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1st. Prelude. The Last Day.

2nd. Prelude. Grace to meditate upon it.

The Church invites us during Advent to turn our thoughts towards the Second Coming of Christ – His Coming in judgment at the end of the world. The subject of the Last Judgment is perhaps one which we are rather inclined to avoid in our Meditations; but it is one about which Our Blessed Lord said a great deal; it is continually mentioned, too, in the Epistles and in the Apocalypse, and as we shall most certainly take a part in that last great scene of the world's drama, it is surely well for us to have a rehearsal from time to time.

Point I. The Coming of the Judge

When will He come? God "hath appointed a day wherein He will judge the world in equity by the Man whom He hath appointed." (Acts xvii. 31). The day then is fixed, "but of that day and hour no one knoweth, no not the Angels of Heaven, but the Father alone." (St. Matt. xxiv. 36).

How will He come? He "shall so come as you have seen Him going into Heaven" (Acts i. 11), the Angel told the Apostles who had just watched His Ascension. He will come, that is, in His beautiful Resurrection Body, dazzling with brightness and glory, with the wounds in Hands and Feet and Side. He will come "with much power and majesty" (St. Matt. xxiv. 30) for He will come to judge, not to preach penance nor atone for sin; He will come unexpectedly "as a thief in the night" (1 Thess. v. 2) "at what hour you think not" (St. Luke xii. 40); He will come "with thousands of His Saints" (Jude 14) for all those "who have slept through Jesus will God bring with Him" (1 Thess. iv. 13); He will bring, too, "all the Angels with Him" (St. Matt. xxv. 31); He will come "with the voice of an Archangel, and with the trumpet of God" (1 Thess. iv. 15); He will come "with the clouds" (Apoc. i. 7); He will come "in the glory of His Father with His Angels" (St. Matt. xvi. 27); He will come "as lightning" (xxiv. 27) and before Him will come His Cross – "the sign of the Son of man" in the heavens (verse 30), every eye shall see it. What different emotions that sign will excite!

Point II. The Effects of His Coming

"Every eye shall see Him, and they also that pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth shall bewail themselves because of Him" (Apoc. i. 7).

"We shall all rise again." (1 Cor. xv. 51).

"The sea will give up the dead that are in it, and death and hell … their dead that are in them." (Apoc. xx. 13).

"The dead who are in Christ shall rise first." (1 Thess. iv. 15).

"We shall be changed, for this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality." (1 Cor. xv. 52).

"He shall send His Angels with a trumpet, and a great voice, and they shall gather together His elect from the four winds." (St. Matt. xxiv. 31).

"Then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them (those who died in Christ) in the clouds to meet Christ." (1 Thess. iv. 16).

"Then shall He sit upon the seat of His Majesty," (St. Matt. xxv. 31) and "render to every man according to his works." (chap. xvi. 27).

Then "the heavens shall pass away with great violence, and the elements shall be melted with heat, and the earth and the works which are in it shall be burnt up." (2 Pet. iii. 10). And all these events are to take place "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye!" (1 Cor. xv. 52).

With the vivid words of Scripture before us, it is not difficult to make a picture of the scene – the sign of the Cross where all can see it; the voice of the Archangel and the trumpet of God heralding the approach of the Judge; the Son of Man, coming in the clouds with all His Angels and thousands of His Saints (all those from Heaven and Purgatory); the cries of those to whom His coming is as that of "a thief in the night" (1 Thess. v. 2); the shouts of joy of "the children of light" (verse 5); the opening of the graves, the sea giving up its dead and the reunion of each soul, whether from Heaven, Purgatory or hell, with its body; the changing of the bodies of those who are living on the earth into Resurrection bodies; then the great multitude of the elect clothed in their bodies of immortality rising to meet their Lord in the air; then "the great white throne" set up and He who is "appointed by God to be Judge" (Acts x. 42) taking His seat upon it, "His garment … white as snow … His throne like flames of fire … thousands of thousands" ministering to Him (Dan. vii. 9, 10); the dead, great and small, standing in the presence of the throne (Apoc. xx. 12), "ten thousand times a hundred thousand" standing before Him. (Dan. vii. 10).

Point III. The Judgment

(1) The Separation. Quickly the Angels separate that vast multitude into two companies – those on His right Hand and those on His left, the sheep and the goats, those who are to enter into life everlasting and those who are to enter into everlasting punishment (St. Matt. xxv. 46); those who have been faithful over the few things entrusted to them and those who have hidden their Lord's talent; those whose lamps are burning and those whose lamps are going out. There is fixed a great chaos between the two companies, so that they who would pass from one side to the other cannot, it is too late. (St. Luke xvi. 26).

(2) The books. "And the books were opened … and the dead were judged by those things which were written in the books, according to their works." "And another book was opened, which is the book of life," and only "they that are written in the book of life of the Lamb" shall enter Heaven. (Apoc. xx. 12, xxi. 27). "Every man's work shall be manifest" (1 Cor. iii. 13); "every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account for it in the day of Judgment" (St. Matt. xii. 36). Then will be seen, and all will acknowledge it, the triumph of right over wrong, the triumph of the Kingdom, the triumph of Christ; then will be adjusted all that we have so often longed to adjust but could not, for "let both grow together till the harvest" was the King's order. Then will seeming injustices be explained and crimes that have called to Heaven for vengeance receive their just reward. Then will the unanimous cry be: "The Lord He is God," and all will be forced to add: "He doeth all things well."

(3) The Sentences.There are only two: (1) "Then shall the King say to them that shall be on His right Hand: Come, ye blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." He tells them why they are to have such a blessed reward – they have been faithful subjects of their King during their lives on earth, they have ministered to His needs, lived for Him and not for self. They seem surprised, they cannot remember doing acts of charity to their King and He explains: "As long as you did it to one of these My least brethren, you did it to Me." (St. Matt. xxv. 40). The sentence "Come" is pronounced on those who lived their lives for their King, who did all they had to do, no matter what it was, for Him, thus uniting themselves with Him, and now He will unite Himself with them for all eternity – "Come!"

(2) "Then He shall say to them also that shall be on His left Hand: Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting fire." And again He gives His reasons for this terrible punishment – they would not acknowledge Him as their King, would not serve Him, lived for self instead of for Him and His brethren: "As long as you did it not to one of these least, neither did you do it to Me" (verse 45). During their lives they separated themselves from the King and His interests: "We will not have this Man to reign over us;" now He will separate Himself from them for all eternity. – "Depart from Me!"

Then He "will say to the reapers: Gather up first the cockle, and bind it into bundles to burn, but the wheat gather ye into My barn." (St. Matt. xiii. 30). "The Angels shall go out, and shall separate the wicked from among the just, and shall cast them into the furnace of fire" (verses 49, 50). "Then shall the just shine as the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. He that hath ears to hear let him hear" (verse 43).

Colloquy.

Resolution. To remember "the doctrine … of eternal judgment" (Heb. vi. 2) to-day.

Spiritual Bouquet. "He shall come again to judge the living and the dead."