and the lovers of self.  
We can say that God’s coming close to men throughout history, in fact, acts like a sword dividing hearts.  The more openly God is made present, the less indifferent man can be.  Men have to choose.  After the climactic moment, all humanity will have been divided into two soteriological states.
b)  Primacy of salvation over condemnation
Theologians affirm with reason that the double prospect (salvation/condemnation) contained in the revelation of the Judgment is not “symmetrical”.  Salvation has more weight, since that is the original objective of the divine economy.  Therefore the Catechism of the Catholic Church says:  “Yet the Son did not come to judge, but to save and to give the life he has in himself (cf. John 3:17; 5:26).” (no. 679)

c)  The last judgment as revelation of the meaning of History.
The Final Judgment, in so far as it implies the clear separation between the just and impious, constitutes a revelation of the real value of the life and work of individuals, communities and institutions.  It will show in the end the concordance or discordance of each human endeavor relative to the divine design.  
St Thomas Aquinas says that the evaluation should be made at the end of history.  To be able to make a complete evaluation, it is necessary to wait so that each act will have had all its consequences:  “It is not possible to give a definitive sentence on something mutable before its consummation.” (Summa Theologiae, III, q. 59, a. 5)
We can say that the final Coming of the divine King will bring a clear order to creation, by which each creature will occupy its definitive place within the whole.  There will be order:  “a disposition of equal and unequal things, which gives to each one its proper place” (St Augustine, De civitate Dei).  The King “will put everything in its place”, even in the mind of his creatures, making them know exactly—as He knows—the value of persons and works.
d)  Christological dimension of the Judgment
Finally, what can we say about the principal role which Christ occupies in the Final Judgment in New Testament Revelation?  This does not simply mean that he will exercise his authority over men as God and Redeemer, or that he will reward them depending on whether or not they have fulfilled his commandments and followed his example.  No; this refers to something much more profound.  It tells us exactly how God works out the salvation of men:  Christ configuring them to himself, sending them his modeler Spirit, presenting them to the Father.  The admission of every person to eternal life will depend on whether he has sought Jesus and established a vital connection with Him.
From this perspective we can say that Christ will not only be the Judge, but also the Criterion for the Judgment.  He will be the living Standard by which all human existence will be measured, the mirror in which each man will see his face and ask:  Have I  become sufficiently identified with you, Jesus, or not?  Does your Holy Spirit dwell fully in me, or not?  Can your heavenly Father recognize me as a beloved son, or not?  Therefore, the last question which everyone will have to ask himself is Christological (or if one wants, Trinitarian):  Have I become sufficiently united to you, Jesus, to be admitted with you and in you, to the intimate communion of the Trinity?

Chapter 8
ETERNAL LIFE
We will now consider how each individual lives this mystery of communion with the Trinity.
“I believe… in life everlasting.” (Apostle’s Creed)  “We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.” (Nicean-Constantinopolitan Creed)  With these few words we try to express the object of the hope of every human being.  In reality, with these terms we try to say much (in a certain sense, everything):  union with God and the saints, the fullness of corporeal and spiritual existence, an experience of joy and peace… that await the just at the end of time.	
It is possible to find a certain order and hierarchy behind the many aspects of this mystery.  There emerges from the combination of images and expressions (e.g. heaven, to see God, to be with the Lord, etc.) the profile of a mystery with two aspects:  (1) the intimate communion of the creature with God; and (2) the repercussion in the created being caused by the divine presence.
At the core of the mystery we find a living and throbbing reality:  God Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who opens the doors of their intimacy to creatures.
1.  Richness of Biblical Revelation about Eternal Life
The topic of eternal life in Sacred Scripture encounters a peculiar problem, not due to the lack of information, but to the immense richness of expressions referring to the mystery.
Our scriptural survey groups the principal categories by which the mystery is formulated according to the following order:
(1)  “Local” expressions, which simply serve to indicate “to be where God is”:  heaven, paradise, promised land, house of the Father, heavenly Jerusalem, heavenly temple, etc.
There frequently appear expressions which we could call “spatial”:  especially, “heaven”.  Despite the limitations of this expression (and others similar), it serves to convey a double message:  the transcendence of God in the first place, and in the second place (and paradoxically) the possibility of men accessing Him.  
In a metaphorical sense, “heaven” means the area of life proper to God, different from the area of men (cf. Daniel 12:2-3; Matthew 5:16; Hebrews 11:14-16).  “In my Father’s house there are many mansions.  Were it not so, I should have told you, because I go to prepare a place for you, I am coming again, and I will take you to myself; that where I am, there you also may be.” (John 14:2-3)
(2)  More formal expressions:  to be with God, to be with Christ
We find in the Psalms sublime expressions of this nostalgia of man for God:  “For what have I in heaven?  And besides thee what do I desire upon earth?  For thee my flesh and my heart hath fainted away:  thou art the God of my heart, and the God that is my portion for ever.  But it is good for me to adhere to my God, to put my hope in the Lord God:  That I may declare all thy praises, in the gates of the daughter of Sion.” (Psalm 72:25-26,28)
This thirst for communion is more concrete in the New Testament, gravitating around the person of Christ.  
The dialogue between the good thief and Jesus is particularly significant:  “And he said to Jesus, ‘Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.’  And Jesus said to him, ‘Amen I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with me in paradise’.” (Luke 23:42-43) 
(3)  Expressions which add the aspect of intimate colloquium: to see, to know God.
The biblical expressions “to see”/”to know” God contain a paradox, like the previously studied “local” expressions.  On one hand, man—already in the Old Testament—is convinced that God is sublime and awesome.  On the other, to contemplate the divine face is the deepest longing that exists in the human heart.  There is, then, a tension between the notions of divine transcendence and divine accessibility.  
According to the Synoptics, Jesus himself uses the term “to see” in his discourse on the Beatitudes:  “Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8)
(4)  Expressions which indicate the fullness that comes with union with God:  eternal life, banquet, etc.
In the Old Testament, life is a concept that gradually acquires greater depth.  Yahweh is the living God, in contrast to inert idols.  Life, then, is a gift of God to man.  If God withdraws his support, man dies (cf. Psalms 104:29; Job 34:14).
In the New Testament, the Risen Christ spreads the gift of his Spirit, who implants the seed of eternal life in men during their earthly existence, and perfects the process by resurrecting them on the last day.
God is the primordial fount of life, the living God (cf. Matthew 16:16).  Christ communicates to men his life-giving force not only on the final day, but already at the present time:
•	He does so when, as Revealer, he transmits his living teachings (cf. John 6:68).  
•	He does so when, as Object of faith, he leads the believer to Life (cf. John 6:40-47), to passage from death to life (cf. John 5:24), to the possibility of never to die again (John 11:25-26).  
•	He does so when he gives eternal life to he who eats his flesh and drinks his blood in the Holy Eucharist (cf. John 6:54). 
Other Biblical expressions: 
•	Banquet (which conveys the idea of satisfying the individual and social needs of man: cf. Mattthew 22:1-10; 25:1-10; Luke 12:35-38; 13:28-29; 14:16-24; Apocalypse 3:20);
•	Joy:  absence of tears, weeping, pain and sorrow, and fatigue (cf. Isaias 25:8; Apocalypse 21:4);
•	Peace (cf. Isaias 2:4) and rest (cf. Hebrews 4:3);
•	Treasure (Matthew 6:20);
•	Retribution:  reward (cf. Luke 6:23), glory (cf. Romans 8:18), eternal inheritance (cf. 1Peter 1:3).
2.  Divine Communication and Divinization of Man
The Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms the following aspects of the mystery:
•	The essence of eternal life as communion:  “Those who die in God’s grace and friendship and are perfectly purified live for ever with Christ.” (no. 1023)
•	The central place of Christ in this mystery:  “To live in heaven is ‘to be with Christ.’  The elect live ‘in Christ’.” (no. 1025)  This is so because “He makes partners in his heavenly glorification those who have believed in him and remained faithful to his will.  Heaven is the blessed community of all who are perfectly incorporated into Christ.” (no. 1026) 
•	The aspect of vision and divinization, in the mystery of communion:  “Because of his transcendence, God cannot be seen as he is, unless he himself opens up his mystery to man’s immediate contemplation and gives him the capacity for it.” (no.1028)  Thanks to the self-giving of God and the elevation which he works in the creature, the blessed “are like God for ever, for they ‘see him as he is,’ face to face.” (no. 1023)
•	The concomitant consummation of the deepest dimensions of man:  “Heaven is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness.” (no. 1024).
3.  Theological Reflection:  Communion with God as Essence of Eternal Life
From the mystery of communion between human persons and the divine Persons flows the dimensions of happiness in heaven:
•	The assimilation of man to the Person of the Word implies a divinization.
•	Insertion in the Son gives a greater participation in his intimate knowledge of the Father.
