Judge
Wisely — and Don't
It
is at least possible, perhaps even probable, that we will
find — given our own final disposition, of course — people
in Heaven that we thought never to enter
— and people in Hell we thought never to go.
Funeral Masses apart, in
which we are told with the utmost certainty, and as a matter of course,
that the deceased, regardless of a manifestly evil life, is already
in Heaven, or at least on a fast track there — it is a fact that
some people go to Heaven — and many go to Hell.
Or Jesus Christ is a liar.
But Jesus Christ is not
a liar.
But is God not merciful?
Is God not loving? Is God not good?
Yes, all of these.
In every day matters of little
or no consequence, we routinely make judgments: too large, too small,
it looks like it is going to rain, Albert is not friendly, etc.
These are not the matters
pertaining to judgment of which we now speak. We are looking at eschatological
judgments that pertain to things eternal, far beyond our competence
to judge (another human being and his eternal destiny).
He Himself has told us:
“I
will have mercy on whom I will, and I will be merciful to whom it shall
please me.”
(Exodus 33.18)
It is you, yourself, lacking in mercy, love, justice and goodness who
find this so enigmatic. Knowing this, God tells you to bind your own
arrogance.
Why
do you trifle with what God Himself admonishes us to avoid for the sake
of our own souls — and which is not, never was, and never will be, our
prerogative: judgment of another.
Heaven? Hell? Who are we to presume to consign
someone, anyone, to the one or the other?
There is only one Just Judge. The rest of us
are imposters.
Leave judgment to God. Look to the terribly practical matter of the
salvation of your own soul, rather than wasting time speculating upon
things in which you have no part, place, or word.
Jesus Himself has admonished you about this.
Editor
Boston Catholic Journal
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Totally Faithful to the Sacred
Deposit of Faith entrusted to the Holy See in Rome
“Scio
opera tua ... quia modicum habes virtutem, et servasti verbum
Meum, nec non negasti Nomen Meum”
“I
know your works ... that you have but little power, and
yet you have kept My word, and have not denied My Name.”
(Apocalypse
3.8)
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