Q: What happens at the final judgment? In Sunday school years ago, we were told all our sins will be made public for everyone to see. But my grandchildren tell me that's not what they learn. Is this still Christian teaching? Is it then that our souls are reunited with our bodies?

A: What you say you were taught in school years ago was not uncommon, but is at best a limited and misleading way to describe traditional understanding about "the end of the world," whatever and whenever that may be.

The main truth about the "last judgment" is that Jesus Christ will come in glory and in the presence of Christ, who is Truth itself, the truth of our relationship with God will be laid bare.

In other words, we will see things as God sees them, insofar as created human beings can do so. We will understand the fullest consequences of the good things we have done or failed to do in our earthly lives. Keeping this in mind can motivate us to commit ourselves to live now as best we can the kind of life we will hope to have lived when that time comes.

But that day of fulfillment is not something to panic about or be afraid of. It is not likely any of us will be concerned on that day about what other people are thinking. We will all be too humbled by the unveiled majesty and beauty and love of God, too awed by the unimaginable debt we each owe to his mercy and goodness, to be distracted by anything else.

This is the real drift of Christian tradition about that coming of Christ when, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church puts it, God "will pronounce the final word on all history."

"We shall know the ultimate meaning of the whole work of creation and of the entire economy of salvation, and understand the marvelous ways by which his providence led everything toward its final end," according to the catechism. "The last judgment will reveal that God's justice triumphs over all the injustices committed by his creatures and that God's love is stronger than death."

Most other major Christian churches would believe something much the same. In other words, great eternal truths about God, ourselves and our world, will be revealed at that time. Our limitations and failures will be a long way from the focus of attention.

There isn't much we know about your second question. The idea of a "soul" separate from a human body is foreign to most cultures. Hebrew faith for one knew nothing of this kind of distinction in human nature. Often either "body" or "soul" could signify the human person, the "self." At the last supper, for example, Jesus uses the words body and blood to designate himself, his whole person, his "body and soul."

Thus, while soul might be used to designate the spiritual qualities of a human person, body and soul do not exist separately. A "soul" doesn't simply use a body; it is the life principle of the body and gives it its essential identity.

We're so accustomed to time-related and traditional language about these subjects that it's difficult to go beyond our usual words and concepts. But there's nothing un-Christian or unbiblical about what is said above. We simply need to see such words from the viewpoint of those who originally wrote and read the Scriptures.

As I've said before, God has chosen not to give us many details about what happens after death. What he has told us in Christ, however, is all we need to know for eternal salvation, and much more than we human beings ever imagined we could know.

The Rev. JOHN DIETZEN is a Catholic priest, retired pastor, former editor and a marriage and family educator.

The article above was found on Google and was published originally on PJStar.com