•	Incorporation in Christ brings with it solidarity with other just men also.
•	Intimate union with God produces in the creature joyous effects:  fullness, Life, etc. 
a)  A God who gives Himself
The uncreated aspect of the mystery is the Triune God who gives himself to man.  From this perspective, the essence of that which we call heaven or blessedness is not so much the permanence in a physical place, but a “stay” of another kind:  staying in God.  It is God with us, we in God.
b)  Trinitarian dimensions of the mystery
Human fulfillment does not consist simply in the contemplation of the divine unitary essence, but in contemplating the different relations of the three divine Persons according to the order which the Father, Son and Holy Spirit live within themselves.
c)  The transformation of man united to God
From the first (uncreated) aspect of Life comes the second aspect, i.e. the repercussions in the creature caused by the Trinitarian presence.  These are:  
•	elevation and divinization of the poor creature; 
•	joyful knowledge of divine intimacy, and understanding of things which are deep inside God; 
•	joy and fruition of love; 
•	experience of vital fullness, spiritually and corporeally (feelings and senses included);
•	in sum, superabundant satisfaction and happiness.
d)  The profound sense of heaven as reward
Eternal life, as we have seen, consists in abiding in the interior of God, in having a permanent relation with the three divine Persons.  The familiar character of such Life demands, by its own nature, a prior adaptation of the creature.  In other words, the loving dialogue requires a prepared correspondent, made in some way connatural with the Trinity.  Who can eternally contemplate the Father, if not someone who has already learned to love him in this life as his son?  
From this perspective we can understand biblical insistence in seeking sanctity already here on earth:  “For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that you abstain from immorality; that every one of you learn how to possess his vessel in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God.” (1Thessalonians 4:3-5).
“Be ye holy, because I the Lord your God am holy.” (Leviticus 19:1)  “You therefore are to be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48)  Human sanctity is revealed as the necessary correspondent of divine Sanctity.  
We find here an essential element of the mystery of salvation:  human freedom.  As Cardinal Newman says:  “We are instruments of our own salvation” in such a way that we can call ourselves co-makers of our own eschatological destiny. 
Throughout our earthly lives, our choices and actions, with the help of grace, model in our person (senses, emotions, mind, will, soul, body) a “form of being”.
Our stay on earth is then a verum spatium (moment of truth), time granted by God to man to prepare for his definitive admission into the supernatural divine company.  Our moral efforts here, now, acquire an “eschatological value” to the extent that they make us better or less prepared to live Life-without-end, with him who is All-Holy, and with all the saints. 

Chapter 9
ETERNAL DEATH
It is now time to consider the most obscure part of the escathological mystery:  the real possibility that a creature would choose to live for ever faraway from the face of God.  Sacred Scripture, Tradition, and the Magisterium speak clearly about this truth.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church states: “The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity.” (no.1035)
The study of biblical Revelation about this mystery allows us to see the following features:  In the first place, there is a certain “contraposition” of the categories referring to eternal life, which allows us to understand that “Life” and “Death” are two faces (albeit unsymmetrical) of just one mystery:  the response of the free creature to God-who-comes-near.  The contrast in biblical expressions shows that they are diametrically opposed existential situations.  The union of man with God is the logical conclusion of the salvific plan; to be lost is the thing most contrary to the divine intent. 
In the second place, it is possible to notice—as in the Revelation about eternal life—a certain order in the revealed elements.  Priority is given to the idea of separation from God; from this fundamental situation emanates all the other sufferings. 
1.  Eternal Death as the Reverse of Eternal Life, in Sacred Scripture
As in the case of eternal life, we find in the Revelation about eternal death a great variety of formulations, all of them expressions of different facets in the mystery.  Evidently, there is a certain parallelism between the formulations about eternal life and eternal death:
Heaven // abyss or the depths of the sheol; 
to be within (the eschatological Jerusalem) // to be outside (in Gehenna, outside the walls); 
right // left; 
admission to the nuptial banquet // remaining outside; 
to be with Christ // “depart from Me”; 
house of the Father, “children of the Kingdom” // not to inherit the Kingdom; 
to see, to know God // “I do not know you”; 
life // death; 
light // darkness; 
refreshment // fire, burning furnace; 
joy // weeping and the gnashing of teeth; 
peace, tranquility // worm that does not die. 
a) Geographic terms
In the first place, we find expressions which indicate (not in the physical sense but spiritually) the negative side of the soteriological landscape.   They point to the eschatological state at the opposite side of God and the just (heaven, heavenly Jerusalem, etc.).  There is in this “spacial” language a deep logic:  We want to define two existential situations or areas, clearly differentiated, situated at opposite sides, and farthest apart.  Thus, the difference and separation between the two states (salvation and perdition) is made clear using graphic expressions. 

(i)  The “deep places” in the Old Testament
•	The deepest place in the sheol.  Early Jewish cosmology distinguished between three areas of existence:  heaven (the place proper to God), earth (dwelling of the living), and the sheol (located in the depths of the earth, habitat of the dead).  Originally understood as an undifferentiated place which housed all the refraim or shadow remains of the dead, the sheol was little by little “stratified” in Old Testament texts.  It is said that the impious man was buried for ever in the deepest zone (cf. Isaias 14:15; Ezechiel 32:21-24; Wisdom 4:19); while the just kept the hope of being taken from that place by the Lord (Psalms 49:16; 16:10).  This stratification clearly follows the “polar logic” to which we have alluded:  If the term “heaven” refers to the place of God and the just, it is natural to talk of the place of the impious as being at the opposite extreme in the depths of the sheol.
•	Gehenna.  The history of Israel affords another “geographical” term to refer to perdition.  It is a valley or ravine south of Jerusalem.  In Hebrew, Ge-Ben-Hinnon (= valley of the son of Hinnom).  During the reign of Kings Ajaz and Manases (8th century B.C.), sacrifices of children were offered here to the god Molek (cf. Jeremias 7:31).  Since that time, the place (with its association with infidelity) would be infamous for the Jewish people.  Jeremiah (7:32; 19:6) calls it the “valley of Killings” and describes it as a place of torments.
(ii)  Hades, abyss and Gehenna in the New Testament
In the New Testament, the “local” terms reappear as Hades, abyss and Gehenna:
•	Hades.  This word comes from the Greek world, originally meaning an underground place where (according to Greek belief) all the dead dwell.  In the New Testament it is used in a more restricted sense:  as the place where the demons and impious men are found.  Therefore Jesus says:  “And thou, Capharnaum, shalt thou be exalted to heaven?  Thou shalt be thrust down to Hades!” (Matthew 11:23)  Once again we see here polar logic at work.
•	Abyss:  In other New Testament texts, the mystery of shunning God is expressed using another term for “depth”.  It is affirmed that the demons (angels fallen “from heaven”) go into the “abyss” (cf. Luke 8:31; Apocalypse 9:1-2; 2Peter 2:4).
•	Gehenna:  This word (translation to Greek of Ge-Ben-Hinnom of the Old Testament) appears frequently in the preaching of Jesus (cf. Matthew 5:22; Mark 9:43-48).  These passages show how the apocalyptic idea of Gehenna, with its elements of fire and worms, finds a place in Jesus’ preaching.  And to this basic idea are added more features:  “weeping” and the “gnashing of teach” (cf. Matthew 13:41-42); being thrown into the darkness outside (cf. Matthew 25:30).  Gehenna thus acquires a truly  eschatological meaning.
b)  Exclusion from God’s presence
As counterpart to the formulations for “eternal life” (e.g. “to see” or “to know” God, “to be with” Christ, etc.) we find in the Bible expressions which formally indicate a mystery of exclusion from the company of God and the just. 
Thus, even though man in the Old Testament has the hope of overcoming the “distance” which separates him (as creature and as sinner) from God, there is also the fear in his heart of being rejected by the Lord:  “Cast me not away from thy face, and take not thy holy spirit from me.” (Psalms 50:13)
The idea of a possible exclusion remains in the New Testament (cf. Matthew 25:31-46; Luke 13:25-27; 1Corinthians 6:9-10).
c)  Eternal death
As it happened with the idea of “life”, the theo-logical dimension of “death” (i.e. its dimension of non-relation with God) expanded with time until it became the fullest expression of the mystery of definitive separation from God.  
The choice between “life” and “death” in the profound sense is taken up by St John in his writings.  “He who does not love abides in death.  Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer.  And you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.” (1John 3:14-15)  To describe the final destiny of eternal separation from God, St John uses the expression “second death” (Apocalypse 21:8). 
d)  Other Biblical expressions  
A last group of expressions describes the consequences of separation from God as:
•	inextinguishable or eternal fire (cf. Isaias 66:24; Mark 9:42-43; Matthew 5:22; 13:42);
•	worm that does not die (cf. Isaias 66:24; Mark 9:43);
•	weeping (cf. Matthew 8:12; Luke 13:28);
•	gnashing of teeth (cf. Matthew 8:12; Luke 13:28);
•	darkness (cf. Matthew 8:12; 25:30);
•	shame (cf. Daniel 12:2; Matthew 25:46);
•	lack of rest (cf. Isaias 34:8-10; Apocalypse14:11).
