Judgment Cannot be Avoided

From the time we are small children, we try to hide from judgment. Even an only child will hide from his parents when they discover the broken lamp. “No. It wasn’t me.” We do all sorts of things to avoid judgment, but experience teaches us that it still comes.

Brethren, we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men; but what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to be proud of us, so that you may be able to answer those who pride themselves on a man’s position and not on his heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, that those who live might live no longer for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.

2^nd Corinthians 5.10-15

Saint Paul is constantly reminding us that the judgment is coming. He admits he is trying to frighten us, at least, to change our ways before it is too late. Keeping the image of a child, think of him counting to ten. Are we listening? What if he is on “nine and nine/tenths”?

I have had the blessing to hear confession for many years and there remains one constant. We all lie. We all do whatever we think can get us out of trouble. We also all know that it ultimately doesn’t work. We all get caught. This is the joy of confession.

Our parents tried teaching us that telling the truth about the broken lamp always ended up with less punishment. They already knew who broke the lamp and their love and patience gave us the chance to ‘fess up’ before digging a bigger hole. Have we learned our lesson yet?

When it comes to our relationship with God, He is the only One Who knows when He will return to judge the world. Our opportunity today is the repent now before it is too late. If we can’t go to confession with our spiritual father, at the very least we must confess in our prayers.

God also knows how impractical it is for us to be in confession after every sin. We would never leave the Church, and the priest would never eat. So, the Church ‘builds in confession’ to our daily prayer life. It begins with the Lord’s Prayer.

“Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” Christ taught us to pray these words. The Holy Apostles taught us to prayer these words three times each day. Imagine if we confessed our sins three times a day! It might just work to keep us in line.

As Saint Paul said, we are “known to God.” We cannot hide either today or from judgment, so why try. Come clean now and experience the joy of forgiveness by God. There will be enough struggles and temptations that we don’t need to ‘pile on’ to sin by lying. It is too much to bear.

In the end, God will reveal to us everything we already know about ourselves, and everything He already knew about us. The judgment of God won’t be a trial. The judgment of God will be opening our eyes to ourselves. It will ‘go’ much better if we open our eyes now.