10 Why do you pass judgment on your brother? or you, why do you despise your brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of God; 11 for it is written, "As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God." 12 So each of us shall give account of himself to God. Romans 14: 10-12
It seems to me that there are two questions that everyone should ask themselves fairly often: 1) Do I believe that some day, on the day of my death or at the end of times, that I will stand before Jesus Christ sitting on his throne and receive judgment? If the answer is yes, then the second question immediately applies: 2) Do I think Jesus will be pleased with what I have done?
If we take our faith seriously, if we really believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and has redeemed the entirety of Creation with his most Sacred Blood, then we should ACT LIKE IT! This is not always easy. We are fallen and broken creatures who, because of the stain of original sin, cannot come to the Father and have a right relationship with him on our own. We must do so through creation's only Savior, Jesus Christ. This means that we must confess our sins and lay them at the foot of the Cross of Christ. If we turn to him and away from our sins, we will be forgiven; and when our judgment day arrives, he will remember the times we spent with him for our sins will have already been forgotten.
31 When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, 33 and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left. Matthew 25: 31-33
But what if the answer to the original question is, "No, I do not believe that some day, on the day of my death or at the end of times, that I will stand before Jesus Christ sitting on his throne and receive judgment." The way that I read Scripture, it won't matter that you don't believe it. It will happen. Every knee will bow before the King of kings and the Lord of lords. The sheep, those who have believed and acted according to that belief, will be at his right hand and will, "...inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world...(Matt 25: 34)" However, those who did not believe or who believed but failed to act according to that belief will, "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels... (Matt 25: 41)"
Perhaps it is time for us and for our families and for our society to remember that we all will be judged; and that we should give thanks to God that the one who is doing the judging is merciful.
It is time to stop living for ourselves and worrying about the insignificant things of this world.
It is time to start considering the joyous promise of eternal life that can only come through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
It is not our place to worry; it is our place to rejoice.
Live like Jesus Christ is the only thing that matters in our lives, because he is.
Fr. Michael+
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