It is interesting to note:  (1) As with the Revelation about eternal life, we find many and varied expressions for eternal death.  This shows the insufficiency of human language to describe the experience of perdition.  (2) At any rate, the totality of negative categories leads us to understand that eternal death is a state where there is no room for good of any kind.
2.  The Reality and Duration of Hell 
We can note progress in the way the doctrine about eternal death is formulated through the centuries.  In the beginning, believers limited themselves to defending the existence of hell.  Since the 3rd century, there has been long debate about a possible temporal character (theory of the apokatastasis).  But since the eclipse of this theory, theological reflection then centered around other aspects, concretely:  the nature of eternal fire, and the pain of losing God.  This intuition of two different aspects of hell has been developed by theologians and the Magisterium, from the post-Patristic age and until contemporary times when the consideration of eternal death as a state of non-relation with God gained ground.
The doctrine of hell is very clear in the earliest Patristic documents.
Much later, Benedict XII, in the Constitution Benedictus Deus (1336), insisted on the truth of a destiny contrary to eternal blessedness, and which is reserved for the impious.  
The teaching about hell continues in modern times.  Vatican II, in the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium (no. 48), formulates the doctrine of eternal death in the form of a warning.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church summarizes the dogma of the existence of hell thus:  “The teaching of the Church affirms the existence of hell and its eternity.  Immediately after death the souls of those who die in a state of mortal sin descend into hell, where they suffer the punishments of hell, ‘eternal fire.’  The chief punishment of hell is eternal separation from God, in whom alone man can possess the life and happiness for which he was created and for which he longs.” (no. 1035)
3.  Theological Reflection:  Hell as the Creature’s Shunning God
a)  Hell as the absence of God (God lost by man)
Considering the fact of a God-who-comes-close who wants to commune with men, the possibility that a free creature says ‘No’ and goes away is most opposed to the divine plan.
Hell is above all the free creature’s shunning God who comes to him.  In Trinitarian terms, it is to repel or “sadden” the Spirit (cf. Ephesians 4:30) who wants to live in the person in order to conform him to the Son and bind him intimately with the Father.  It means the rejection of being-in-Christ, the only genuine form for man.  It is rejection, therefore, of the form of definitive communion which God has planned for the human creature.
Seen in this way (as some authors do), hell is man’s creation, not God’s. 
Only freedom can be the ontological base of Love.  As God plans to form with creatures an eschatological family, he must give creatures freedom.  Eternal life, a mystery of Love, requires protagonists who are free.  If the freedom of creatures is to be authentic, the possibility of its abuse should also be authentic.
b)  Theories that deny the existence of hell
There have been theories which deny the reality of hell.  The most widespread are based on two principal arguments:
•	The infinite love, mercy and power of God make the possibility of “failure” in his plans to save mankind unthinkable.
•	The existence of creatures lost for ever seems incompatible with the full happiness of the angels and saints. 
We do not know how many would resist until the end and are really condemned.  Furthermore, it is legitimate at least to hope that all would be saved, and to pray for the salvation even of those who, in their mortal life, lived apparently far from God. 
Nevertheless, the thesis of “the impossibility of condemnation of anyone” falls apart when we consider a particular dogmatic fact:  the fall of some angels, and their consequent state of permanent enmity with God. (cf. Lateran Council IV: DH 800-801)  The alternative proposition that “hell exists but is empty” is simply false because devils exist.  The fact that there are angels lost for ever is enough to affirm that hell (understood as the state of permanent separation from God) exists.
c)  Poena sensus (pain of sense)
From the absence of God comes the experience of an existential vacuum, filled in by a massive self-love (amor propio).  It is the phenomenon of conversion towards the finite, by which man (who was created for communion with the infinite Good) is content with possessing himself. 
The theological concept of eternal death as an existential situation, self-inflicted by man himself, allows us to avoid a sadistic view of the sufferings of the damned as extrinsic punishments violently inflicted by an avenging God.  It seems more correct to think of the sufferings of the condemned as the necessary effect of their chosen separation from God, i.e. as an internal dimension of the divine absence.
In this sense the sufferings of hell can be considered as self-inflicted by the sinner, since it is he himself who allows chaos to reign in his existence, in the disordered function of his intellect (since he thinks only of himself) and will (since he loves only himself and not others).
God is joy for those who love him, and sorrow and pain for those who do not love him.
Although this state of perpetual alienation from God begins mox post mortem (immediately after death) for the sinner, it will have its full terrible form on the day of the resurrection and of the palingenesia.  Then the impious man will find himself immersed in a world of risen saints and a transfigured cosmos full of God’s presence.  
Possibly, God will not need to apply any external substance (a fire, literally) to sinners since, by the very act of transforming the cosmos (converting it into a “sacrament”), he creates a source of eternal discomfort for the impious.  As a world overflowing with God, the new heavens and the new earth will be torturous for those who shun the Creator and his Love.

SECOND PART:  INITIATED ESCHATOLOGY
Chapter 10
EARTHLY LIFE (Baptism and Post-Baptismal Life)
The history of the incorporation of each man to Christ and his Pasch happens in successive steps.  It already begins in the mortal life of the individual with the reception of Baptism.  Thanks to the sacramental ablution, the subject dies to sin and begins to possess a new life, experiencing in this way his first configuration with the Lord who has died and is risen.  This is what we confess with joy in the Creed:  “I believe in the forgiveness of sins.”
A new horizon is then opened before the creature, of progressive insertion into the Person and Life of Christ.  Such progress is possible, in the first place, thanks to the sacraments—especially the Eucharist—which works in the Christian a deeper configuration with the Lord; and thanks also to the progressive struggle of the believer to avoid sin and to participate more fully in the sanctity of Christ.  Post-baptismal life then becomes Christian existence (man’s increasingly intense appropriation of supernatural life—the Life of Christ—initially infused by Baptism); or, also, Paschal existence (his deepening insertion into the death and Resurrection of the Lord, with each sacramental participation, each conversion, each act of contrition, each time he begins again).
1.  The Hope of Renewal, in the Bible
The hope of a renewed existence is already found in the Old Testament, particularly in the traditions which imply faith in God who is the Liberator of the people, Creator of the world, and Fount of life.  These lines of hope converge in the New Testament in the Person of Jesus who, upon suffering, dying and resurrecting, passes from death to glorious life; and he does so not only for his own benefit, but as head of all recreated humanity.  He opens the doors to renewal to all men disposed to follow his steps, mystically dying and resurrecting with him.
a)  Old Testament Revelation of God who is Liberator, Creator and Giver of Life
The sacrament of Baptism—together with its mystical counterpart, the Pasch of Jesus—is prefigured in the Old Testament in many and diverse ways.  We recall here three traditions which, in a special way, serve as preparation for the New Testament mystery of renewal in Life in Christ:  (1) the “Exodus” tradition; (2) the “creation” tradition; and (3) the “resurrection” tradition.
•	In the first place, the history of Israel proclaims Yahweh as Liberator of his people.  The memory of the Exodus—in the course of which the Israelites saw God’s power in wonders like the plagues in Egypt and the parting of the Red Sea—is deeply engraved in the religious consciousness of the people.
•	At the same time, the “memory of the Exodus” nurtures faith in God as Creator:  The Israelites understand that, using the same power with which he liberated his people, the Lord gave origin to the world; the Savior is himself the Maker.
This creational faith leads to a concrete line of hope.  The prophets prophesy a future act of God which will renew the universe (cf. Isaias 43:19) and which will result in new heavens and a new earth (cf. Isaias 66:17).  This final intervention of the Lord will transform not only the cosmos, but also hearts (cf. Ezechiel 36:26; Jeremias 32:39):  thus the new world will be inhabited by a regenerated humanity.
•	Finally, there is the “resurrection” tradition of the Old Testament.  Even though the first prophetic pronouncements have a merely metaphoric sense (referring to the national recovery of Israel), later prophecies (cf. 2Machabees 7:9; Daniel 12:2-3) talk unequivocally of the future resurrection of the flesh.  Such expectation represents a very concrete crystallization of the hope of the Jews:  the longing to see themselves freed from the power of death.
b)  The Pasch of Jesus Christ, fount of new life for men
The lines of hope of the Old Testament lead to Jesus, who by himself leads the way from the darkness of the sepulcher to the light of the morning of the Resurrection.  Having died and resurrected, Christ brings with him the setting of the perishable world and the rising of the new creation.  As another Moses, he goes ahead of men along the road that leads from death to life, from slavery under evil to freedom as sons of God, from the emptiness of sin to the fullness of Life.
