CM reviewer

• Death


  Christians believe that human death closes the state of human life or the time of probation
• Particular Judgment


  Catholic Christians and many other Christians believe that immediately after death the souls of men and women go either to heaven (or prior to that, purgatory), or to hell definitively
• Parousia: Christ's Second Coming


  Catholic Christians have always believed that Jesus Christ would come back to close the current period of human history in earth. The time when Jesus will return is given many names: the Day of the Lord, the Parousia, the end time, and the Second Coming of Christ
• Resurrection of the Dead


  All Christians hold firmly to the belief expressed in the Bible and mirrored in the resurrection from the dead of Jesus of the resurrection of all men and women
• General Judgment


  The Bible is very emphatic in asserting that there is also a general judgment of all mankind at the end of the world. The particular judgment addresses each of us as individual and personal; the general judgment will address all of us as social, members of society. Also, after the resurrection, the body must also share the judgment of the soul. The general judgment addresses both the whole human person, resurrected body reunited with the soul, and the whole of human society
• The resurrection narratives in the Gospels portray Jesus as raised to life on the third day in his crucified body, leaving behind him an empty tomb
• 1 Corinthians 6:19 is a powerful reminder of the sacredness of our bodies as temples of the Holy Spirit. It calls us to honor and respect our bodies, taking care of our physical, mental, and emotional health, and living in accordance with God's standards and values
• The last thing the Apostles' Creed tells us about Jesus is that "He will come again to judge the living and the dead"
• Lex Talionis


  The principle or law of retaliation that a punishment inflicted should correspond in degree and kind to the offense of the wrongdoer, as an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth; retributive justice
• Death


  Christians believe that human death closes the state of human life or the time of probation
• Parousia


  Christ's Second Coming
• Retribution


  • The reward of virtue and the punishment of sin are both included in the theological understanding of retribution
  • In order to understand the concept of retribution more clearly, it is expedient to reflect on the whole chapter 28 of Deuteronomy, which declares God's blessings for obedience and His curses for disobedience
  • As to how the retribution will take place, the Lord Jesus points out that each of us will be judged according to each one's deeds
• God


  The author and Lord of life
• New Creation


  • The Bible tells all Christians what life after general judgment will be like
  • John wrote of his visions of the New Creation in his book of Revelation
  • Revelation 21:1-8 :Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. The former heaven and the former earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. I also saw the holy city, a new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband
• The current issues on the death penalty and extrajudicial killings are not just socio-political issues; they are radically moral and spiritual concerns
• No human law can justify or validate a violation of a divine law. "Thou shall not kill" is a divine commandment that does not only enjoin us to respect the sanctity of human life, but, much more so, instructs us to recognize God as the Author of life, and so He alone can take life
• Being judgmental and vindictive is ungodly
• Killing can never be a deterrent to criminality. No human authority or law can warrant death as a form of justice
• God is the Author and Lord of life. He alone can take it. "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord" (Rom 12:19)
• When we pass judgment on a person, we do not act righteously. We should always be just and merciful
• The Church condemns death penalty and killing because only God can exact full justice, for He alone can judge us
• The divine judgment is meted out at the death of the individual. This is called particular or personal judgment
• It is a Church's doctrine which says that "immediately after death the particular judgment takes place, in which, by a divine sentence of judgment, the eternal fate of the deceased person is decided" (Ott, 1974)
• The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches: "Each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death, in a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ: either entrance into the blessedness of heaven-through a purification or immediately,-or immediate and everlasting damnation" (CCC 1022)