Category: Four Last Things

Some articles may overlap between this section and the spiritual life, but, in general, here you will find any postings that treat of death, the judgment, heaven, or hell. Purgatory also fits into this category, closely associated as it is with judgment. Three of the four last things are inevitable for us all. The purpose of meditating on these realities is to instill a wholesome fear of God and a dread of His power, especially His power to cast into hell. Eternity may also be a proper subject for this section because it is the measure of duration that the saved will experience forever. Technically, the life of the damned is everlasting, not eternal. Only God lives in eternity, for that immutable now belongs to His own nature, which is without beginning or end, past or future. The blessed share in His eternal life, so their everlasting happiness, or beatitude, is also called eternal life. The beatific vision of God is eternal life. “This is eternal life,” Jesus taught His apostles, “to know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent” (John 17:3).