The second of the last things is judgment, which is indeed twofold: one particular, by which individual souls are judged as soon as they have departed from the body; the other general, which will take place on the last day. Both are most horrible and dreadful to the wicked, but lovely and glorious to the just. For those who desire to die happily, it is most profitable to reflect attentively and very frequently on both. That the particular judgment will follow upon the death of each person, no one is permitted to doubt, since it was declared against the heretics in the Council of Florence: that those who depart this life stained with mortal sin at once go down into the fire of hell; that those who die without lethal guilt, but owing a debt of temporal punishment, are led to purgatory; and finally that those who, after receiving Baptism, are found free of guilt and of the debt of punishment ascend straightaway into heaven to eternal felicity (St. Thomas, In IV Sent., d. 48; Dominic Soto, In IV Sent., d. 45). Moreover, it is credible, as the theologians teach, that the sentence of Christ the Judge is either signified through Angels or revealed by God to the minds of the souls themselves; but that devout souls, attended by Angels, either ascend into heaven or descend into purgatory, while the souls of the reprobate are seized by demons and hurled down into hell. This judgment can take place in a moment, because the Judge is present at hand, who, since He is God and man, knows all things even according to the form of man; for most truly did St. Peter say to Christ: Lord, You know all things (John 21). The accuser is present, who is the Devil, called in the Apocalypse the accuser of our brethren (Rev. 12); and he rushes upon the dying like a wolf, or a lion, or a dog upon its prey. The witness is present: the conscience of the soul, which, once loosed from the body, can no longer be deceived by ignorance or forgetfulness, but knows itself through and through, and sees whether it is pleasing to God or hateful to God. And so nothing prevents this judgment from taking place at once; and it may be called private, when it is considered in comparison with the judgment that will take place on the last day, which will be public and general, before absolutely all Angels and men.
But a brief account must be given of why it is necessary that those be judged again who have already been not only judged, but also rewarded with punishment or prize. The reasons are these. The first reason is on God's part: for now there is no lack of people who, seeing many just men unjustly afflicted by the wicked, who are no fewer in number, and on the contrary many wicked men abounding in temporal goods, suspect that God either does not see these things or does not care. Therefore, so that the whole human race may understand that the world is most wisely governed by God, it has pleased God Himself on the last day, before all Angels and men, to render rewards to the good and punishments to the wicked; whence all will be compelled to proclaim and say: You are just, O Lord; true and just are Your judgments (Rev. 16).
The second reason is that Christ, who was unjustly judged before men and subjected to a most grievous and most unworthy punishment, may Himself be seen before the whole world judging all the wicked from His lofty throne: so that what is written in the book of Job may be fulfilled: Your cause has been judged as that of the wicked; cause and judgment shall be recovered (Job 36:17). And so the ignominy of the Passion of the Son of God will be justly compensated by the glory of Him judging in the theater of the whole world; and then will be fulfilled that word of the Apostle: In the name of Jesus let every knee bow, of those in heaven, on earth, and under the earth (Phil. 2).
The third reason is that the recompense of the just may be complete. For the reward of justice is honor and glory. And since many men of outstanding justice have been publicly put to death as though they were criminals and wicked men, it was fitting that their justice should be proclaimed in the public theater of the whole world. To this number the holy martyrs of the Lord especially belong, who will stand crowned before the eyes of their persecutors — pagans or heretics — and of princes and kings.
The fourth reason is for the confusion of hypocrites. For there is no lack of those who die with a reputation for sanctity, though they are truly wicked — such as the Calvinist or Anabaptist heretics, and as formerly were those of whom St. Cyprian writes in his book On the Unity of the Church: « Though they should burn, delivered over to flames and fire, or lay down their lives cast to the beasts, that will not be the crown of faith, but the punishment of faithlessness; not the glorious end of religious virtue, but the ruin of despair. » And so it is necessary that at least in the universal judgment their hypocrisy be publicly exposed.
The fifth reason is that souls and bodies together may be judged. For in the particular judgment souls alone are judged, and receive reward or punishment; but in the universal judgment whole men will appear. And since souls have sinned or done well together with their bodies, so also is it right that after the resurrection souls together with their bodies should receive rewards or punishments.
The sixth and final reason is that not only the good or evil we have done in life may receive their rewards or punishments, but also the good or evil that springs from our good or evil works and is propagated until the consummation of the world may, at the consummation of the world, publicly receive praise or blame.
And to illustrate the matter with examples: there is no lack of devout men who build hospices, or monasteries, or schools, in which many either recover their health, or are formed in piety, or are instructed in the disciplines — and these works endure for a long time; others write books useful for wisdom, or for the various arts, or for piety, and propagate other good works, by which many in every age profit and help their neighbors. Nor is there a lack of wicked men who, by writing lascivious, or seditious, or even heretical books, ruin many men, and by erecting theaters for gladiatorial games, or for obscene comedies, or in some other way, harm their neighbors for a long time after their own death. Since, therefore, at the end of the world all these courses will come to their end, and the merits of all men, whether good or evil, will be consummated, it will be fitting that on that day — the most memorable of all the days that have flowed past since the beginning of the world — the sentence of the supreme, most powerful, and most just Judge be pronounced.
These, then, are the reasons why, besides the particular judgment that will take place at the death of each person, there will also be a general judgment at the consummation of the world. It must therefore be briefly explained who will be the Judge in this tremendous judgment, whence He will come, to what place He will come, whom He will judge, and what the sentence of the Judge will be. The Judge will without any doubt be our Lord Jesus Christ; for He Himself speaks thus in St. Matthew: When the Son of man shall come in His majesty, and all the Angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the seat of His majesty, and all nations shall be gathered together before Him (Matt. 25), and what follows. The Apostles Peter, Paul, and John confirm the same. Peter says in the Acts of the Apostles: It is He who was appointed by God to be Judge of the living and the dead (Acts 10). The Apostle Paul, in the same Acts, says: God has appointed a day, in which He is to judge the world in equity, by that Man whom He has appointed, raising Him from the dead (Acts 17). The Apostle John speaks thus in the Gospel: He gave Him power to execute judgment, because He is the Son of man (John 5). And in the same place: The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son.
