Happy Epiphany!

Fun fact: Epiphany is an even more ancient holy day than Christmas! Until the last hundred or so years, it was a more important feast day in our calendar too. Epiphany celebrates God’s revelation of himself to us through his Son. On Christmas day, we celebrate one aspect of that: his birth as one of us. In the west, on Epiphany, we celebrate another aspect of God’s revelation: that this child, born of Mary, is king for Jews and Gentiles. The Magi from the East came because the stars changed: something impacting both Heaven and on Earth, something impacting all humanity had happened. In the past, the Baptism of Our Lord and the Wedding at Cana were also linked with Epiphany, because at each of these events Christ more fully revealed himself and his mission to us.

The Creed

These lines point to very challenging and important parts of Church teaching, so I will be quoting extensively from scripture and the Catechism.

He will come again in glory
(Et íterum ventúrus est cum glória,)

After Christ ascended into Heaven, angels appear to the apostles with a message:

They said, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing there looking at the sky? This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven will return in the same way as you have seen him going into heaven.”
Acts 1:11

This return is what St. John prays for at the end of the book of Revelation when he writes, Maranatha! that is, Come, Lord Jesus! This return is when the kingdom will be restored (as mentioned in Acts 1:6) and it will be a return in glory and power. When we hear someone speaking of the “Second Coming”, this is what we are referring to.

The Church teaches that before Christ’s second coming coming, she will pass through a time of great trial “that will shake the faith of many believers.” (CCC 675) This trial, we read, will unveil a “religious deception offering men an apparent solution to their problems at the price of apostasy from the truth. The supreme religious deception is that of the Antichrist, a pseudo-messianism by which man glorifies himself in place of God and of his Messiah come in the flesh.”

This was all foreshadowed at the death of our Lord on the Cross: darkness fell across the land from noon until three in the afternoon and the veil of the temple, a symbol of the separation between Heaven and earth, was torn in two. (Luke 23:44-45) After the final trial of the Church, her final Passover, a darkness we could say, Christ will return in glory.

to judge the living and the dead
(iudicáre vivos et mórtuos,)

We believe that there will be two different judgments that we experience: a particular judgment and a Last (sometimes called “Final”) judgment.

To begin to make sense of this, we must first recognize two kinds of death. There is physical death, where our soul and our body are ripped apart from each other, but this is not a death to be feared. Christ teaches us “do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather, be afraid of the one who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.” (Matthew 10:28) The other death, the one Christ tells us to fear, is the death of our soul. This happens when we fall into mortal sin, which when we separate ourselves from God through intentional and gravely sinful acts. “By rejecting grace in this life, one already judges oneself, receives according to one’s works, and can even condemn oneself for all eternity by rejecting the Spirit of love.” (CCC 679)

The particular judgment comes at the moment of our physical death. “The conduct of each [person] and the secrets of hearts be brought to light. Then will the culpable unbelief that counted the offer of God’s grace as nothing be condemned. Our attitude to our neighbour will disclose acceptance or refusal of grace and divine love.” (CCC 678) Christ desires that all might come to eternal life through him, but because of God’s great love for us, he respects our choices and the decisions that we make through the gift of free will that he gave us. At the particular judgment, therefore, the actions of our life on this earth will culminate and we will enter into our reward: “either entrance into the blessedness of heaven-through a purification or immediately,-or immediate and everlasting damnation.” (CCC 1022)

This judgment has been entrusted to Christ by his Father. (John 5:22) He is given this because he is the Son of Man. (5:27) Because Christ won salvation for us on the Cross, our salvation is through Christ. (Daniel 7:14) Not everyone who says “Lord, Lord”, but only those he recognizes, those who have chosen to join him as members of his Body by doing the will of his Father, will join him in salvation. (Daniel 7:22, Matthew 7:21-23)

“The Last Judgment will come when Christ returns in glory. Only the Father knows the day and the hour; only he determines the moment of its coming. Then through his Son Jesus Christ he 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 marvellous ways by which his Providence led everything towards its final end. 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.” (CCC 1040)

and his kingdom will have no end. (cuius regni non erit finis.)

When Christ returns in glory and all is revealed, the final victory over evil (that is, over sin and death) will be complete and the entire universe will be changed. Heaven and earth will no longer be separated.