As we approach the end of the liturgical year, before beginning a new year with the first Sunday of Advent in a couple weeks, the Church is reflecting on the end of time as spoken of in Sacred Scripture. Last week, we heard of the resurrection of the body, hoped for by the Jews suffering persecution before the coming of the Messiah and promised by the Messiah in the Gospel we heard. Next week, we will hear of the Lord’s promise of Paradise, our heavenly home, made to the repentant thief. Between the final resurrection, and the full entry into heaven, we hear this week about judgment.
Divine judgment is a subject from which we often shy away, largely because we try to view it only through the lens of our petty human judgments. St. Paul talks about these in the second letter to the Thessalonians: “We hear that some are conducting themselves among you in a disorderly way, by not keeping busy but minding the business of others.” (2 Thessalonians 3:11) Human judgement is often superficial, arrogant, and belittling. Minding the business of others (or what snippets of that business we can see or hear of) so as to deem others as less intelligent or less loving than ourselves. Divine judgment is different in every respect. God looks into the heart. (see 1 Samuel 16:7 and Jeremiah 17:10) God does not judge in order to belittle. Rather, divine judgment vindicates those who have been persecuted, to heal those who have suffered, to bring justice to light. “For you who fear my name, there will arise the sun of justice with its healing rays.” (Malachi 3:20) It is a judgment that makes the rivers clap and the mountains rejoice as the Psalmist tells us, that brings creation a joyful fulfillment. (Psalm 98:8)
In the end, the Gospel itself, Jesus’ preaching and ministering and dying and rising is the light of divine judgment. “And this is the verdict, that the light came into the world, but people preferred darkness to light, because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come toward the light, so that his works might not be exposed.” (John 3:19) This week, the Gospel calls us to give witness to the name of Jesus, to belong to Him and bear the name of Christian especially in the midst of difficulties and trials. Let us ask for the grace to truly follow Jesus, and so have hearts ready to receive Him with joy at the end of our lives and, ultimately, at the passing of this world and the coming of new heavens and a new earth.