THE ONE CRITERION COME JUDGEMENT DAY AND TODAY

My suspicion is that we do not think about judgement day, the day when we meet God in death, on a regular basis if at all. Maybe we will do so when we know, our health being what it is at that time, that our life is coming to an end. Then we will spend some time reflecting upon the life we have led and wonder how we will be judged by God. When that time comes, our reflection may give us pause to worry.

So how will God judge us? Will we be judged because of our faith or even lack of it? No. Will we be judged because we were Catholic or Protestant or Jew or Muslim or Hindu? No. Will we be judged by the color of our skin or our sexual orientation? No. Will we be judged by whether we were married or celibate or divorced. No. Will we even be judged because of the sins we have committed, things done and left undone? No.

Then how will we be judged by God? We will be judged by how well or whether or not we have lived out what I would call The Rule of Life Jesus laid out for us in the 25^th Chapter of Matthew’s Gospel. There are three parables there: The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Bridesmaids, The Parable of the Talents, and then the Parable of the Last Judgement. They are not three separate parables but one leading to another.

The Parable of the Bridesmaids reminds us that we must always be prepared to live out our faith when the demands of that faith are called upon. The Parable of the Talents reminds us that, following the first parable, we must be prepared to use whatever talents, gifts, with which we have been endowed by God to the very best of our ability. Our ability to do what? That is where the third parable comes in.

Mathew 25 reminds us that come Judgement Day we will be judged by how well prepared we were to use the gifts we were given to seek and see and serve Jesus in everyone we met in this life, especially the last, the least and the lonely in this world: if we fed the hungry, clothed the naked, visited the sick and imprisoned and whether or not we actually did so. That is how we will be judged come judgement day.

Of course, our faith reminds us that we are not to wait to that day or the days immediately preceding that day to reflect on how well we lived out the criterion upon which we will be judged. We should be doing that day by day come the end of each day before we fall off to sleep. At the end of each day we should reflect upon the day that is just passed by and ask ourselves whether or not we were prepared this day to use whatever talents we had to serve the people we encountered.

Even more, have we done anything to serve those most in need of our service: the sick, the lonely, the forgotten of this world, or have we simply forgotten about them? We need not wait and should not wait to be judged by God. We can do that each day of our lives, and so we should.