At this time
of the year before Advent begins, the readings always focus on the
end of the world and the second coming of Christ. We do this
because it was one of the things that Jesus taught. Jesus
taught that he would come again, and that when he does come it will
be for a time of judgement. All people will be judged. We
say in the creed, ‘he will come again to judge the living and the
dead’.
It is tempting for us to
discard what we don’t understand, especially if it sounds a little
silly. The idea of Jesus appearing in glory and coming to judge
the world may seem hard to swallow. However, it would be a great
mistake on our part if we began to just take the parts of Jesus’
teaching that ‘make sense’ and leave the other ones. I
think it would be more humble of us to say we accept all his
teachings, but we don’t understand many of them. ‘I don’t
understand, but I believe.’ That’s what faith is.
If the Lord is to come to
judge the living and the dead, it implies two things. First,
that there must be a heaven and a hell. Otherwise there would
be no point in judging us if it were going to make no difference.
Heaven is the total happiness that being in the presence of God will
bring. This is something that we can not understand because we
have no experience of it yet, but this will be the most complete
happiness we could ever know and this is what God has planned for us;
it’s what He wants for us.
Then there is the total
loss of God for those who reject him, and this is hell, the loss of
everything that can bring happiness. Jesus has taught us that
this is real, otherwise it would make no sense that we have free
will, the power to accept or reject God.
The second thing that the
Lord’s coming implies is that we must make an account of our lives
to God. We will be held accountable for our actions. I
often think that when we hear about so many of these tribunals which
show the wholesale corruption that goes on, it can be very
frustrating, because the people who get away with the most never seem
to have to pay, either because they are powerful enough, or because
of the legal system, they get off the hook. It’s wrong and it
happens every day. But if a young man steals something from
Dunnes Stores, you can be sure he’ll be brought to court and he’ll
pay for it. But even the rich and powerful must remember that
their power and wealth won’t be with them when they die. They
too will have to make an account of themselves to God. And
nothing is hidden from God. I find this consoling, not because
I wish evil on anyone, but because at least I know that in the end
there will be justice.
Is this a reason for us to
be afraid? Not unless we are deliberately trying to fool God.
If we try to live as the Lord teaches us, then we have nothing
to fear. If we just get on with the day to day tasks that we
are presented with and try to be honest before God, then we have
nothing to worry about. The fact is that we are all sinners,
none of us ever get it exactly right, but God isn’t put off by
this. The Lord sees the heart. God knows when we are doing our
best and trying to live as best we can. He knows all the
pressures that we’re under. He knows how difficult it is to
try and survive in the world. The Lord looks at each of our
hearts and judges us by what is in our heart.
It is even more important to remember that God is infinitely merciful, and mercy is something which is
not deserved. God’s justice and mercy go together.
Think of all the times that we see people in the paper convicted of
some terrible crime, and we say, ‘I hope he gets life’, or ‘I hope
they kill him…’ It’s just as well for our sake that God
is more merciful with us than we are with each other, or none of us
would stand a chance. Another reason why we can never judge
someone else is because we don’t know what’s in their heart.
We don’t know what has influenced another person’s actions, or
what pressures they are under. That’s why Jesus teaches us,
‘Do not judge and you will not be judged’. Only God can
judge, and only God will judge perfectly justly.
There is a lovely story of
a young man who was in Napoleon’s army. He deserted for
whatever reason, but he was caught. The punishment for
desertion was death. But his mother met with Napoleon and
pleaded on her son’s behalf. She explained that this man was
her only son and all that she had in the world. She asked
Napoleon to show him some mercy, but Napoleon replied, ‘He doesn’t
deserve mercy.’ The woman said to him, ‘If he deserved it,
it wouldn’t be mercy.’ This is what we also try and
remember about God. God is infinitely merciful and so if we
make an effort at all, we have nothing to be afraid of.
Christ will come again to
judge the living and the dead, and it is something that we can
rejoice in when it happens, because we belong to him, we are his
children.
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