Now He will come to judge from heaven, and He will come down as far as the air near the earth, so that He can be seen and heard by all who will be on the earth. Hear Christ Himself in Matthew: You shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven. Hear the Apostle Paul writing to the Thessalonians: We shall be caught up, he says, together with them in the clouds to meet Christ, into the air (1 Thess. 4). And this very thing the prophet Joel foretold: I will gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Josaphat, and there I will plead with them (Joel 3). Now from those words, Into the valley of Josaphat, it is rightly understood that in that place will take place the greatest judgment of all; both because the Hebrew word Josaphat properly signifies the judgment of God, and because the valley of Josaphat is near Jerusalem, on the eastern side of the temple, as St. Jerome testifies in his commentary on the third chapter of Joel. And no place could be more fitting for so great a judgment: for from there is seen Jerusalem, where Christ preached and foretold that the last judgment would take place; from there is also seen Mount Calvary, where the same Christ was fastened to the cross for the redemption of the human race, and the Mount of Olives, whence, as victor over death, He ascended into heaven. To that place, therefore, in the clouds of heaven, Christ will come with all the Angels, who are, at the least, thousands of thousands and ten thousand times a hundred thousand, as Daniel writes (Dan. 7). Now I said at the least, because it is the opinion of St. Dionysius the Areopagite (On the Celestial Hierarchy) and of St. Thomas (Part I, q. 50, art. 3) that the number of the holy Angels surpasses the number of all corporeal things.
There also, with Christ the King, will be present the whole multitude of holy men in glorified bodies, of whom it is said in the Apocalypse: I saw a great multitude, which no man could number, out of all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues (Rev. 7). In this judgment, therefore, there will be a spectacle such as has not been from the beginning of the world, nor ever shall be. Furthermore, all the wicked will be destined for eternal death; having resumed their bodies, naked and sorrowful with a sorrow greatest and incredible, they will stand upon the earth, brought by the Angels from the whole world to the valley of Josaphat and the neighboring places. Now their number will be far greater than the number of the saints, since the Lord Himself said:
Many are called, but few are chosen; and Narrow is the way that leads to life, and few there are who find it; wide is the way that leads to perdition, and many there are who enter by it (Matt. 7; 22). But if it is true, as most true it is, that the multitude of holy men cannot be numbered: how much less will the throng of the reprobate be able to be numbered? (Rev. 7) And to these will be joined the evil spirits, who also are in very great number.
These things being thus arranged, before the sentence of the Judge is pronounced, the books of account will be opened, as can be understood from the prophet Daniel and from St. John (Dan. 7; Rev. 20). What these books are that will be opened in the judgment, the Apostle Paul explains to the Corinthians, saying: Judge not before the time, until the Lord comes, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of hearts (1 Cor. 4). For God will pour forth such a light that in it the consciences of all the wicked will be discerned. All, therefore, who will be in that theater will see the consciences of all, and thereby their works, words, thoughts, and desires. O what a spectacle it will be, to see the consciences of hypocrites, liars, traitors, and scoffers, who made nothing of perjuring themselves by all that is sacred! From this disclosure of the crimes and misdeeds of all men, from which a foretaste of the sentence to come will follow, that will come to pass which is read in the Apocalypse: The kings of the earth, and the princes, and the tribunes, and the rich, and the strong, and every bondman and every freeman will hide themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and they will say to the mountains and to the rocks: Fall upon us, and hide us from the face of Him who sits upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of their wrath is come, and who shall be able to stand? (Rev. 6) And this same thing the Lord foretold in the Gospel, when He was bearing the cross on His shoulders, addressing the devout women: Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not over me, but weep for yourselves and for your children; for behold, the days will come in which they will say: Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that have not borne, and the breasts that have not given suck. Then shall they begin to say to the mountains: Fall upon us; and to the hills: Cover us (Luke 23). At last the sentence will be pronounced by the Judge saying: Come, you blessed; depart, you cursed (Matt. 25); and the just will go into eternal life, and the unjust into eternal fire.
I now beseech my readers to think and think again, often and attentively, that they too will be in this theater; and now, while they have time, to deliberate seriously on what must be done. Nor let them object that the day of judgment is still far off, so that there is no need to torment oneself before the time, as though the day of the Lord were at hand. For even if the general judgment is far off, the particular judgment is not far off, but is at hand and plainly before the door; and such as the sentence of the particular judgment will be, such also will be that of the general. And so whoever is wise ought without fail so to prepare himself to hear the sentence of the divine judgment as though it were to be heard today or tomorrow; for the hour of judgment is no farther off than the hour of death, and the hour of death cannot be far from a man who is old or laboring under a grave illness. Therefore, in expectation of so great a judgment, in which the whole sum of the matter is at stake, it is necessary earnestly to implore the Advocate, who will also be the Judge. For we have an Advocate, Jesus Christ the just (1 John 2), as the Apostle John teaches us; and again to solicit the friends of the Advocate, and above all the most clement Virgin, the Mother of the Advocate, and the Angels, and holy men. And it is fitting that we approach both the Advocate and the friends of the Advocate not only with words but also with gifts: for the Saints do not refuse gifts, which profit not them but the poor of Jesus Christ; for they themselves, blessed in heaven, have no need of our goods.