The Pasch of Jesus appears in New Testament texts as the fount from which springs a radically new life for men, with Baptism and the Eucharist as the principal channels through which this life reaches men in history.
2.  Patristic Doctrine about the Insertion of Man in the Pasch of the Lord
The first generations of Christians followed the Christological-Paschal line indicated by New Testament Revelation.  In their writings forcefully appear:  (1) belief in an authentic Christification which sacramental initiation works out in the subject, by which (2) a holy life is demanded of the neophyte, and (3) a glorious inheritance is promised to him.
St Augustine insists on the mysterious configuration of the Christian with the Paschal Christ.  The Bishop of Hippo affirms that he who receives Baptism is conformed by way of image (similitudo) to the death of Christ, and consequently freed from sin by justification and liberated from death by resurrection. (cf. De peccatorum meritis et remissione, I, 32, 61)  The baptized receives the vivifying and purifying force of the Passion, which permits him to live a new life.  Basically, we can talk of a “resurrection of the dead” (in the spiritual sense) happening in our present stage of history.  (Thus, the mystery of the resurrection can be seen under two aspects:  the “resurrection” of souls [dead by sin] through conversion and the acceptance of divine grace; and the resurrection of the body on the final day).  Configuration of the baptized with Christ who has died and is risen is perfected interiorly with Confirmation (which identifies the subject of the sacrament with the Anointed, Priest and Victim) and the Eucharist (which incorporates him to the Head:  Christ sacrificed and glorified).  
3.  Theological Reflection:  Initiation of the Pasch in the Earthly Life of Man
Let us now take up, with more detail and in logical order, the basic ideas which biblical Revelation and Tradition give us about the renewal of life in Christ:
•	The sacrament of Baptism inserts man into the Paschal mystery of Jesus.  The ablution with water is not a simple external imitation of the death and Resurrection of the Lord, a purely evocative symbol of his burial and subsequent Resurrection.  No; the sacred rite possesses a supernatural efficacy by which it really makes the Paschal event present with all its force, in the life of this person at this moment in history.  It grants an authentic, albeit mysterious, participation in the death and Resurrection of the Lord.
•	This insertion into the Pasch brings with it identification with its Protagonist, who is Christ.  So real and profound is this assimilation into the Person of the divine Son made flesh, offered, and finally glorified, that the subject acquires for ever a “Christological imprint” (which classic theology calls “character”) which binds him and identifies him for ever with the Lord.  The human being, upon being redeemed, is at once redefined as a being-in-Christ.  From this point of view, “to die” through Baptism means not only to die to sin, but also “to die to oneself”, to give up the “I” so that Christ may occupy the center of the person:  it is no longer I that live, but Christ who lives in me.
•	The new life which the neophyte possesses has its own vigor.  It demands interior cultivation or intensification during life on earth.  The baptized is led to continually “actualize” the Pasch of the Lord throughout his earthly existence.  (The function of the other two sacraments which traditionally complete Christian initiation is to immerse the baptized more deeply into the Paschal mystery.  Confirmation communicates the life-giving Spirit of the risen Christ, and the Eucharist allows him to unite himself even more intimately to the Victim offered to and glorified by the Father).  We can affirm that the ontological transformation that occurs in Baptism is only the first milestone in a “Paschal itinerary” leading to eschatological fullness.
These basic ideas have as consequences:
•	A profound appreciation for the sacrament of Baptism, as a milestone in the human biography:  It defines the identity of the subject in Christ, and initiates or inaugurates the Pasch in his life.
•	An appreciation of the post-baptismal life of the Christian as “eschatological time”:  As with the period after the first Coming of Christ when there already is in the world a glimpse of the Kingdom, the existence of the baptized has to be seen, under the eschatological light, as time to participate in the death and Resurrection of the Lord, as the logical and vital continuation of the baptismal mystery.  To receive the sacraments (especially the Eucharist), to die to sin and egoism, to practice penance and mortification, to undergo conversion as many times as necessary, to progress in virtue and holiness… are other “milestones” in the eschatological-Paschal journey of the Christian.  Earthly life is therefore seen, not as an “idle wait”, but as time we are given to make ourselves “more Christ-like”, more fit to sit with him at the right hand of the Father.
The importance of identification with the Protagonist of the Pasch is such that the essence of Christian existence can be defined as “to-die-in-order-to-live-in-Christ”.  From this perspective, it can be said that the effort of the believer to advance in virtue and sanctity has value, not in itself, but in so far as it relates him more and more intimately with the Lord.  Thus, Christ “is born” progressively in the soul, changing his Presence depending on the acts of the human being.  The judgment which each one will have at the end of life will simply be an evaluation of the degree of “Christological or filial identity” which he will have achieved with the help of the Holy Spirit.
In conclusion, we can note that Christian eschatology would show to man, not only the meaning of death (to-die-in-Christ; to die hopeful), but also the meaning of earthly life as spatium (time) to carve the Christological mark in his personal existence.

Chapter 11
DEATH (I)
The phase post mortem et ante resurrectionem of the individual—his “necrology”, as we say—is surrounded in mystery.  We living persons lack the experience of the period from the moment of death to the moment of resurrection.  Most likely, it is an experience very different from our present life, for we live immersed in space and time.  Nevertheless, Revelation gives us some guiding light: 
(1)	Although death (in a sense) is natural to man, faith teaches us that it is a consequence of sin.
(2)	Christ has changed its negative sign:  For a Christian, death is the means to participate in the Pasch and to incorporate himself more fully in the Lord.
(3)	Therefore, death does not end the existence of man.  But it does end the time of personal preparation for definitive communion with God.  There is no reincarnation.
(4)	Mox post mortem (right after death), the individual enters into a state of definitive soteriological character (either salvation or perdition).
(5)	With regard to salvation, there is the possibility that someone would die in the grace of God but without possessing complete sanctity.  For such an individual there is reserved further purification.
(6)	Affirmations (4) and (5) above have as a corollary the notion of a particular judgment.  
1.  The Negative Aspect of Death, in the Old Testament
a)  Death, consequence of separation from the Living God
In the Old Testament, death (mawet) has a paradoxical character.  On one hand, it is a reality that accompanies man since the beginning of human history.  On the other, it is contrary to the original divine plan for creation (Genesis 2-3).  In fact, it also goes contrary to man’s longing.  
b)  The appearance of hope in spite of death
In Old Testament Revelation, a consoling idea gradually appears:  The death that awaits every man does not necessarily imply a total disaster.  And this is for two reasons:  (1) because personal existence continues in some way after death; and (2) because certain types of death have value before God and have a reward.  
(i)  The notion of subsistence
What happens when one dies?  In the Old Testament, the habitual expression is that God withdraws the breath of life (cf. Job 34:14; Psalms 104:29).  Then the body of man, taken from the earth, becomes dust again (cf. Genesis 3:19); it is destroyed and is devoured by worms (cf. Job 34:15; Ecclesiasticus 19:3).  
It is also said that the dead man is reunited with his parents (cf. Genesis 15:15), with his people (Genesis 25:8).  Most of the time, it is said that he goes to the sheol, the dwelling of the dead.  What remains of man after dying is nothing more than a shadow (refaim).  Such a way of speaking fits in with Jewish anthropology, which conceives man above all as being alive and corporeal:  If some human element remains after death, it would be in a deficient state.
The refaim descends then to a dark place (cf. Job 10:21-22; Psalms 88:13).  There is a correlation between the refaim (shadows) and the sheol.  It is in the sheol where all the dead are united (cf. Isaias 7:11; Job 7:9).  At least in its primitive concept, the sheol is a place which includes just men as well as the unjust.
Old Testament Revelation regarding the state of the refaim gives an incomplete picture of post mortem existence.  Initially, the Old Testament seems to speak of the sheol in terms quite negative and without hope:  as an undesirable state (cf. Job 7:21).  The dead who is in sheol is described as severed from the world of the living (cf. Job 16:22) and even separated from Yahweh (cf. Isaias 38:11; Psalms 6:6).  
Nevertheless, there is another train of thought in the Old Testament—based on faith in the infinite power, fidelity and justice of God—that tones down this old vision of death.  It is said that even the sheol is under the dominion of Yahweh (cf. Amos 9:2; Isaias 7:11; Psalms 135:6), and that the faithful Israelite can hope in God his Defender who will not allow that the sepulcher swallow him without possible salvation (cf. Job 19:25).  Psalm 73:23-28 even sketches the hope of a union with God which death cannot destroy:  Yahweh can snatch the just man from death.  Therefore, death does not have the last word on man.  Yahweh can make death return its prey (cf. Isaias 26:19).  
