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. [As St. John of The Cross has said,] “At the evening of life, we shall be judged on our love.”
~ Catechism of The Catholic Church
In that same hour He rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows Who the Son is except the Father, or Who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.” Then turning to the disciples He said privately, “Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.” And behold, a lawyer stood up to put Him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And He said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”
~ Jesus, King of The Universe, in Luke 10
Oh beloved, it is true.
Judgement Day is coming. It is coming for each of us. And yes, what we have done will be a part of that judgement. Our sins will be laid bare. And, make no mistake, this fool of a writer is a chief among sinners, one who has fallen short of G_d’s glory, and failed even against the seven most deadly sins of gluttony, lust, greed, pride, despair, wrath, vainglory and sloth.
But, so have you. It matters not whether you agree. The truth is the truth. But, it does matter if you will agree with your Maker, and confess the reality that you too are fallen short. For, it is written, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
However, being saved from our sins is not all that we need saving from. We need, and can be saved from another terrible enemy: ourselves.
This goes deep. And, it makes us uncomfortable.
Can we see it?
G_d is not some Cosmic Judge, simply sitting on a throne, waiting to blast us for our shortcomings and transgressions. He is not some angry, faraway Being that demands us to clean ourselves before coming into His Presence. And actually, the fact that He isn’t this, is truly disorienting. Our “religious conditioning” has driven us to some sort of thinking like this. But, the truth is really hard for us to swallow.
The Day of Judgement is not really going to be about what we have done. And again, please don’t read that to say that every behavior (read: me deciding what to do on my own terms) is OK. Because everything is not OK. And our selfish desires are actually at the root of the deeper part of the judgement.
So, back to the Day of Judgement… It is going to be worse than we can imagine. Oh, if we could have just come up on That Day with some sort of clean slate from the actions and behaviors, and just kind of squeaked through (as the Apostle Paul says, as through fire), then maybe this could be some sort of event that we might survive.
However, nothing of this flesh can bear the Heat and Fire of the Goodness we will come up against on That Day. For, Judgement Day will not be about anger and punishment for actions. Judgement Day will be about our motivations for what we did. And most importantly, they will be judged by whether we have had a profound concern for the wellbeing of the people we have come in contact with, without regard as to whether they have shown the same concern in return.
Said more simply: We will be judged on how well we have Loved people.
Oh my! Can we see it again? This is a terrible problem for us. We, to a person, are self-centered. We are constantly trying to set other people up to meet our needs – instead of us trying to find ways to meet other’s needs… And this, is actually the seed that grows into the fetid fruits of our sinful behaviors. The behaviors have flowed from our stony cold hearts.
Oh, we try to salve our wounds with a few dollars a month given to the poor. We try to be nice to people and hide our annoyance at their opinions. We try to care about our relationships, but spend too much time looking at the ledger of whether the other cared for me in return.
We are, to put it bluntly – so wrapped around our own axle, that we can’t see outside ourselves. We focus on everything, to make everything about ourselves… And, even as we try to break free, we can’t. We are in a terrible mess, and Judgement Day is Coming.
But G_d!
He has the answer for all of this too. And His death at Calvary did not just serve as a sacrifice for our behavioral transgressions. No, Christ’s death on the Cross had another incredibly powerful aspect to it. There are many more things, but this one is a doozy! Jesus’ death was not just a death FOR us. Jesus’ death on the Cross was AS us. Said more simply: we died with Him on that Day. And it is this death (ours in Him) that gives the answer to the Conundrum of Judgement Day.
We died with Him. Now, our Life is His Life. And, the Life we now Live is Love Himself, expressing His nature in us and through us.
Because of this, we now can actually Love one another, and Love G_d with everything we are. It is not a sliding scale situation. This is a binary thing. Once we realize that the old, egocentric voice of our flesh is dead; that we don’t have to kill it – it is already dead, we are free.
We now actually have the ability to care, because our nature is no longer centered on one self. There is now the eternal nature of Three Selves, Who have danced in Other-Centered Love – FOREVER, at work within us. There is, then, no learning curve. There is just a dying to the old way, and awaking to the new Life They have given us.
So, are you worried about Judgement Day? You should be IF it is still you, thinking that you need to get yourself ready to report on your behaviors. However, if you realize that you cannot ever get over the incredibly high standard of actually Loving G_d with your whole heart, and others the same – then you are actually closer to entering into His rest than you imagined.
Tonight is your night. Time to allow Christ’s death on the cross to be your death too, that you might actually be able to pass the test of Love.
If at some time you show mercy to someone, mercy will be shown to you. If you show compassion to one who is suffering (and of course, this is not a great deed) you will be numbered among the martyrs.
If you forgive one who has insulted you, then not only will all your sins be forgiven, but you will be a child of the Heavenly Father. If you pray from all your heart for salvation – even a little – you will be saved. If you rebuke yourself, accuse yourself, and judge yourself before God for your sins, with a sensitive conscience, even for this you will be justified. If you are sorrowful for your sins, or you weep, or sigh, your sigh will not be hidden from Him and, as St. John Chrysostom says, “If you only lament for your sins, then He will receive this for your salvation.”
~St. Moses of Optina
