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My brothers and sisters in Christ, when a Pope used to be enthroned as Pope, for many centuries the ceremony was truly remarkable and was very beautiful. It’s been simplified in recent years, but up until not so very long ago the newly elected Pope would be carried on his sadia justitoria , his guilt chair, on the shoulders of a dozen strong men, and he would be carried into Saint Peter’s and tens of thousands of people would be present for his enthronement. He wore a magnificent golden coat, he was walked and accompanied by hundreds of Bishops and Cardinals, and as he entered Saint Peter’s there was a course of musicians that would play silver trumpets. The procession worked its way to the high altar of Saint Peter’s, and just as the procession was nearly to the front, a Franciscan Monk would step out from the side and he would step in front of the chair and he’d be wearing his brown burlap of the Franciscans, and the procession would grind to a halt and the trumpeters would stop playing, and the people by the tens of thousands would become dead silent. And then in the silence the monk would speak out, and he would cry and point to the Pope, and he would say to him: "Remember you are a man, remember that you will die." The monk reminded the Holy Father that all of that magnificence and beauty was not for him, but for Christ Jesus, whose Vicar on earth he is. It was a reminder that like every other person he one day would die, and he would stand before the judgment seat of God, and like every other man would be judged.
Like the Popes, the reading from the Holy gospel this day reminds us that we too will die, that we too one day will stand before God who’s made us. We too will be judged by God who separates mankind into two great groups, like a shepherd separating sheep from goats. One group will be saved we are told, one group will be dammed. The just will go to eternal life and the dammed to eternal punishment without end.
Who will be deserving of eternal life? That really is a question that consumes us today. Who will be worthy of eternal life? And the gospel encourages us: "Those who have sought to love God, those who have tried to love God, those who have served God by serving His creatures, our brothers and sisters will be worthy of salvation." Our Lord assures us in this holy gospel: "As long as you have served one of My little ones placed into your care, you have served Me. If you have clothed My little ones, fed them, visited them, encouraged them, told them of Me, you will receive the reward promised to God’s good servants."
On this feast of Christ the King, the holy Mass and the readings we’ve heard dwell upon what we call "The Last Things", remember that phrase?  "The Last Things", our judgment, heaven and hell, purgatory, the second coming of Christ at the end of time. What do we know about this things through our Holy Faith? That’s what I want to talk about this morning; to take each of those topics one by one.

Death is the separation of our soul from our body. And each one of us, we can be very safe to assure ourselves will never escape death. Each one of us will reach a moment when our body has worn out because of time or because of accident, or because of disease our body will simply wear out. There will come a point where our body becomes so damaged that it will no longer be able to support the operations of the soul, the soul will no longer be able to operate through the body, and at that moment the soul will leave the body and we will truly be dead. We do not know the exact moment of our death; is it when the heart stops beating? Is it when our minds ceases to function? We don’t know the exact moment, but when the soul has left the body, then most certainly we will be dead. And at the very instant our soul leaves our body, at that very moment, we will be judged by God right where we are. At the moment of death God’s judgment will be there, (judgment) by God who has created us and desires our eternal happiness, even while our family members are still around our bed, while they fold our hands over our heart we will have already been judged by God. And we will know beyond any doubt what our eternity will be, whether with God or apart from Him; we will know that without any doubt, the instant of our death. We call this moment...what do we call this moment? The particular judgment, the individual judgment of our soul by God.
Did we love God? Did we show our love by our actions? Did we show our love by our deeds of love by brothers and sisters placed into our care. There is an old phrase that is very beautiful: "Where ever I go, it is my love that takes me there." Isn’t that beautiful? "Wherever it is that I go my love is what takes me there."
Unless we enter eternity with love for God in our hearts, love for God in forming our deeds we will be incapable of experiencing the eternal happiness of heaven.
