As he continues this section on judgment as a setting for hope, Pope Benedict brings up the atheism that emerged in the 19^th and 20^th centuries.  He explains that the growth of this rejection of the belief in God is due in part to the reaction to the injustices present in the world.  He writes:

A world marked by so much injustice, innocent suffering, and cynicism of power cannot be the work of a good God. A God with responsibility for such a world would not be a just God, much less a good God. It is for the sake of morality that this God has to be contested. Since there is no God to create justice, it seems man himself is now called to establish justice. (SS 42)

If there is no God to determine what constitutes justice, according to this line of thought, then it falls to human beings to determine justice.  From the Christian perspective, we know this to be dangerous, for our humanity, wounded by Original Sin, is prone to error and division.  This has played out, unfortunately, in tragic ways when human beings have taken control of defining and enforcing justice according to their standard of ethics and morality.  In light of this point, the Holy Father concludes soberly: “A world which has to create its own justice is a world without hope.” (ibid.)

Perhaps you have encountered individuals, such as co-workers, friends, or family members who have concluded that God must not exist for similar reasons to those listed above.  If God is good, how can He permit these things to happen?  It is sometimes easier to decide that there is no God than to wrestle with the mystery of how God can be present while there are so many bad things that have happened, and continue to happen, with little hope that the situation will get better.

In his Letter to the Romans, St. Paul writes: “We believe that all things work for the good for those who love God and are called according to His purposes.” (Rom 8:28) It takes a lot of faith to believe this is true, that it applies to all things, even the worst tragedies.  How that will come about is certainly not clear, but the promise is given to us by the Holy Spirit speaking through the Word of God.

As Christians, words like this and many others from the Scriptures give us good ground for hope, a hope that in the end, God’s justice will indeed triumph, a justice that always makes room for mercy.  But our belief in how God will resolve all things for the good does not give us permission to disengage and just let God work it all out.  Rather, we are invited to commit to cooperating with God in bringing about a more just and more merciful world by living according to the Gospel which alone has the power to transform society in a true and lasting way.  Though we may not always see the immediate results, and in fact, we may see things getting worse, nevertheless we continue to strive to bring the Gospel values to the world around us, trusting that the Lord can and will use what seems so insignificant in our eyes to serve His Providential plan for our good and for the salvation of the world. 

As the world around us becomes Autumn, we begin to recall the fleeting nature of life. The days have shortened and continue to shorten, and the weather is becoming more bitter as we approach the winter. As the leaves fall off our deciduous trees and the grass turns more and more beige, we can’t help but see that the structure of life includes a thing we call “death.” True, the trees are not actually dying, but their external life is going to sleep. 

It is fortunate for us that the world continues this steady cycle of seasonal change. With modern conveniences like heating, cooling, transportation, etc., not much of the regularity of our daily lives actually changes with the turn of the season. We can live under the illusion that things will just keep on running as they always have. Still, as human beings who change and who one day will undergo a truly substantial change in death, we need the reminder that life here is not going to last forever. 

For the Christian, however, this reminder does not come without hope. Autumn is followed by Winter, an even bleaker season, but then comes Spring! Spring always comes, life seeps back into the landscape with every budding leaf and flower. The death of Fall awaits its Springtime, and our own natural death awaits a future resurrection. We place our hope in Christ. We have the faith that after the decline of our life and our future death, our Lord will appear like the warmth of the sun in Spring to raise our bodies to new life, never to die again. 

I offer you a poem on this theme, the falling Autumn leaves:

They fall… and silhouettes
And twigs and limbs of wooden beasts
Are left to break the white-gray sky.

They fall… some green, maroon, 
Orangeish brown warm colored
Lifeless engines of life – their hue
Suspended in time by the chilled
And buoyant breath
Of nature.

Some stay… a gradient of death
Attached to the skeleton that remains,
Still, moved by nothing
But the sharp and constant breath
Of the north.

Frozen structures devoid of feeling,
Growth, and color; dormant
Waiting for life and light. Asleep
Till boldened by the springtime sun.

As you read the title for this article, you might be slightly confused as these two words seem very different in nature.  When we hear the word ‘judgment’ (particularly as it applies to the Last Judgment), we have a sense of uncertainty, even a bit of fear.  On the other hand, hope almost always stirs a feeling of delight and peace.

With this next paragraph in Spe salvi, Pope Benedict begins the final section of the document, looking at how judgment is a setting for learning and practicing hope.  It makes sense that he would save this for last, as judgment is indeed one of the Last Things.  Instead of treating judgment as something overwhelmingly negative, the pope invites the reader to see how our awareness of judgment is meant to influence how we live here and now, and that by living according to the Gospel, we can have great peace in believing that the promise of eternal rest, for which we hope, is something the Lord delights to give us after we complete our earthly pilgrimage.  On this point, the Holy Father writes:

From the earliest times, the prospect of the Judgement has influenced Christians in their daily living as a criterion by which to order their present life, as a summons to their conscience, and at the same time as hope in God’s justice. (SS, 41)

He then explains how these two topics – judgement and hope – were depicted in the artwork of Christian sacred buildings:

In the arrangement of Christian sacred buildings, which were intended to make visible the historic and cosmic breadth of faith in Christ, it became customary to depict the Lord returning as a king—the symbol of hope—at the east end; while the west wall normally portrayed the Last Judgement as a symbol of our responsibility for our lives—a scene which followed and accompanied the faithful as they went out to resume their daily routine. (ibid.)

This highlights an important awareness that we as Christians should always keep in mind, that there will come a time for all of us – at an “unknown day and unknown hour” (cf. Mt. 24:36) when the Lord will come to us and ask us for an account of our lives.  This judgment known as the Particular Judgment, is described in the Catechism of the Catholic Church in the following words:

Each man receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death, in a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ: either entrance into the blessedness of heaven—through a purification or immediately,—or immediate and everlasting damnation. (CCC 1022)

Admittedly, this sounds a little bit dark, but it does not have to, especially when we live as intentionally as possible the commandments of love of God and love of neighbor.  This point is made in this paragraph of the Catechism, with a quote from St. John of the Cross:  “At the evening of life, we shall be judged on our love.” (St. John of the Cross, Dichos 64) We believe that God is love (1 Jn 4:16), and that He has poured this love into our hearts (Rom 5:5), and that by remaining in that love (Jn 15:9-10), our hope in His Promise is firm, for He delights to give us the Kingdom. ( Lk 12:32) Therefore, let us ask the Lord for the grace to persevere every day in that love of His, so that when we take our last breath, we will awaken to see Love Himself in the glory of Heaven.