An Apologetical Explanation of the

Particular Judgment

What is the Particular Judgment?

We have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might understand the gifts bestowed on us by God.  an we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who possess the Spirit.

The unspiritual man does not receive the gifts of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.  The spiritual man judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.  (1 Cor 2:12-15)

[Christ] has appeared once for all at the end of the age to put away sin by sacrifice of himself.  And just as it is appointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment, so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.  (Heb 9:26-28)

Everyone who has died or will die before the Second Coming of Christ is judged immediately at the time of his or her death.  This is the Particular Judgment.

The New Testament speaks of the judgment mainly from the perspective of a final meeting with Christ when he comes again.  But we also find in many places of the Sacred Scripture references to the retribution immediately after each person’s death as a consequence of his or her faith and deeds.  We know with the certainty of faith that each person, at death, receives—in his or her immortal soul—an eternal retribution in a Particular Judgment.  He or she immediately refers his or her life to Christ, going to one of three states: through a period of purification, directly to his definitive state in Heaven, or to eternal condemnation.  (Cf. CCC 1051)

The Particular Judgment is an act by which God makes the soul understand clearly the state it is in.  This illumination will lead directly either to the soul’s union with God or its rejection of him.  The General Judgment at the end of the world does not alter the results of the Particular Judgment in any way.  The Sacrament of Penance, in which we ask forgiveness for our sins, in effect anticipates our Particular Judgment and aids us to avoid the eternal consequences of our transgressions.  (Cf. CCC 1022, 1470)

The Catechism addresses this question in paragraph 1021.

The contents of this page are Copyright © 2014 Rev. James Socias (of the Midwest Theological Forum). These apologetics are reproduced with written consent of said copyright holder for St Patricks Parish, Jaffrey, NH website only. Reproduction of any sort must be approved directly by said copyright holder.

To get a hardcopy of these Apologetics or the Didache Bible please visit the Midwest Theological Forum (publisher) at: http://www.theologicalforum.org