THE LAST JUDGMENT.
"The powers of Heaven shall be moved; and then shall they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with great power and majesty."
(The "Gospel" for the 1st. Sunday of Advent.)
1st. Prelude. The Last Day.
2nd. Prelude. Grace to meditate upon it.
The Church invites us during Advent to turn our thoughts towards the Second Coming of Christ—His Coming in judgment at the end of the world. The subject of the Last Judgment is perhaps one which we are rather inclined to avoid in our Meditations; but it is one about which Our Blessed Lord said a great deal; it is continually mentioned, too, in the Epistles and in the Apocalypse, and as we shall most certainly take a part in that last great scene of the world's drama, it is surely well for us to have a rehearsal from time to time.
Point I. The Coming of the Judge.
When will He come? God "hath appointed a day wherein He will judge the world in equity by the Man whom He hath appointed." (Acts xvii. 31). The day then is fixed, "but of that day and hour no one knoweth, no not the Angels of Heaven, but the Father alone." (St. Matt. xxiv. 36).
How will He come? He "shall so come as you have seen Him going into Heaven" (Acts i. 11), the Angel told the Apostles who had just watched His Ascension. He will come, that is, in His beautiful Resurrection Body, dazzling with brightness and glory, with the wounds in Hands and Feet and Side. He will come "with much power and majesty" (St. Matt. xxiv. 30) for He will come to judge, not to preach penance nor atone for sin; He will come unexpectedly "as a thief in the night" (1 Thess. v. 2) "at what hour you think not" (St. Luke xii. 40); He will come "with thousands of His Saints" (Jude 14) for all those "who have slept through Jesus will God bring with Him" (1 Thess. iv. 13); He will bring, too, "all the Angels with Him" (St. Matt. xxv. 31); He will come "with the voice of an Archangel, and with the trumpet of God" (1 Thess. iv. 15); He will come "with the clouds" (Apoc. i. 7); He will come "in the glory of His Father with His Angels" (St. Matt. xvi. 27); He will come "as lightning" (xxiv. 27) and before Him will come His Cross—"the sign of the Son of man" in the heavens (verse 30), every eye shall see it. What different emotions that sign will excite!