Particular judgment vs last judgment

[paul_c]

I would like some insight into Church teaching on particular judgment vs last judgment. As I understand it, the moment we die, Jesus will judge us and we will either go to Hell , Purgatory or Heaven immediately, with those in Purgatory guaranteed Heaven after their purification. This is called particular judgment. However, following this, at the end of time, there is a final judgment, where men will be reunited with their bodies and then ushered into their final reward or condemnation. This is what I am having trouble with. If men are judged at the moment of their death, what is left to judge at the last judgment. Can those in heaven be now condemned or those in Hell, gain Heaven? Or is that because once dead, we are no longer subject to time and that particular judgment and the last judgment end up being one and the same? The catechism is not clear on this (at least to me) and the ask an apoligist answer was similarly vague on this point. Perhaps its one of those things, that we just don’t know.

 

[Tantum_ergo]

It is my understanding that at the last judgment all sins of all people will be made known to all, so that God’s mercy and justice will be made manifest to all.

Since Purgatory will end at this last judgment, all will be in either heaven or hell.

Therefore, those in heaven will not suffer humiliation or dread of having their sins made known, for those sins will have been ‘paid for’ and they will rejoice in God’s mercy.

And those in hell will likewise not ‘dread’ their sins being known to all, for they will be full of pride in their refusal of God’s grace and mercy.

Indeed, after death we are ‘out of time’ and it is possible that the ‘experience’ of the last judgment will be ‘experienced’ with the particular judgment; this we don’t know. What it will be like living in an eternal ‘now’ without end is hard for ‘temporal’ beings to grasp.

I hope that answers your question about ‘what’ is judged.

 

[Tsion]

JMJ

At the first, we are judged. At the end, we shall see how everything comes together, how His grace and mercy ran through all of history. We see His mercy and judgments. We will see His glory.

Please pray for my conversion.

Tsion.