The Testimony of Christ: The Christian Life, the End of the World, and Eternal Life
Article III — Testimony of Christ Regarding the Christian Life
I. The New Law of Christ perfects the Mosaic Law. “Do not think that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil” (Matt. 5:17). In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ takes up the moral precepts of the Old Law as interpreted by the scribes and Pharisees and both completes and perfects them: not only homicide but anger against one’s neighbour is condemned; evil thoughts, no less than evil deeds, are forbidden; marriage is declared indissoluble; oaths are not to be lightly taken; enemies are to be forgiven; and purity of intention is required for every good work. From the very beginning of His ministry, moreover, Christ implicitly teaches the abrogation of the ceremonial precepts of the Old Law: “no man putteth new wine into old bottles” (Matt. 9:17); He foretells the destruction of Jerusalem together with its ceremonial worship (Luke 19:44); and He declares that “God is a spirit; and they that adore him, must adore him in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24). As St. Thomas explains, the Old Law is eternal in its moral teaching, but its ceremonial precepts endure only until the fulfilment of the truth they had all along prefigured (Summa, I-II, q. 103, a. 3, ad 1).
Christ’s teaching also presupposes the sacraments of the New Law. At the Last Supper He instituted the Eucharist: “and taking bread, he gave thanks, and brake, and gave to them, saying: This is my body, which is given for you: do this for a commemoration of me” (Luke 22:19). The Eucharist in turn presupposes the sacrament of Orders, instituted when Christ said to His Apostles: “receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them: and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained” (John 20:22–23).
Christ’s teaching, further, presupposes the reality of good angels and of evil spirits. Of the good angels He speaks often: “thinkest thou that I cannot ask my Father, and he will give me presently more than twelve legions of angels?” (Matt. 26:53); little children have “their angels in heaven” who “always behold the face of my Father” (Matt. 18:10); “there shall be joy before the angels of God upon one sinner doing penance” (Luke 15:10); and at the last day the angels “shall separate the wicked from among the just” (Matt. 13:49), sent forth by the Son of Man Himself (Matt. 13:41). Of evil spirits, likewise: “he cast out the spirits with his word” (Matt. 8:16); “this kind is not cast out but by prayer and fasting” (Matt. 17:20); “if I by the Spirit of God cast out devils, then is the kingdom of God come upon you” (Matt. 12:28); “Simon, Simon, behold Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not” (Luke 22:31); and Satan is named “the prince of this world” (John 16:11).
II. The Christian virtues.
(1) True sanctity. Sanctity, as a special virtue — the virtue of religion — is general in its outlook: it refers every work of virtue to God, and disposes the soul, through those very works, toward the worship of God; it implies, as its necessary conditions, both innocence and firmness of purpose in applying the mind to God. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his justice” (Matt. 6:33).
(2) Charity. Toward God: “thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind” (Matt. 22:37). Toward one’s neighbour: “thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Matt. 22:39) — and the parable of the Good Samaritan teaches that even a stranger, even an enemy, who stands in need is truly our neighbour (Luke 10:25–37).
(3) Faith. Its necessity is affirmed throughout the Synoptic Gospels: “he that believeth not shall be condemned” (Mark 16:16); external confession of the Faith is required (Matt. 10:32); “thy faith hath made thee whole” (Luke 17:19); “O thou of little faith, why didst thou doubt?” (Matt. 14:31); “where is your faith?” (Luke 8:25); “thy faith hath made thee safe: go in peace” (Luke 7:50). St. John’s Gospel is equally direct: “if you believe not that I am he, you shall die in your sin” (John 8:24). The object of faith is Christ’s own revealed word: “all things whatsoever I have heard of my Father, I have made known to you” (John 15:15). Its cause is God’s own grace working through evident motives of credibility: “this is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he hath sent” (John 6:29); “though you will not believe me, believe the works” (John 10:38). Its effects are freedom and everlasting life: “the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31–32); “he that believeth in me hath everlasting life” (John 6:47).
(4) Hope. “Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven: but he that doth the will of my Father” (Matt. 7:21); “ask, and it shall be given you” (Matt. 7:7–11); “take up my yoke upon you, and learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart: and you shall find rest to your souls. For my yoke is sweet, and my burden light” (Matt. 11:29–30).
(5) Prayer. Its necessity: “we ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1); “pray, lest ye enter into temptation” (Luke 22:40). Its conditions: right intention (Matt. 6:5), humility (Luke 18:14), faith and confidence (Matt. 21:22), perseverance (Luke 11:8), and charity (Mark 11:25). The Lord’s Prayer itself is short, perfect, efficacious, and simple.
(6) Humility, mortification, self-denial, and patience. “Learn of me, because I am meek, and humble of heart” (Matt. 11:29); “except you do penance, you shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:5); “if any man will come after me, let him deny himself” (Matt. 16:24); “in your patience you shall possess your souls” (Luke 21:19).
