Catholic Thought discussion

Summary

Subchapters
- The Day of Judgment
- God’s Inscrutable Justice
- Testimonies to the Last Judgment from Scripture
- Testimonies from the Gospel of Matthew: Judgment and Resurrection
- Testimonies from the Gospel of John: the First and the Second Resurrection
- Testimonies from the Book of Revelation: the Binding of the Devil for a Thousand Years
- The Releasing of the Devil
- The Thousand-Year Reign of the Saints
- The Last Persecution and the Reign of the Saints with Christ
- The Last Judgment, the Second Resurrection, and the Book of Life
- The New Jerusalem
- Testimony from the Apostle Peter: the Destruction of this World
- Testimonies from the Apostle Paul: the Coming of Antichrist
- Paul on the Resurrection of the Dead
- Testimonies from the Prophet Isaiah: the Separate Ends of the Good and the Evil
- Testimonies from Daniel: Antichrist, the Resurrection, and the Eternal Reign of the Saints
- Testimonies from the Psalms: the Perishing of the World and Christ’s Coming as Judge
- Testimonies from Malachi: the Purification of the Saints and Their Pure Offering to God
- The Manifest Justice of God, the Spiritual Sense of the Law, and the Return of Elijah
- How the Old Testament Points to Christ as Judge
- The Events of the Last Judgment


Book XX takes up the subject of the final judgement, “when Christ will come from heaven to judge the living and the dead.” It is at this time that good and evil are separated, and the good will have “true and full happiness” while the evil will have merited “utter unhappiness.” Augustine takes us through both the Old and New Testaments where allusions are made to the final judgment, He describes why there is a final judgement, how it will come about, and on what basis the judgement takes place. First Augustine starts with the New Testament, taking us through the Gospels, the epistles, and even the Book of Revelation, which is a book not commented very often by the Church Fathers. Augustine makes clear that once the Last Judgement occurs, heaven and earth will disappear and a New Heaven and a New Earth will come into existence. Augustine also takes us through the Old Testament where the end of times are prophesied, such as in the Books of Isaiah, Daniel, and Malachi, and also in the psalms.

I have to apologize. This is taking me way longer than planned. It's not just the length of the reading but I've so many distractions and obligations lately.

Two more books to go. After I post Book XXI and before we get to XXII, how about we start nominating for our next read and voting? I'd like to get the book club back together and engaged.

I think that’s an excellent idea, Manny.

Book XX My notes

St. Augustine writes about happiness in the time to come after life, judgment and bodily resurrection of both good and evil people. The good will be brought to eternal happiness of both the body and soul while the evil ones will be sent to eternal punishment. Jesus Christ Himself will come from heaven to judge: "The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear shall live."

St. Augustine points that God’s justice is mysterious when we see the suffering and hardships sometimes of good people while sinners live good lives but we should “bear without distress the evils that the good also suffer and not attach much importance to the goods that the evil also acquire.” The Scripture teaches us to live in humility and practice charity. All will all be clarified on judgment day.

St. Augustine advises not to look for signs of the time of the coming of the end and quotes the familiar line that the end will come “like a thief in the night.” In the meantime, so to say, St. Augustine interprets St. John’s vision in the Apocalypse of an angel chaining a dragon, the devil, for a thousand years to prohibit him from "deceiving those nations which belong to Christ." It seems to me that St. Augustine refers to the time from the coming of Christ to the end of the world as the “thousand years.” The devil was very effective in “deceiving” many nations since the time of St. Agustine to now, in the twentieth Century alone. This apparently was not the time yet for the devil to "exert his full power of temptation." I cannot imagine what he would have done during the past Century if he was still chained up in a pit. But that time is coming, says St. Augustine, when "he and his nations will rage with all their powers" (Chapter 8). As the Scripture tells us, we would not know if we were near the end of the world.