Gradually, the hope for total victory over death appears.  In the perfected kingdom, there will no longer be death (Isaias 25:8).  This conviction appears very clearly in the last books of the Old Testament, which announce an era of definitive salvation which will bring permanent union with the living God and a new creation exempt from sin and death.  
Victory over death is expressed in two forms.  The more important form, mentioned clearly in Daniel 12:2 and 2Machabees 7:3-36, is the resurrection of the dead, or definitive reconstitution of the (corporeal) life of man.  The resurrection is the most complete and eloquent answer of Old Testament faith to the problem of death, because it signifies a reversal of the power of death over the human being.  
In a later book (Wisdom), there is another answer to the problem of death with a Hellenistic flavor.  This second way can be considered complementary to the first, for it makes affirmations regarding the state of the individual immediately after his death.  It speaks of a spiritual principle of man, the soul (psyche), which, after separating from the body upon death, is capable of subsisting.  This immortal part of the individual is capable of receiving reward or punishment (Wisdom 3:1-2).
(ii)  Value of the death of the just man
Another positive consideration of death concerns the death of the just man.  Early Jewish thinking considered early death as a punishment from God. But in the second part of the book of Isaias it can already be noticed that this association is not always the case.  The death of the Servant of Yahweh which Chapter 53 narrates has an eminently positive value:  It is a holocaust of expiation and reconciliation that makes the Servant deserve eternal glory.  To offer one’s own life in sacrifice means to transport one’s own death to the level of God, in some way removing it from its old association with sin.  
Another important text, from the times of persecution, is 2Machabees 7.  In this biblical text, martyrdom is presented as an ideal.  It tells about the death of seven brothers and their mother during the persecution of Antiochus IV, and does so in heroic narration.  Here, death for the sake of fidelity to God’s Law appears as a holy achievement.  Then death (despite its cruel form) ceases to be a frightening event, and is presented as a virtuous experience (cf. 2Machabees 6:31).  Martyrdom is holy and pleasing to God, and guarantees a future reward.  In 2Machabees 7, this recompense is referred to in terms of a glorious resurrection; in this way it connects with the first positive line, i.e. triumph over death.
In sum:  In the Old Testament we find revealed a line that deals with the negative character of death, due to its mysterious association with sin.  There is sketched also another line, with more hope, that assures that death does not have the last word over man:  There is life hereafter, and reward for the just.  With the progress of Revelation, the categories in which the second line is formulated (sheol, refaim, life, resurrection, etc.) acquire more precise terms (e.g. the different levels in sheol; or the possibility of getting out of it; or the subsistence of the psyche; or the resurrection, not only national but personal).  We will see how, in the New Testament, these two lines converge and culminate especially in the Paschal mystery of Christ.
2.  The Change of Sign of Death, Worked Out by Christ
a)  Old and new doctrine about death, in the Synoptics
There are in the Synoptics texts that echo the old association of death with sin.  For example, the use of the term nekros to refer to the sinner is noteworthy.  Nevertheless, Jesus avoids a simplistic formulation by which physical death always has a direct correlation with sin.  It is not so, he tells his listeners (cf. Luke 13:1-4 commentary about the dead in Siloe; and Luke 16:19-31 parable of the poor Lazarus).  With this, Jesus places the doctrine of retribution on another level, superior to the primitive notion of Israel.  
When talking about death, the Synoptics talk about emitting or exhaling the pneuma (spirit) (cf. Matthew 27:50; Luke 23:46).  But such expiration does not mean a total disappearance of the subject.  In a number of texts it is affirmed that the period of retribution is extended beyond earthly life (cf. Luke 16:22; Luke 23:43; Matthew 16:26).  Most of the time Christ speaks of a complete retribution that he will bring on the last day, the day of the resurrection.  He promises happiness without end to those who do good works now on earth.  In contrast, he describes the sad eternal state of sinners (cf. Matthew 8:12).  
Although it is true that the doctrine of retribution in the Synoptics refers principally to Judgment on the last day, there is also reference to an individual retribution that begins immediately after death.  It is implied in the parable of Lazarus in which the poor and the rich end up, after death, in very different places.  There is between the two “an abyss” (Luke 16:26), a radical separation and difference in state.  Clearly they still don’t have the condition of being risen, since the dead rich man asks Abraham to send Lazarus to warn those of his house.
In a similar way, the reply of Jesus to the repentant thief indicates an immediate retribution: “I assure you, today you shall be with me in Paradise.” (Luke 23:43)
In the Synoptics, the Person and work of Christ complete the Revelation about death.  The key idea is one of victory: Jesus conquers both sin and death.  He forgives sins, works resurrections, and above all himself resurrects after dying.  His Paschal mystery is the fulfillment of the hope of the Old Testament:  On one hand, his death is pleasing to God and useful to men.  On the other, it is a death which ends in glorious resurrection.  It can be affirmed that Christ, with his Pasch, liberates death itself from the somber dominion of sin.
b)  The triumph of Christ over sin and death, according to St Paul
St Paul offers a deep teaching regarding the mysterious connection between sin and death which ends up in a joyous note:  Christ has already triumphed over both powers.
Therefore, in Romans and 1Corinthians 15, he elaborately explains death as a historical consequence (wage) of sin.  Spiritual death and physical death are inseparable, according to St Paul.

c)  The Life brought by Christ, according to St John
In St John we find, in the first place, statements regarding the lordship of Christ over death.  Jesus resurrects Lazarus (cf. John 11:1-43) and declares that he will freely lay down his own life to take it back later (cf. John 10:18).  The ultimate reason of such lordship is this:  As divine Word, he has the fullness of Life; he has it always in the bosom of the Father (cf. John 1:4).  Before men, the incarnate Word is able to present himself in terms of this fullness:  “I am the Resurrection and the Life.” (John 11:25)  Death has no possibility of triumphing over him:  Christ keeps in his hands the keys to Hades, the kingdom of death (Apocalypse 1:18).
In this context, the death of Jesus is understood as exaltation, for it serves as a launching pad for his definitive victory (cf. John 12:33).  His passage through death on his way to the Resurrection is part of the manifestation of his absolute sovereignty.
The disciple of the Lord can, in his turn, follow the same steps of the One who was dead and is now alive.  Thus, the terror of death becomes relative:  The event ceases to appear as an absolute final point.  Whoever remains in Christ, even though he die, will live (John 11:26).  He who eats his body and drinks his blood will not die (John 6:50).

Chapter 12
DEATH (II)
1.  Death as Passage to the Retribution and Union with Christ, in Tradition and the Magisterium
Judging from their writings, the first generation of Christians centered much of their thought around the Parousia and the end of the world.  Such preferential attention to universal eschatology was logical, since there was no experience yet of the long waiting for the Return of the Lord.  However, as time went by and the first disciples died, the question of the destiny of the dead naturally started to occupy their minds.  
Thus, the very passage of time fostered doctrinal development.  The “delay” of the Parousia led to a deepening of the core of Christian hope and the formulation of a theology about the interim period (the stage between the first and second Coming of the Lord).  And during this reflection the question was raised:  What happens “meanwhile” with the dead?  Christian reflection then followed two preferential lines:  one which developed especially during times of persecution that considers death—above all death through martyrdom—as a new link with Christ and a participation in his Paschal mystery; and the other which also had a long development that sees a mystery of subsistence and retribution beyond death. 
The lights of Sacred Scripture, Tradition and the Magisterium lead us to a Christian reflection on death, considered not as a metaphysical enigma which is itself interesting, nor as a reality totally obscured by its connection with sin, but rather more especially as a portal that leads to the definitive relationship with Christ and his Pasch.  
a)  Death as a means for union with Christ
In the eyes of Christians, this identification with Christ converts martyrs into valid intercessors before God.  The prayers and liturgical practices related to the martyrs that we have since the earliest times reveal a faith that there are saints definitively incorporated into Christ, who lovingly watch over those who still live on earth.  
Therefore, we can affirm that a positive consideration of death prevailed among Christians in the first centuries, within the framework of their theology of martyrdom.
b)  Death as the beginning of definitive retribution
The great majority of ancient writers refer to retribution in one way or another immediately after death for all men.  J. Fischer summarizes it in this way:  
“The central problem of early Patristic doctrine about the fate of those who have died is defined by the question of where souls separated from the body go.  Answers are divided into two principal groups:  During the first three centuries, there were Fathers who taught that the soul of man, as carrier of his personhood, would immediately be united to Christ.  Therefore one would be in heaven or in hell immediately after death, each one according to his merits, graces and guilt.  The terminology is not uniform:  reward, glory, etc.  There were other authors who proposed that, in general, souls, until the resurrection, would be in intermediate places, different for the good and the bad, for the elect and the damned, even though for both groups it was believed most of the time that they would be in Hades (but for the damned it would not yet be the true hell)”.
