Michelangelo’s painting of the Last Judgment is an image full of activity.
In it, people are being brought up to Heaven, but at the same time, many are also being drawn into Hell.
Certain parts of the painting are frightening, and some might not think that it is an image of hope.
Yet, Pope Benedict XVI points to it in his encyclical on hope, Spe salvi.
Grace and justice
He explains in his encyclical that the Last Judgment should give us hope:
The image of the Last Judgment is not primarily an image of terror, but an image of hope; for us it may even be the decisive image of hope. Is it not also a frightening image? I would say: it is an image that evokes responsibility, an image, therefore, of that fear of which St. Hilary spoke when he said that all our fear has its place in love.
Pope Benedict XVI further expands on his thoughts by explaining the hope there is in God’s justice:
God is justice and creates justice. This is our consolation and our hope. And in his justice there is also grace. This we know by turning our gaze to the crucified and risen Christ. Both these things—justice and grace—must be seen in their correct inner relationship. Grace does not cancel out justice. It does not make wrong into right. It is not a sponge which wipes everything away, so that whatever someone has done on earth ends up being of equal value.
We can hope in God on account of his justice and in his justice, he gives grace to all humanity.
Pope Benedict XVI continues by focusing on this interplay of grace and justice:
The judgment of God is hope, both because it is justice and because it is grace. If it were merely grace, making all earthly things cease to matter, God would still owe us an answer to the question about justice—the crucial question that we ask of history and of God. If it were merely justice, in the end it could bring only fear to us all. The incarnation of God in Christ has so closely linked the two together—judgment and grace—that justice is firmly established: we all work out our salvation “with fear and trembling” (Phil 2:12). Nevertheless grace allows us all to hope, and to go trustfully to meet the Judge whom we know as our “advocate”, or parakletos (cf. 1 Jn 2:1).
God is a just judge and that is why we can hope in him. He does not deal with humanity shrewdly, or based on a whim. We know the expectations he places upon us and we also know the immense love he has for us.
He is our Advocate at the Last Judgment and that should not give us fear, but hope in his merciful love.
And today we celebrate...