Reflection: The Four Last Things - Judgment

“Christ painting the Four Last Things in the Christian Heart” (1585) by Anton Wierix

Judgment does not make for light conversation. This is especially true in our culture which carelessly throws around the phrase “Judge not lest ye be judged” as an avoidance tactic. Yet, the Scriptures assure us that judgment is coming. We confess this every week: “He shall come again, with glory, to judge both the quick and the dead.” Judgment is one of the four last things that help us “number our days” so that we can “attend to wisdom” (Ps 90:12).

To rightly order ourselves in light of the coming judgment, it may help to inquire about the nature of that judgment. The first thing to recognize is that we will be judged on our disposition and actions toward Christ. The main criteria is the presence of the theological virtues of faith, hope, and love. Faith trusts in God, hope expects God to be faithful, and love (also called charity) is friendship with God. These virtues are infused into us at baptism and must be cultivated and tended. We become increasingly like Christ as these virtues grow in us. They become a rubric against which we can assess ourselves. It is also important to remember that these virtues are not developed privately between us and God. These things work themselves out in social contexts with other people: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” (Matt 25:40).

Scripture seems to speak of two judgments. On the one hand, we have passages like 1 Corinthians 3:13-15 where the judgment seems individual: “Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.” This seems fairly straightforward: each of us will have to answer for everything we have done. We can expect to receive rewards for the good things while the “wood, hay, and stubble” get burnt off. There is a second aspect of judgment in the Scripture which seems corporate. The famous “sheep and goats” passage in Matthew 25:32-33 illustrates this: “before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.” The sheep will be invited into the Kingdom while the goats will be turned away. These are not necessarily separate, but they do remind us that judgment is related both to what we do and who we are. Being a sheep means being under the Good Shepherd and if that is my identity, it should shape what I do.

It is quite possible that, when it comes to judgment, we are our own worst enemies. This is what is left unsaid in half-hearted quotations of Matthew 7: “with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.” Jesus’ words should not be prooftexted to avoid the tough tasks of discerning or evangelizing, as they often are. However, it is important that our judgment of other people should be tempered by these verses. First of all, we know that God works in unexpected ways and that, while he has the whole picture, we do not. Second, it’s helpful to remember St. Paul’s words in the Comfortable Words at Holy Communion from 1 Timothy 1:15: “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners;” and then the part we leave out: “of whom I am chief.” All of us can insert ourselves into St. Paul’s “I.” And this means that if there is no hope for someone else, there is no hope for me, the chief of sinners.

Just as we saw last week that the fact of death can bring comfort, so the reality of judgment can bring us comfort too. This is because, while we know we have a just judge, we also have a merciful judge. “We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 2:1-2). Our judge is our advocate, our High Priest is our sacrifice. As St. Paul asks in Romans 8:31, “If God be for us, who can be against us?”