The reasoning of these ancient writers reveals something important:  Even though they use the idea of the subsistence of the soul after death, they do not accept the Hellenic approaches.  Confronted with the Platonic ideal of eudaimonia (adopted by the Gnostics), of a soul totally liberated form matter, Christian thinkers prefer to maintain the unfinished character of retribution which affects only the spiritual part of man.
Already in modern times, Vatican II offers in the Dogmatic Constitution Lumen gentium a picture of post mortem retribution with notable “relational” characteristics.  Chapter 7 deals with the eschatological dimension of the Church.  Nos. 48 and 49 are particularly interesting:  
•	No. 48 reminds us that judgment and retribution for each man occurs right after death:  “Since we know neither the day nor the hour, we should follow the advice of the Lord and watch constantly so that, when the single course of our earthly life is completed (cf. Hebrews 9:27), we may merit to enter with him into the marriage feast and be numbered among the blessed” (cf. Matthew 25:31-46).  
•	No. 49 deals with the present union between the Church triumphant, Church suffering and Church militant, and describes the blessedness of the saints even before the resurrection:  “When the Lord will come in glory, and all his angels with him (cf. Matthew 25:31), death will be no more and all things will be subject to him (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:26-27).  But at the present time some of his disciples are pilgrims on earth.  Others have died and are being purified, while still others are in glory, contemplating ‘in full light, God himself triune and one, exactly as he is’.”
The profession of faith of Pope Paul IV (1968) also touches on this topic (no. 29).
And the teaching of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992) about death can be summarized as follows:  
•	Death is a mystery:  “It is in regard to death that man’s condition is most shrouded in doubt.” (no. 1006)
•	It is a mystery rooted in the mysterium iniquitatis.  “Death was therefore contrary to the plans of God the Creator, and entered the world as a consequence of sin.” (no. 1008)
•	Christ, upon assuming death itself, changed its (negative) sign:  “Jesus, the Son of God, also himself suffered the death that is part of the human condition.  Yet, despite his anguish as he faced death, he accepted it in an act of complete and free submission to his Father’s will.  The obedience of Jesus has transformed the curse of death into a blessing.” (no. 1009)
•	For the Christian, to die has a positive value:  “Because of Christ, Christian death has a positive meaning:  through baptism, the Christian has already “died with Christ” sacramentally, in order to live a new life; and if we die in Christ’s grace, physical death completes this “dying with Christ” and so completes our incorporation into him in his redeeming act.” (no. 1010)
•	Death opens up to Life:  “Those who die in God’s grace and friendship and are perfectly purified live for ever with Christ.  They are like God for ever, for they ‘see him as he is,’ face to face.” (no. 1023)  For some, further purification after death may be necessary:  “All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.” (no. 1030)
•	It is also possible for death to lead to a negative destiny:  “To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God’s merciful love means remaining separated from him for ever by our own free choice.  This state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed is called ‘hell’.” (no. 1033)
•	It can be said, therefore, that retribution starts after death:  “Each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death, in a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ:  either entrance into the blessedness of heaven—through a purification or immediately,—or immediate and everlasting damnation.” (no. 1022)
•	Death closes the time that the individual disposes to decide his definitive destiny.  “Death is the end of man’s earthly pilgrimage, of the time of grace and mercy which God offers him so as to work out his earthly life in keeping with the divine plan, and to decide his ultimate destiny.  When ‘the single course of our earthly life’ is completed, we shall not return to other earthly lives:  ‘It is appointed for men to die once.’  There is no ‘reincarnation’ after death.” (no. 1013)
•	Only at the end of time will retribution acquire its complete form:  “God, in his almighty power, will definitively grant incorruptible life to our bodies by reuniting them with our souls, through the power of Jesus’ Resurrection.” (no. 997)  “All the dead will rise, ‘those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.” (no. 998)
2.  Theological Reflection:  Death, Anthropologic Mystery Illuminated by Christ
a)  Relational, Christological and Paschal dimension of death
A deeply “relational” character informs Christian faith:  God and man appear in the light of Revelation as beings-of-relation.  Consequently, eschatology sees the final fullness as a consummation of the potency of relation between the divine Persons and created persons.  We would see a humanity incorporated—by the Spirit—to the Person of the Son and, consequently introduced fully into a filial relation with the Father and a fraternal relation with all other men.
Very significantly, the Catechism of the Catholic Church refers to death as “The Christian’s Last Passover” (Part Two, Section Two, Chapter Four, Article 2, I).
With this Christological-Paschal view, the believer sees the opportunity that is offered him to personally face death as Christ did—filially and confidently—to thus convert his own dying into a definitive seal of his Christiformation, the sure guarantee of his glorious resurrection.
b)  The particular judgment 
(i)  The particular judgment as a corollary of the doctrine of retribution mox post mortem
Although Revelation speaks principally of the Judgment on the last day, the Church believes that a particular judgment takes place at the end of the life of each person.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church says:  “Death puts an end to human life as the time open to either accepting or rejecting the divine grace manifested in Christ.  The New Testament speaks of judgment primarily in its aspect of the final encounter with Christ in his second Coming, but also repeatedly affirms that each will be rewarded immediately after death in accordance with his works and faith.  The parable of the poor man Lazarus (cf. Luke 16:22) and the words of Christ on the cross to the good thief (Luke 23:43), as well as other New Testament texts (cf. 2Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 1:23; Hebrews 9:27) speak of a final destiny of the soul—a destiny which can be different for some and for others.” (no. 1021)
The doctrine of the particular judgment is the corollary of a fundamental revealed truth:  men, upon dying, acquire different soteriological states.
In recent times the theory of the final option has been proposed (cf. L. Boros, Mysterium mortis, Olten 1962) which affirms that with death (release from the limitations inherent in earthly existence) there would be the possibility for the first totally personal act of man.  Death would then be the time par excellence to become conscious, for freedom, for the encounter with God, and the decision to unite oneself to Him or not.  In the act of dying arises, according to Boros, “the full structure of the universe, and man arrives at the very dawn of his undivided life.  Then, and only from then, is he capable of making a total decision, putting into play his total being”.  Even though the theory of the final option has the merit of underlining the qualitative difference which the moment of death would have as compared with the previous events of mortal life, it errs in undervaluing the equally decisive character of the accumulation of free decisions taken throughout one’s earthly life.
(ii)  Towards a Christological and Trinitarian concept of the particular judgment
The Catechism of the Catholic Church says:  “Each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death, in a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ:  either entrance into the blessedness of heaven—through a purification or immediately,—or immediate and everlasting damnation.  At the evening of life we shall be judged on our love.” (no. 1022)  The idea of death as the definitive seal of a personal relationship with Christ allows a deeper understanding of the particular judgment.  In fact, in the final analysis, the only real assessment that can be made of a mortal life is with reference to Christ.  Did the individual cultivate or not his union with the Lord?  Did he obey or place obstacles to the motions of the Spirit of the Son?  Did he shape his personal life as a filial Amen, or as a Non serviam to the Father?
To each man is granted one life in order to elaborate the answer, the opportune period ending with death.  Here is the deepest meaning of Christ as Judge:  not in so far as He judges us “from outside”, but rather in so far as our connection or non-connection with Himself determines our eternal destiny.
c)  One single life; definite character of earthly life, versus reincarnation theories
Revelation presents the life of man on earth as a drama.  The human being who lives in the body is a mutable creature, capable of sinning and capable of repenting; in other words, capable of progressively building up his relationship with God.
Nevertheless, Revelation, at the same time that it underlines the essentially changeable character of man during his time on earth, also talks of the definitive character of his soteriological state post mortem.  The Catechism of the Catholic Church affirms:  “Death is the end of man’s earthly pilgrimage, of the time of grace and mercy which God offers him so as to work out his earthly life in keeping with the divine plan, and to decide his ultimate destiny.  When ‘the single course of our earthly life’ is completed, we shall not return to other earthly lives:  ‘It is appointed for men to die once.’  There is no ‘reincarnation’ after death.” (no. 1013)
The Christian doctrine of a unique life contains a surprising light:  With the grace of God, one single life is enough for the fragile creature to work out his definitive identity with Christ.  (Perhaps a purification stage may be necessary, for those who die imperfectly conformed with Christ).

Digression
THE ONGOING DEBATE ON INTERMEDIATE ESCHATOLOGY
From the point of view of the living, who live immersed in space-time coordinates, there is a clear distinction between the moment of death of the individual and the day of the Return of the Lord.  Nevertheless, one can still ask, from the point of view of the dead, who has already left the river of time:  Is there also for him, “subjectively”, a phase between the end of his earthly life and the moment of his resurrection, i.e. a “waiting”?  What does it mean when we talk of an interim state, a separated soul, a post mortem purification stage?