(7) Prudent diligence, fidelity to grace, vigilance, and zeal. There is no comparison between the Christian standard of ethical conduct and the pagan one; Our Lord Himself stresses the contrast: “if you love them that love you, what reward shall you have? … be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect” (Matt. 5:46–48). Prudent diligence is taught in the Parable of the Talents (Matt. 25:14–30), and fidelity to grace in the master’s commendation: “well done, good and faithful servant … enter thou into the joy of thy lord” (Matt. 25:21). Vigilance is taught directly — “watch ye therefore, because you know not what hour your Lord will come” (Matt. 24:42) — and again in the Parable of the Virgins (Matt. 25:1–13). Zeal, finally, in Christ’s own words: “I am come to cast fire on the earth: and what will I, but that it be kindled?” (Luke 12:49).
(8) The Beatitudes. The Beatitudes enumerate both merits and rewards: the merits are works of virtue and of the gifts of the Holy Ghost, and the rewards begin already in this life and are perfected only in heaven. “Blessed are the poor in spirit” rebukes cupidity and pride. “Blessed are the meek” contrasts with those who nurse angry and hostile feelings. “Blessed are they that mourn” contrasts with those who seek their consolation in pleasure and vanity, and who do not grieve for their sins. “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice” describes a life of active service to God. “Blessed are the merciful” demands that such active service be saturated with the same mercy and compassion that God Himself shows His creatures. “Blessed are the clean of heart” describes the contemplative life, in which every human affection is made secondary to the love of God. “Blessed are the peacemakers” describes how, in that same contemplative life, a peace the world cannot give is both received and communicated to others. “Blessed are they that suffer persecution for justice’s sake,” finally, describes the heroic service of the saints.
Article IV — The End of the World, the Last Judgment, and Eternal Life
I. The end of the world. Modernists of the “Apocalyptic” school — Schweitzer, Loisy, and others — assert that Christ announced the imminent end of the world, portraying Jesus as an enthusiastic visionary who believed He would soon be manifested from heaven as the glorified “Son of Man” of the Book of Enoch, to judge the present age and inaugurate the next; since this expectation, on their reading, was never realized, they conclude that any claim to His divinity must be abandoned along with it.
(A) Signs of the end and of the Second Coming. Christ speaks of false Christs and false prophets; of a coming as sudden and universal “as the lightning cometh out of the east, and appeareth even into the west”; and of a day when “they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven, with much power and majesty” (Matt. 24:23–31; 26:64; cf. Mark 13:21–27; Luke 17:20–36; 21:25–27).
(B) The time of this last coming is deliberately left uncertain. “Of that day and hour no one knoweth, no, not the angels of heaven, but the Father alone” (Matt. 24:36; Mark 13:32) — meaning simply that the Son, in His human nature, had received no commission to reveal that day (cf. Acts 1:7).
Rationalists and Modernists — Renan, Stapfer, O. Holtzmann, de Pressensé, Reuss, A. Réville, and Loisy among them — appeal chiefly to three texts to prove that Christ predicted an immediate end of the world. (a) After foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem and the Day of Judgment, Christ says: “amen I say to you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done” (Matt. 24:34). (b) Before the Transfiguration He says: “amen I say to you, there are some of them that stand here, that shall not taste death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom” (Matt. 16:28). (c) And He tells His disciples: “when they shall persecute you in this city, flee into another. Amen I say to you, you shall not finish all the cities of Israel, till the Son of man come” (Matt. 10:23).
Christ speaks, in the thirteenth chapter of Mark and elsewhere, of the destruction of Jerusalem and of the end of the world within a single discourse, since the first event serves as a figure of the second; it is not always easy, as a result, to determine which words belong to which. But the words of one who speaks wisely must not be read in a way that makes them contradict themselves, and both non-Catholic exegetes such as Godet and Sanday, and Catholic critics alike, show that the Rationalist and Modernist interpretation finds no real support in the Gospel text, and is in fact directly opposed to it, for several converging reasons.
First, Christ’s own parable of the mustard seed — which “becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come, and dwell in the branches thereof” (Matt. 13:31–32) — presupposes an indefinite length of time for the growth of the Church, the Kingdom of God on earth. He sends His Apostles not to Israel alone but into the whole world, to preach the Gospel “to every creature” (Mark 16:15; Matt. 28:19; Luke 24:47), and states expressly that “unto all nations the gospel must first be preached” before the Second Coming can occur (Mark 13:10); He predicts, too, that many “shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 8:11; Luke 13:29); and He tells Peter, “thou art Peter; and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18) — language that presupposes an enduring, not an imminently terminated, institution.
