Christians know that the moment of death is decisive. Though the passage from life to death is mysterious, the Church makes clear what lies beyond the veil.
At death, we become unchangeable, rather like angels. Once we leave time—the realm of choice, and so also change—we remain stably what we have become. The last moment of life in the body and in time is the last moment of decision.
“We will remain unalterably what we have become.”
It’s likely that we’ll be aware immediately what we made of ourselves. We realize at once who we are, what we’ve done, who God is, and how we stand in relation to him. People who report near-death experiences often describe something like a sudden vision of their whole life.