1.  History of the Question
The modern debate regarding intermediate eschatology started in the first decades of the 20th century.  The first ideas came from scholars and theologians in the Protestant camp, beginning with Karl Barth (1922), and continued and developed by P. Althaus (1922) and E. Brunner (1953).
For these scholars, God is the Absolutely-Other:  His way of existing (eternity) is totally distinct from ours.  Upon dying, we leave our temporal level and are admitted into divine eternity.  Therefore, the human person, upon passing the shadow of death, is immediately placed before the Lord on the Day of the Parousia, the Judgment, and the resurrection.
Consequently for them:  (1) Eschatology understood in terms of separated souls should be considered as a deviation from authentic biblical anthropology.  In reality, man does not exist except as an animated body; he is always with his body—a mortal one while he lives in time, or an immortal one obtained immediately upon dying at the moment of resurrection.  (2) From the point of view of the dead, there is an immediate leap from the intra-temporal or intra-historical state, to an atemporal and meta-historical existence; from mortal life, to the risen life.  The dead immediately go to the Final Day.  (3) Since the temporal period between death and the Parousia is collapsed, it becomes obvious that individuals (even though they die in different historical moments) would find themselves immediately in a common terminus ad quem:  the day of the resurrection.  In this sense, all resurrections would be “simultaneous”.
Some time after, these ideas found an echo in the Catholic camp, where some authors took some of these theses and shaded them to formulated their own propositions.  L. Boros (1964) proposed an inchoative resurrection at the moment of death.  G. Greshake (1969), even though he agreed with Boros on the “resurrection upon death”, added that neither was it necessary to postulate an end of global history since each individual would reach the consummation at the moment of death.  J. L. Ruiz de la Pena, for his part, offered a compromise in his La Pascua de la Creacion (1996), presenting the moment of the resurrection as different but not long after the moment of death.
Discussions regarding propositions such as these have consequences in the fields of preaching, catechesis and liturgy.  They provoked the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to issue the letter Recentiores episcoporum Synodi (17 May 1979).  In 1990, the International Theological Commission published a document about Some Current Questions on Eschatology, which is like a qualified amplification of the pronouncements in the document of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.  It teaches three relevant points:
(1)	the biblical affirmation of the dual character (material-spiritual) of man (cf. Matthew 10:2);
(2)	the Judeo-Christian concept of the survival of the self or personal core of the deceased (expressed in terms like refaim, sheol, psyche) capable of communion with God (and alienation also) post mortem;
(3)	the customary way of speaking of “two phases”, which distinguishes between the moment of death and the (future) day of the universal resurrection (cf. 1Thessalonians 4:16-17; 1Corinthians 15:23; 2Thessalonians 2:8).
Taking into account biblical data, together with Patristic Tradition and the Liturgy of the Dead, the document of the International Theological Commission states that the theological proposition which sees the resurrection as occurring at the very instant of death is inconsistent with biblical thought.  Truly, the “I” of the deceased maintains a certain relationship with the world which continues in history, and it is not correct to imagine it totally separated from temporality.  
For these reasons, the Commission considers the propositions suppressing intermediate eschatology, or the two-phase concept of history, as dissonant with legitimate theological pluralism.
2.  Critical Examination of the Postures
a)  Aspects of positive theology
The Catechism of the Catholic Church uses the following language:  “The unity of soul and body is so profound that one has to consider the soul to be the ‘form’ of the body:  i.e. it is because of its spiritual soul that the body made of matter becomes a living, human body; spirit and matter, in man, are not two natures united, but rather their union forms a single nature.” (no. 365)  “The Church teaches that every spiritual soul is created immediately by God—it is not ‘produced’ by the parents—and also that it is immortal:  it does not perish when it separates from the body at death, and it will be reunited with the body in the final Resurrection.” (no. 366)
b)  Aspects of speculative theology
We could say that the man who dies sets one foot in eternity, but continues with the other foot in history while history is not yet finished:  The deceased accompanies the drama of the living (cf. parable of the poor man Lazarus) and of the world for as long as the global history of salvation goes on.
Certainly, the deceased man shares in the Life of God and participates in his eternity, but he is limited in this participation.  The creature maintains his own (finite) manner of possessing his existence, unfolding it in a succession of “before” and “after”.  It does not seem correct to imagine that the experiences of death and resurrection would actually be simultaneous.  
Existence before death and after death are two modes of living, related to each other but in a way that is difficult to understand by us who possess only half of the experience.  
Any study of this matter would have to respect essential points of Christian faith, such as:  
•	the mysterious relationship between the present mortal body and the glorious body; 
•	the Assumption of Mary, anticipation of our own glorification; 
•	the usefulness of praying for the dead; 
•	the need for total purification before entering into eternal rest in the Lord; 
•	the unity and mutual relationship between the individual judgment and the universal judgment.

Chapter 13
PURIFICATION BEYOND THIS WORLD
“Those who die in God’s grace and friendship imperfectly purified, although they are assured of their eternal salvation, undergo a purification after death, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of God.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1054)  The doctrine of “Purgatory” contains two dogmatic affirmations:  (1) the existence of a purification stage through which all those who die in the grace of God but without being fully ripe for divine communion have to go; and (2) the usefulness of the prayer of the living for the dead who are in their purification stage.
1.  Scriptural Basis of the Doctrine of Purification after Death
a)  The necessity for purification before Holy God, in the Old Testament
(i)  Divine Sanctity, human purification
In the Old Testament, we find an insistence on three ideas which underlie the notion of post mortem purification:  (1) Only Yahweh is holy, and only holy ones can get close to Him:  Due to this truth, man feels and suffers a need for purification.  (2) It is Yahweh who purifies; but man should desire purification and ask for it with the help or mediation of others.  (3) Man reaches salvation not only individually, but forming part of a community.
•	Holy God requires sanctity.  “Holy, holy, holy, the Lord God of hosts, all the earth is full of his glory.” (Isaias 6:1-3)  Despite the abysmal distance, God wants to be “the Holy One of Israel” (Isaias 5:19-24).
This idea is codified in the cult of Israel, especially in the law of legal purity and the law of sanctity found in Leviticus 11-16 and 17-23 respectively.  More than the ritual prescriptions which these laws detail, they transmit a fundamental teaching:  Only the perfect one deserves to go before the presence of God.
As a corollary of the requirement for sanctity, there is the conviction that purification is possible.  Despite his miserable condition, man can aspire to get close to God… after a cleansing.  The prophet Isaias, overwhelmed by the vision of God thrice holy, is purified to be a worthy emissary.  In Leviticus, numerous procedures for legal purification are detailed.  Taken together, they foster the conviction that it is possible to pass from impurity to purity, to somehow be worthy of being present before God.  
•	God purifies the well-disposed man.  The prophets declare decisively that it is Yahweh who mercifully purifies men who desire it.  They frequently use the image of fire, a medium for purification that is less material and more efficacious than water, to indicate the purifying role of Yahweh (cf. Isaias 1:25; 6:7).
In many prophecies of salvation, fire symbolizes the sovereign intervention of God, not to annihilate men, but to purify their hearts.
•	Collective dimension.  Together with belief in the need for purity, recognition of the communitarian nature of salvation was clear in Israel.
The figure of the just one who intercedes for others appears frequently in the Old Testament.  It reaches its most sublime form in the mysterious Servant of Yahweh (cf. Isaias 42:1-9).  The Servant intercedes before God for the sinful people.
The notion of a collective purification is codified in Leviticus in different ways, e.g. in the institution of the Day of expiation (yom kippur) (cf. Lv 16 & 23).
(ii)  Prayer for the dead in 2Machabees
In 2Machabees 12:38-46, we notice an important development in Old Testament Revelation.  It tells us how, after a battle, Judas and his soldiers find little idols in the clothes of the fallen Jews.  Judas prays with his soldiers “asking that their sin be completely pardoned.” (v. 42)
In these latter texts of the Old Testament, the following are emphasized:  (1) the need for purification after death of those in an imperfect moral state (i.e., with sins); and (2) the efficacy before God of the prayers of the living for obtaining pardon for the sins of the dead.  
We can therefore affirm that by the end of the Old Testament period we already find formulated the belief that the living, fulfilling a role of solidarity and intercession, could somehow make up for the purification which the dead failed to do in life.  
Thus, the mystery of solidarity in salvation is seen in all its fullness, reaching members of the community both living and dead.
b)  Progressive and communitarian character of human sanctity, in the New Testament
The preaching of Jesus extends the fundamental lines of Old Testament Revelation.  In the first place, he takes up again the primordial reasoning of the law of sanctity: “Be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48)  Only the clean of heart shall see God (cf. Matthew 5:8).  The requirement of sanctity that Jesus preaches is radical and total (Matthew 18:34):  He who learns to practice charity fully, only he is perfect, only he can be admitted into the Kingdom.
