The Catholic
Hope
313.
What is the Christian hope?
The Christian hope is
to live with confidence in newness and fullness of life, and to
await the coming of Christ in glory, and the completion of God's
purpose for the world.
314.
What do we mean by
the coming of Christ in glory?
By the coming of
Christ in glory, we mean that Christ will come, not in weakness but
in power, and will make all things new.
315.
What do we mean by heaven and hell?
By heaven, we mean
eternal life in our enjoyment of God; by hell, we mean eternal death
in our rejection of God.
316.
Why do we pray for
the dead?
We pray for them,
because we still hold them in our love, and because we trust that in
God's presence those who have chosen to serve him will grow in his
love, until they see him as he is.
317.
What do we mean by the
last judgment?
We believe that Christ
will come in glory and judge the living and the dead.
318.
What do we mean by the resurrection of the body?
We mean that God will
raise us from death in the fullness of our being, that we may live
with Christ in the communion of the saints.
319.
What is the
communion of saints?
The communion of
saints is the whole family of God, the living and the dead, those
whom we love and those whom we hurt, bound together in Christ by
sacrament, prayer, and praise.
320.
What do we mean by
everlasting life?
By everlasting life,
we mean a new existence, in which we are united with all the people
of God, in the joy of fully knowing and loving God and each other.
321.
What, then,
is our assurance as Christians?
Our assurance as
Christians is that nothing, not even death, shall separate us from
the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.