The Life of the World to Come

The Creed ends not with a full stop but with a horizon. Its last lines speak of forgiveness, of bodies raised, of judgment and of a life that does not end. These are the last things, as tradition calls them: what happens at death and at the end of history. They can sound frightening, but in the Creed they are a promise.

The forgiveness of sins

Before it speaks of the end, the Creed speaks of mercy. Christ gave his Church power to forgive sins: first in Baptism, then, for sins committed afterwards, in the sacrament of Reconciliation (CCC 976–980). There is no sin so grave that the Church cannot forgive it, for anyone who truly repents (CCC 982).

The resurrection of the body

Christians believe not only that the soul survives death, but that at the end of time God will raise our bodies too, and reunite them with our souls (CCC 990, 997). We will be ourselves, body and soul, as Christ was himself after his Resurrection.

How is beyond our imagination (CCC 1000). St Paul uses the image of a seed: the same body, sown perishable, is raised imperishable and transformed (1 Corinthians 15:35–44; CCC 999).

Death and the particular judgment

We live only once; death ends our earthly pilgrimage, and there is no reincarnation (CCC 1013; Hebrews 9:27). At death each of us meets Christ in the particular judgment, and the truth of our life before God is made clear (CCC 1021–1022). St John of the Cross put it simply: "At the evening of life, we shall be judged on our love" (CCC 1022).

Heaven, purgatory and hell

The particular judgment leads to one of three outcomes: entrance into heaven, either at once or through a final purification, or separation from God for ever (CCC 1022).

Heaven

Heaven is not a place in the clouds. It is perfect life with the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, with Mary, the angels and all the saints, the fulfilment of the deepest longings of the human heart (CCC 1024). The blessed see God face to face (1 Corinthians 13:12; CCC 1023), and above all they are with Christ (CCC 1025). No eye has seen what God has prepared for those who love him (1 Corinthians 2:9; CCC 1027).

Purgatory

Some who die in God's friendship are not yet wholly purified. They are assured of heaven, but first something in them must be healed. The Church calls this final purification purgatory (CCC 1030–1031).

Purgatory is not a lesser hell: it is entirely different from the punishment of the damned (CCC 1031). It is the last stage of God's love making us whole. The Church has defined that this purification exists and that our prayers help those undergoing it; it has not defined how it is experienced. Scripture speaks of being saved "as through fire" (1 Corinthians 3:15), and Pope Benedict XVI, in his encyclical Spe Salvi (2007, nos. 45–48), reflected that this fire may be the encounter with Christ himself, burning away what is false.

From the earliest times the Church has prayed for the dead. Judas Maccabeus offered a sacrifice for fallen soldiers, so that they might be freed from their sin (2 Maccabees 12:46), and Christians still pray for the dead, above all by offering Mass for them, and by almsgiving and works of penance (CCC 1032).

Hell

Hell is real because human freedom is real. Love cannot be forced. To die in grave sin, unrepentant, is to remain separated from God for ever by our own free choice. The Catechism calls this "definitive self-exclusion" from communion with God and the blessed (CCC 1033). Its chief pain is the loss of God, for whom we were made (CCC 1035).

This teaching is a call to conversion, not a threat to wield against others (CCC 1036). God predestines no one to go to hell, and the Church prays that no one should be lost (CCC 1037). The Church declares that some people are in heaven when it canonises saints, but it has never declared that any particular person is in hell. We can judge that an act is gravely wrong, but we leave the judgment of persons to God's justice and mercy (CCC 1861).

The last judgment and the new creation

At the end of history Christ will come in glory, the dead will be raised, and the full truth of every life will be shown (CCC 1038–1039). Only the Father knows when (CCC 1040). Jesus' own picture of that day shows what will count: what we did, or failed to do, for the least of his brothers and sisters (Matthew 25:31–46).

Then God will make a new heaven and earth (Revelation 21:1; CCC 1042–1043). The whole universe, not only human souls, will be renewed and transformed (CCC 1046–1047). There "he will wipe away every tear from their eyes" (Revelation 21:4). We do not know how or when this will happen (CCC 1048). But the hope of it should make us care more, not less, for this earth now (CCC 1049).

Amen

The Creed's final word is Amen. In Hebrew it comes from the same root as the word for believing, and speaks of what is firm, reliable and true (CCC 1062). So the last word of the Creed repeats its first: "I believe" (CCC 1064). And Christ himself is called the Amen, God's faithful yes to all his promises (CCC 1065; Revelation 3:14). To say Amen to the Creed is to stake one's life on that yes. That is what Christian hope means (CCC 1817).

Going deeper

• Reconciliation, the sacrament of forgiveness.
• The communion of saints, on praying for the dead and with the saints.
• Anointing of the sick, the Church's care for the dying.
• Read next: CCC 976–1065 on the last articles of the Creed, and CCC 1817–1821 on hope.