What happens next after our judgment? Well, we know one of three things will happen; lets tackle the unpleasant one first:
If a person through their life has consistently chosen themselves over against God, if someone dies without turning back to God, if someone dies without any love for God in them, then they die in state of mortal sin, of that we are certain. They have deliberately cut themselves from God during a life of refusal to love God, and in death they will not be able to find any way to establish contact with God. Remember it is love that binds us to God, if there is no love there is no bonding to God. They have lost God for ever and for such a person, the moment of their death and judgment and hell are inseparable, they happen in an instant, and hell lasts for eternity, it is irreversible. Hell is an irreversible pain caused by the loss of God, a loss for which they know they alone are responsible. There is the fire of hell, our Lord tells us of  that, but that is nothing compared to the loss of God which is experienced for all eternity. It is frightening just to think about this, it makes our skin crawl just to think about it; and so in this feast day we renew our prayers for our loved ones that they’d be safe in their love and service of God. We pray for them, that all we love will fully accept the love of God which is poured out to them through the Sacred heart of Jesus. For that we pray.
Just a note; it is so important when someone is near death to call upon a priest for the anointing of the sick and for the final absolution or final blessing. And a person can be conditionally anointed for up to an hour or two after what appears to be their apparent death, because we don’t know the exact time of death.
If a person receives this Sacrament of the anointing of the sick and the final absolution, if they receive it with a perfect and a selfless love, then the forgiveness of their sins will be total. If they die having received the anointing of the sick -just listen- with a perfect love for God, and they receive that Sacrament, the instant of their death and judgment will be the instant that they see God in heaven. There will be instant total pardon, and their reward and vision of God will be instant. To receive that Sacrament with perfect love is to instantly receive the reward of heaven at the moment of our death. That is remarkable! It speaks of the power of salvation that is available to us through the Sacraments. So call a priest if a love one is near death.
Your judgment and the reward of heaven will be given at the instant of death if those Sacraments are received in pure love. This is what we pray for ourselves and our loved ones. And the happiness of heaven will be something that no one can ever take from us, we will possess God, and God will possess us. The unity between our souls and God will fill us with ecstasy. The shattering and soaring happiness will make a joy out of all that we have suffered in this life.
But what if we are in between? What if we die, not in a state of mortal sin but we die without that perfect love for God which is necessary for immediate union with God in heaven. What becomes of us? And I suspect that’s going to be me and most of us, that will be the majority of us. We are somewhere in between.
Purgatory remains an essential teaching of our Faith. It’s not old fashion, it’s not something that we no longer teach, you may not hear about it as much, but purgatory remains an essential teaching of our Holy Faith, for it is the great sign of God’s loving mercy for us.
We are not deserving of hell, and yet the immediate sight of God would be beyond our strength, it would be too much for us, because we bear sins within us and imperfection within us. Purgatory is a purification of the soul so that in perfection we can be united to God who is perfect. Is there pain in purgatory? Yes, there is, that we know; but it is a pain that comes from knowing without any doubt the beauty of God, the lovableness of God, the remarkable power of God and the knowledge that we are separated from Him for a time because of our own fault.
At a moment a person dies we will feel the full power of God’s pull upon our soul, God’s love will be like a powerful magnet drawing us, and yet our sin will be like a barrier holding us back, and in purgatory our soul will be like a bird, beating against that barrier and with each of the painful moments beating against the barrier of our sin crazed with hunger for God we will beat against those remaining imperfections until we are purged by the agony of this hunger, the barrier will fall and there will be God forever; and embrace without end.

One more topic: When will Christ come again? When will Christ second coming happen? When will He come to judge all of creation? Well, we simply don’t know when this second coming or general judgment will take place, we simply do not know. We do know that His coming will not bring an end to creation but a new and a glorious beginning where all death is destroyed, all sin, all sorrow is banished for ever.
When will this happen? It could be tomorrow, it could be a million years from now, and tomorrow is no more likely than a million years; we do not know when it will happen, and to be honest, we don’t care. That is between the three persons of the Trinity, they know, we don’t care. The reason that I say that is, a number of you are very consumed by this belief that Christ is coming very soon, there is even a belief that our Lord might come in nineteen ninety eight. Why do they say that? Well, six, six, six is the number of the devil, if you multiply that by three, that is nineteen ninety eight, that is when Christ is coming again...  That is non-sense, we don’t know when Christ is coming. It may well be a million years, and it’s likely to be a long time, we do not know.
Some people are consumed with saving food and everything to prepare for Christ’s coming, we just don’t know, we are wasting our time and our spiritual energies. All of this is in God’s hands; the second coming of Jesus is to be awaited with excitement, not to be feared, all is in God’s hands. What must concern us now is our own particular judgment, what we do know is that Christ is coming soon, at the hour of our death, that we know, and for this we prepare, for this we await in joy.