The writings of the New Testament also deepen our understanding of the communitarian aspect of salvation:  Christ, the hagios, clean, without stain of sin, offers himself as the Lamb to take away the sin of mankind, fulfilling the prophecy of Isaias of the suffering Servant and Savior.  
Christians, as members of a priestly people, participate in the priestly action of Christ, offering their persons in union with the Lord as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.  The Christian community appears as a living whole united to Christ, and forms an organic structure of salvation.  For St Paul, the concrete image is that of a body, vivified by the Spirit and united to the Head (Christ) (cf. 1Corinthians 12:12-30).  Salvation is attained to the extent that one is inserted into Christ, the Holy One, beloved Son of the Father.  
The more one is united to Jesus and becomes a son of the Father, the more he participates in the intercessory power of Christ before the Father, and—as intimate friend of God—is able to intercede for others. 
2.  History of the Dogma of Purification Beyond This World
a)  The ancient tradition of praying for the dead
The Patristic idea of post mortem purification is born, not so much out of speculation, as from the real perception of different degrees of sanctity in Christians.  From here arise spontaneously, since the earliest times, two different practices:  the invocation of the martyrs and other great saints; and intercessory prayer for the other dead.
At the beginning of the 3rd century, Tertullian speaks of the practice of praying for the dead as something received by Tradition (and, therefore, very old) (cf. De corona 3:3).
b)  Development of the doctrine of post mortem purification in the Fathers
The thinkers of the school of Alexandria propose the peculiar theory of a fire which is applied to dead sinners to obtain their regeneration, converting even the impenitent (theory of the apokatastasis).  Clement of Alexandria believes that this fire is applied only to sinful souls, “applying it to the unrepentant against his will”.  In the final analysis, this would imply that hell is temporal.  
Origen, successor of Clement in the school of Alexandria, speaks also of a “fuego sabio” (wise fire) which produces varied effects:  depending on the cases, it can burn, cleanse, or delight.  
St Augustine takes up the question about prayers for the dead, talking of the varied usefulness depending on the post mortem state of the deceased (cf. Enchiridion 29:110).  He clearly takes up the following:  (1) the diverse possible degrees of union with God in the mortal life; (2) the corresponding post mortem situations to which these degrees of union lead; and (3) the varied usefulness of prayers for the dead, depending on whether we are dealing with saints, the mediocre, or the damned.
c)  The divergent perspectives of the East and the West
Both the Greek Church and the Latin Church coincide in the basic idea of a possible stage of purification beyond this world.  Divergences did not arise until the 13th century, when the Greeks start to show discomfort regarding certain aspects in the development of Latin theology.  Among them is the linguistic transition (since the 12th century), from the adjective purgatorius (purgatorius ignis), to the subject purgatorium which connotes a place (since the Greeks would rather speak of a state or situation).
Still, Pope Innocent IV in a 1254 letter to Cardinal Odon, Legate of the Holy See to the Greeks, believes that the Greeks coincide with the Latin Church in the substance of the doctrine.
d)  Luther’s rejection of Purgatory, and the response of Trent
The strongest criticism against the doctrine of post mortem purification occurs during the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century.  The basic ideas of Luther that lead him to finally reject the doctrine of Purgatory are:  (1) sola Scriptura (Luther declares that there is no mention of the doctrine of Purgatory in Sacred Scripture); and (2) sola gratia, sola fide (If the justice of the Son imputed to us is more than enough to save us, if the work of Jesus fully satisfies for our sins, if we sinful men have no capacity to obtain salvation for ourselves and for others, what is the point of speaking of imperfect sanctity in the believer?  And what is the point of speaking of the value of any action of the living in behalf of the dead?)
The answer of the Council of Trent is found in a canon of the Decreto sobre la justificacion (Session 6).  Canon 30 about justification prays thus:  “If anyone would say that, once the grace of justification is received such that the guilt of any repentant sinner is forgiven and the consequent eternal punishment is erased, there remains no more consequent temporal punishment which has to be paid whether in this world or in the other in Purgatory before the gates to the kingdom of heaven could be opened, let him be anathema.”  Basically, this canon defends certain graduations in the process of man’s sanctification and in the remission of sins and punishment, against the Protestant posture that for man (intrinsically a sinner) there can only be two possibilities (either the perfect justice of Christ is imputed to him, or not; none of this partial sanctity).
Another Decree of the Council of Trent, about Purgatory (Session 25), reaffirms the existence of Purgatory and deals with the practice of offering suffrages for the dead.  If we see this in the context of a global defense of the Church as “mystery-in-the-institution”, i.e. a visible-invisible community of salvation, we would understand that the defense of indulgences is of great importance:  Despite the abuses on the part of some Catholics, it is a defense of a core principle, of “solidarity in salvation”, the solidarity of the saints with the imperfect, of the living with the dead.  In this way, the question of indulgences (a tragic divisive point for Christians in the 16th century) becomes linked to an immense mystery:  the salvation by God of men, with men.
e)  Purification beyond this world and the communion of saints, in the contemporary Magisterium
Already in modern times, we find in Vatican II important references to the mystery of purification beyond this world.  We find the most extensive and significant exposition in the eschatological section of Lumen gentium.  No. 50 summarizes how the mystery of the communion of saints is lived in the Church.  
The doctrine of Purgatory was not born principally from theories, but from an experience:  that some, even though they try to live as disciples of Christ, do not manage to reach such a degree of sanctity so as to be able to enjoy the vision of God right away.  This experience of real imperfection of sanctity in the life of particular Christians, together with the conviction that nothing imperfect can be admitted to the divine company, leads naturally to the practice of imploring God to admit the deceased to his presence.  Such a pious activity is, basically, the expression of a filial desire—in union with Jesus—addressed to the Father, for the salvation of all our brothers in the faith.  The conviction of the usefulness of this petition has always been strong, even though the mechanism by which help to the dead is effected has not been explained in detail by the Magisterium.  Simply, the children of God dare to ask, and they know they are heard. 
3.  Theological Reflection:  Purgatory as Mystery of Final Maturation
a)  The gradual character of sanctity, a process which can remain unfinished during earthly life
“You therefore are to be perfect, even as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48)  As disciples of Christ, Christians are called to grow in love for the Father during life on earth, to finally present themselves blameless in his presence (cf. 1Thessalonians 3:12-13; 2Corinthians 7:1; 1John 3:3).  This call implies a continuing effort to correct all moral imperfection and eliminate all affinity with sin.  The partial and gradual character of the man’s participation in the sanctity of God brings with it the real possibility, well understood by successive Christian generations, that in some cases a sublime degree of sanctity is not achieved.  And given that no one with the shadow of moral imperfection can be united to Holy God, the question spontaneously arises:  What happens to the imperfect who die?
Church Tradition formulates the answer in terms of a purifying stage after mortal life.  The doctrine of Purgatory simply means that the process of perfection, if it is not completely fulfilled in this life, can be continued and consummated after death for those who die as friends of God.  There is a delay in full communion with the Trinity while one does not reach maturity of love and sanctity (though this delay, from the point of view of the dead himself, is not measured in earthly terms:  seconds, minutes, months, years, centuries…)  “All who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, no. 1030)  The purgatory state, understood as a mystery of final maturation, is very consistent with the holiness, justice and mercy of God.

b)  Theological and personal dimension of purification beyond this world 
Charity infused in the creature by the Holy Spirit produces the ardent desire to be pleasing to the Father, like the Son.  A suffering of love arises in the individual who dies united to Christ but who sees himself still imperfectly configured to him and therefore unfit to stand before the Father.  Full familiarity with the Trinity is already practically reached, there being no permanent obstacle intervening; nevertheless the human subject sees himself unripe in Love.  And that love, since he already enjoys a certain intimacy with God, is turned into sorrow upon seeing his full encounter with his Loved One delayed.
We are dealing, then, with a pain of delay, analogous to the nostalgia of Christians for the Parousia. 
c)  Communitarian dimension of the mystery, solidarity in salvation: the mystery of the communion of saints
The Kingdom, still in its incipient state, is a united community of salvation.  It begins with the Incarnation, and grows throughout history with the incorporation of more and more men.  The Person of Jesus is like an anchor fixed inside the Trinity which permits all men to access the divine intimacy:  first during earthly life through Baptism; and after death which for the just is a dying-in-Christ.
From his seat at the right hand of the Father, Jesus intercedes for the living and the dead.  And those who are associated with him pray together with him:  They pray with him as part of the total Christ (vox una, quia caro una, says St Augustine).  The members who are still on earth pray with him for the dead, while the saints who are already definitively incorporated to him pray for the living, in an organic mystery of charity.  Within this Christological and communitarian context, the practice of praying for the deceased (and trust in the intercession of the saints) is but natural.  We find ourselves immersed in a great transpersonal and supra-temporal network of charity.