THE CREED PART V
“He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead and His kingdom will have no end.”
This week, we look at the last sentence about Jesus in the Creed. This sentence talks about His second coming and His Last Judgement.
When Jesus Ascended, He entered into Heaven in glory. All praise and worship is given to Him. He also promised to come back again someday. Right after He Ascended, angels told His Apostles, “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 1:11b). A large part of our faith is that Christ will come again. We do not know exactly when that will be or what that will look like, but we do believe that it will happen. Theologians refer to this as eschatology, or the study of “the last things”. We believe that on the last day, Jesus will come again, as the Creed says, “to judge the living and the dead”. The Church refers to this as the last judgement. All people receive a particular judgement at the time of their death concerning their faith and actions in life. The last judgement, however, will include all the living and the dead and will judge whether the person goes to eternal life or eternal death. Jesus talked about this in His ministry and included it in a few parables as well, like the Parable of the weeds among the wheat (Mt 13:24-30). The Son of Man (Jesus) will separate the weeds from the wheat and gather the wheat, but throw the weeds into the fire.
This idea of judgement can be a scary thought to some people. Many do not like the idea of being judged, even if it is being done by a loving and just God. Talking about this is not to make us scared or anxious, but rather is about getting us to take a moment and consider whether we are really ready for judgement. We should all take time every so often to do an examination of conscience. If we are conscious of sins (especially mortal or serious sins) we should get to the Sacrament of Reconciliation right away. If we are not aware of any sins, we can ask God to help us continue on that right path. If we keep doing our best, God will help us along the way.
We also state that “His kingdom will have no end”. We believe that Christ is eternal, so of course His kingdom will be eternal as well. At the Second Coming of Christ, God the Father will reign and we will have eternal happiness and peace. This is what we believe.