QUOTATION: Judgement in Christianity

Anyone who wants Christianity to be just a joyful message in which there can be no threat of the judgement is distorting it.

--Pope Benedict XVI, “Eucharist and Mission”, Pilgrim Fellowship of Faith

QUOTATION: God's Judgement

The main reason why the just themselves will fear while awaiting the Last Judgment is that we will have to give an account not only of the idle words we have spoken, as Jesus Christ says in the Gospel, but even of the good works we have performed, according to what God declares through the Royal Prophet: I will judge justices, meaning all the good that we have accomplished during our life. He will probe it to see if it was truly good and whether anything defective can be found in it. Who of us, then, will not fear God’s judgment?

--St. Jean Baptiste de la Salle, Meditations 

QUOTATION: Judgement Day

In the eyes of the just God, before his judgment, those who share in the sufferings of Christ become worthy of this kingdom.

--Pope St. John Paul II

QUOTATION: National Sin

Men call themselves the nation when they sin in a body, and think that the nation, being a name, has nothing to answer for, and may do what it will; that its acts are only the "course of events," and necessary, as the motion of the earth. They do very rash acts, without the fear of God before their eyes, making large and bold changes (whether allowably or not, is not here the question; their plain fault being that they do not ask themselves whether or not it is allowable,-the question does not enter their minds); I say they make large changes,-they endanger God's holy religion,-they encourage scoffers and deceivers. Then, perhaps, they see they have gone too far, and they change their course; perhaps try to reverse what they have done. Now the thought never crosses them that any one has any thing to repent of; or, if they are determined to put the blame on the nation, that the nation has any thing to repent of. Accordingly, persons who hail the return of any portion of the nation to a sounder state of mind, never hint or seem to feel that a national sin has been committed, that Almighty God has books in which are set down the events of every year and day, books which will be opened at the Day of Judgment, and men judged out of them.

--Blessed John Henry Newman, "Chastisement and Mercy, " Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol.4

QUOTATION: The Clergy on Judgement Day

Let us fear lest the angered judge say to us: If you were the enlighteners of My Church, why have you closed your eyes? If you pretended to be shepherds of the flock, why have you suffered it to stray? Salt of the earth, you have lost your savor. Light of the world, they that sat in darkness and the shadow of death have never seen you shine. You were apostles; who, then, put your apostolic firmness to the test, since you have done nothing but seek to please men? You were the mouth of the Lord, and you have made that mouth dumb. If you allege in excuse that the burden was beyond your strength, why did you make it the object of your ambitious intrigues?

–-St. Charles Borromeo

QUOTATION: Angels on Judgement Day

It is to be feared that the angels, who are at present our guardians, will become our accusers at the day of judgment.

--St. Aloysius Gonzaga

QUOTATION: Guardian Angels on Judgement Day

It is to be feared that the angels, who are at present our guardians, will become our accusers at the day of judgment.

--St. Aloysius Gonzaga

QUOTATION: Last Judgement

It is true that we shall have to render a rigorous account to the Eternal Judge of all our sins. But who is to be our Judge? The Father hath committed all judgment to the Son. Let us comfort ourselves, the Eternal Father has committed our judgment to our own Redeemer. Therefore, St. Paul encourages us, saying, Who is he that shall condemn? Christ Jesus who died, . . . who also maketh intercession for us. Who is the judge to condemn us? It is that same Saviour who, in order not to condemn us to everlasting death, vouchsafed himself to be condemned and to die; and not content with this, at this moment intercedes with his Father for our salvation.

--St. Alphonsus Ligouri, The Holy Eucharist

QUOTATION: Last Judgement

At the judgment, God will know very well how to show you your acts of contempt. He will say to you: " You obeyed men. Am I of less value than a man? You respected a creature, and kept your insults for your Creator. Was it this that I deserved? " And you will not know what to answer to irritated Justice whose light will place clearly before your eyes all the horror of sin, its incalculable consequences, and your own most secret intentions.

--St. Peter Julian Eymard

QUOTATION: Teaching About Final Judgement

Wherefore, I exhort you, when we receive children from the nurse, let us not accustom to old wives’ stories, but let them learn from their first youth that there is a Judgment, that there is a punishment; let it be infixed in their minds. This fear being rooted in them produces great good effects. For a soul that that has learnt from its first youth to be subdued by this expectation, will not soon shake off this fear. But like a horse obedient to the bridle, having the thought of hell seated upon it, walking orderly, it will both speak and utter things profitable; and neither youth nor riches, not an orphan state, not any other thing, will be able to injure it, having its reason so firm and able to hold out against everything.

-St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on 2 Thessalonians, Homily 2.

QUOTATION: The Final Test

On the last day, when the general examination takes place, there will be no question at all on the text of Aristotle, the aphorisms of Hippocrates, or the paragraphs of Justinian. Charity will be the whole syllabus.

--St. Robert Bellarmine