Theological Foundations new file

184 Theological Foundations Cross, this Only Son of God rose from the dead and after forty days assumed the reign of the Heavenly Kingdom. It is from there that He will come to judge the living and the dead. 36 Those who during Christ’s earthly life treated Him with contempt and did not want to follow Him, will now be overcome with confusion and embarrassment. In their opinion, they killed Him justly and treated Him like the worst criminal. Now, as they see His Majesty and Glory, they will realize what terrible disgrace they have brought upon themselves. All those, in turn, who had once followed the scorned Jesus, proclaimed His teaching and, out of love for Him, accepted not only contempt but also death, will now share in great joy. 37 Christ will come to the judgment with all those who have accepted their personal cross. It will be just then that the lovers of the Cross will take their places at the right side of the Crucified One, full of hope and certain of their salvation. But those who treated the Cross with contempt will stand at the left side. Their consciences will be filled with unspeak- able anguish as they come to realize the enormity of the evil which they have committed. All evil will be revealed to the entire world. The virtues and the merits of the saints will also be revealed to the entire human community and to the inhabitants of heaven. 38 Turning both to the Bible and to his own imagination, the author depicts the fate of the condemned in a very vivid and, at the same time, shocking manner. He provides a detailed description of the various pun- ishments of hell in order to warn man against this terrible reality which he prepares for himself when he turns away from God. This description is an example of the 17th century catechesis on the ultimate affairs of man. As Father Papczynski paints his vision of hell, he tells us to imagine a deep abyss in which we can experience various punishments. Then he shows us two areas: one is an area of unquenchable fire, the other — an area of unbearable cold. There he sees the souls in the form of sparks fly- ing from the flames into the cold and then, like thick snow or icy hail, they return to the flames. Like iron, the souls become burning-hot in the