Second, it does not follow from Christ’s words that the end of the world was to follow immediately upon the destruction of Jerusalem. He did foretell a speedy judgment on Jerusalem specifically, but He set that judgment against the further background of a still-future, final Day of Judgment. St. Luke, in two separate passages, deliberately plays down the immediacy of the Second Coming: “Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles: till the times of the nations be fulfilled” (Luke 21:24); and Christ “spoke a parable … because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately be manifested” (Luke 19:11) — precisely in order to correct that mistaken expectation. In Matt. 24:29, the phrase “immediately after the tribulation of those days” refers to the signs of the end just enumerated — the sudden, universal lightning-like coming — and not to the destruction of Jerusalem.
Third, up to the very time of His Ascension Christ told His Apostles: “it is not for you to know the times or moments, which the Father hath put in his own power” (Acts 1:7), just as He had said before His Passion: “of that day or hour no man knoweth, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is” (Mark 13:32–33). St. Jerome comments that Our Lord deliberately willed the time of the end to remain uncertain, so that men might always watch and pray.
Fourth, the words “this generation shall not pass, till all these things be done” (Matt. 24:34) admit of several legitimate readings: some understand “this generation” to mean the whole generation of the faithful, coextensive with the end of the world itself; others take it to mean the generation of Christ’s own contemporaries, in relation only to the destruction of Jerusalem; others still take “generation” in the sense — well attested elsewhere in Scripture — of “nation” or “people,” referring to the Jewish nation as such. St. Peter, writing of the Day of Judgment, adds a further consideration: “one day with the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Pet. 3:8) — for God sees all things in a single eternal present, and the prophet is sometimes given to view future things as they exist within that divine perspective.
Fifth, the words “some … shall not taste death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom” (Matt. 16:28) are referred by some commentators to the Transfiguration that immediately follows in the narrative, and by others to the destruction of Jerusalem and the visible growth of the Church that followed it.
Sixth, the words of Matt. 10:23 most probably mean simply this: never linger in one place pressing the Gospel upon those who refuse to receive it — there will always be further, still unevangelized places to be given their own opportunity, before the Gospel has at last been preached to the whole world and the end finally comes.
Seventh, St. Paul himself warns the Thessalonians: “be not easily moved from your sense, nor be terrified … as if the day of the Lord were at hand” (2 Thess. 2:2), going on to insist that a general apostasy must first come, and “the man of sin” be revealed, before that day arrives.
It is clear, from all these considerations taken together, that the time of Christ’s last coming remains genuinely and deliberately uncertain (cf. Cardinal Billot, La Parousie).
II. The Last Judgment. “The Son of man shall send his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all scandals, and them that work iniquity. And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the just shine as the sun, in the kingdom of their Father. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear” (Matt. 13:41–43). Christ pronounces woe on the unrepentant cities of Galilee: “woe to thee, Corozain, woe to thee, Bethsaida … it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment, than for you” (Matt. 11:21–22). “Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account for it in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned” (Matt. 12:36–37). “The Son of man shall render to every man according to his works” (Matt. 16:27); and of the lost, He teaches plainly that “these shall go into everlasting punishment” (Matt. 25:46). St. John records the same teaching: “they that have done good things, shall come forth unto the resurrection of life; but they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment” (John 5:29); and Christ elsewhere describes the future state of the just as one in which “they … are equal to the angels, and are the children of God; being the children of the resurrection” (Luke 20:35–36). Hell itself He describes as a place “where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not extinguished” (cf. Mark 9:42–47).
III. Eternal life. “They shall see God” (Matt. 5:8); “your reward is very great in heaven” (Matt. 5:12); “in my Father’s house there are many mansions” (John 14:2). The life of grace, nourished above all by Holy Communion, is itself the beginning and the seed of everlasting life: “he that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath everlasting life: and I will raise him up in the last day” (John 6:55, 59).
Regarding the doctrine of the resurrection of the body, the Church teaches several distinct truths. The risen body will be the same body, both specifically and numerically, as the body possessed in this life. This numerical identity, however, is sufficiently secured by the identity of the soul alone — it is this identity of soul that already makes the boy and the grown man the same individual throughout life, notwithstanding a complete change of bodily matter over time. It follows that the risen body need not possess a single particle of the actual matter that composed it at the moment of death: the body a man bears at his death has, after death, no closer connection to him than any other matter he acquired and shed throughout the whole course of his life. When the Fathers and the Councils insist that the resurrection will be “in the flesh” that a man bore and lived in during life, they do not thereby intend to teach the material identity of that flesh in every particle, but rather to exclude the error, associated with Origen, that risen bodies will be purely spiritual, neither visible to sight nor palpable to touch. The Church honours the dead body of the faithful, but this honour is directed ultimately to the person who has died as a member of the Church, on whose behalf supplication is made that they may enjoy a happy immortality complete in their whole nature — that is, in body as well as in soul; the Church neither asserts nor denies that the very matter committed to the earth will itself furnish the material for the body to be raised at the end. Cremation, finally — a pagan custom revived in modern times partly out of hostility to the Christian rite of burial, and tending to encourage the notion that death is simply the termination of individual existence — has been condemned by the Church under the severest penalties.