Lesson Thirty-Seventh, the final lesson of the Baltimore Catechism No. 2, discusses the last judgment, the resurrection of the body, Hell, Purgatory, and Heaven.
We will all be judged in the last judgment, so that God's plan will be revealed to all. But the final disposition of our soul is determined at our death; we will either go to Heaven or to Hell. Those who will go to Heaven yet die without having fully atoned for their sins will finish their atonement in Purgatory.
The questions are numbered consecutively with Lesson Thirty-Sixth. For more information and links to other resources, click on each question below.
A. Christ will judge us immediately after our death, and on the last day.
A. The judgment we have to undergo immediately after death is called the Particular Judgment.
A. The judgment which all men have to undergo on the last day is called the General Judgment.
A. Christ judges men immediately after death to reward or punish them according to their deeds.
A. The rewards or punishments appointed for men's souls after the Particular Judgment are Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell.
A. Hell is a state to which the wicked are condemned, and in which they are deprived of the sight of God for all eternity, and are in dreadful torments.
A. Purgatory is a state in which those suffer for a time who die guilty of venial sins, or without having satisfied for the punishment due to their sins.
A. The faithful on earth can help the souls in Purgatory by their prayers, fasts, alms-deeds; by indulgences, and by having Masses said for them.
A. There is need of a General Judgment, though every one is judged immediately after death, that the providence of God, which, on earth, often permits the good to suffer and the wicked to prosper, may in the end appear just before all men.
A. Our bodies will share in the reward or punishment of our souls, because through the resurrection they will again be united to them.
