The Last Things: sixteen questions

Death is the separation of the soul from the body and the end of earthly life. The body decays, while the soul goes to meet God and awaits its reunion with the risen body. Death entered the world because of sin; God had not destined man to die.

Yes. Jesus accepted death in loving obedience to his Father and turned its curse into a blessing. For a Christian who dies in Christ's grace, death completes the dying with Christ begun at Baptism. It becomes a going home to God, as Saint Paul longed "to depart and be with Christ" (Philippians 1:23).

No. Death ends our earthly pilgrimage, the time of grace and mercy God gives us. We shall not return to other earthly lives. There is no reincarnation after death.

The Church teaches us to ask Mary to pray for us "at the hour of our death" and to entrust ourselves to Saint Joseph, patron of a happy death. To the dying she gives Christ's pardon, the anointing, and the Eucharist as food for the journey (viaticum).

Each person receives his eternal reward in his immortal soul at the moment of death, in a particular judgement that refers his life to Christ. It leads either to heaven, at once or through a purification, or to immediate and everlasting damnation.

Heaven is perfect life with the Holy Trinity, in communion with the Virgin Mary, the angels and all the blessed. It is the fulfilment of our deepest longings, supreme and lasting happiness. To be in heaven is "to be with Christ", and there each person finds his true identity.

God cannot be seen as he is unless he opens his mystery to us and gives us the power to see it. The Church calls this contemplation of God in his glory the beatific vision. The blessed also go on caring for others and for all creation.

Those who die in God's grace and friendship but are not yet fully purified are sure of their eternal salvation. After death they undergo a purification to reach the holiness needed for the joy of heaven. The Church calls this purgatory; it is entirely different from the punishment of the damned.

Because the communion of saints is not broken by death. From the beginning the Church has honoured the memory of the dead and prayed for them, above all by offering the Eucharistic sacrifice. Almsgiving, indulgences and works of penance on their behalf also help them.

Hell is the state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed. We cannot be united with God unless we choose to love him. Those who die in mortal sin without repenting remain separated from him for ever by their own choice. Its chief punishment is eternal separation from God, in whom alone we find life and happiness.

God predestines no one to hell. Only a willful turning away from God, a mortal sin, persisting to the end, leads there. The Church's teaching on hell is an urgent call to conversion, and in her liturgy she implores the mercy of God, who wants "all to come to repentance" (2 Peter 3:9).

Yes. We believe in the resurrection of the body. On the last day all the dead will rise, and God will reunite each soul with its own body, transformed like Christ's glorious body. How this happens is beyond our imagination, but the Eucharist already gives us a foretaste.

Since the Ascension his coming in glory has been near; it could happen at any moment. But only the Father knows the day and the hour. No one can fix a date, and we are not meant to try.

When Christ returns, after the resurrection of all the dead, the truth of each person's relationship with God will be laid bare, with the good we did or failed to do. We shall understand how God's providence led all things to their goal, and that his justice triumphs and his love is stronger than death. This message calls us to conversion and fills us with "blessed hope".

At the end, the Kingdom of God will come in its fullness. Scripture calls it "new heavens and a new earth": God will dwell with his people and "wipe every tear from their eyes" (Revelation 21:4). The visible universe itself will be transformed and share in the glory of the risen Christ.

No. The hope of a new earth should spur us on to care for this one, where the new human family is already growing. The good fruits of our work and love, cleansed of sin, we shall find again, transfigured, when Christ presents the Kingdom to his Father.