Particular judgment
“Give an account of thy stewardship.”—Luke 16:2
Beloved Christians, of all the goods of nature, of fortune, and of grace that we have received from God, we are not the masters, free to dispose of them as we please; we are only their administrators, and so we must employ them according to the will of God, who is our Lord. Therefore, at the hour of death, we must render a strict account of these goods to Jesus Christ, our Judge. “For we must all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the proper things of the body, as he hath done, whether it be good or evil” (2 Cor. 5:10).
This is the very meaning of the command in today’s gospel: “Give an account of thy stewardship.” “You are not,” says St. Bonaventure in his comment on these words, “a master, but a steward over the things committed to you; and therefore you are to render an account of them.” Today I will set before your eyes the rigor of this judgment, which shall be passed on each of us on the last day of our life. Let us consider the terror that the soul shall feel: first, when she shall be presented to the Judge; second, when she shall be examined; and third, when she shall be condemned.
First Point.—Terror of the soul when she shall be presented to the Judge.
1. “It is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the judgment” (Heb. 9:27). It is of faith that we shall die, and that after death a judgment shall be passed on all the actions of our life. What, then, shall be the terror of each of us when we are at the point of death, with the judgment before our eyes that must take place the very moment the soul departs from the body? Then shall our doom be decided, to eternal life or to eternal death.
When the soul is about to pass from this life to eternity, the sight of past sins, the rigor of God’s judgment, and the uncertainty of eternal salvation make even the saints tremble. St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi trembled in her sickness through the fear of judgment; and when her confessor tried to give her courage, she said: “Ah, father, it is a terrible thing to appear before Christ in judgment.” After so many years of penance in the desert, St. Agatho trembled at the hour of death and said: “What shall become of me when I shall be judged?” The venerable Father Louis da Ponte, thinking of the account he would have to render to God at death, was seized with such trembling that he shook the very room in which he lay. This same thought of judgment made the venerable Juvenal Ancina, priest of the Oratory and afterward Bishop of Saluzzo, resolve to leave the world. One day, hearing the Dies illa sung, and considering the terror that the soul shall feel when presented to Jesus Christ the Judge, he made the resolution of giving himself entirely to God—a resolution he afterward carried out.
2. It is the common opinion of theologians that, at the very moment and in the very place where the soul departs from the body, the divine tribunal is set up, the charge is read, and the sentence is passed by Jesus Christ the Judge. At this great tribunal each of us shall be presented to give an account of all that we have thought, all that we have said, and all that we have done. “For we must all be manifested before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the proper things of the body, according as he hath done, whether it be good or evil” (2 Cor. 5:10).
Criminals brought before an earthly judge have sometimes been seen to break into a cold sweat through fear. It is told of Piso that, on appearing in the senate dressed as a criminal, his confusion was so great and so unbearable that he killed himself. How great is the pain of a vassal or a son in coming before an angry prince or an enraged father who has summoned him to account for some crime he has committed! Oh, how much greater shall be the pain and confusion of the soul in standing before Jesus Christ, who is angered against her for having despised him during her life!
Speaking of judgment, St. Luke says: “Then you shall see the Son of Man” (Luke 21:27). They shall see Jesus Christ as man, bearing the same wounds with which he ascended into heaven. “A great joy to those who behold them!” says Robert the Abbot; “a great terror to those who wait in expectation!” These wounds shall console the just and terrify the wicked. In them sinners shall see the Redeemer’s love for them and their own ingratitude toward him.
3. “Who,” says the prophet Nahum, “can stand before the face of his indignation?” (Nahum 1:6). How great, then, shall be the terror of a soul that finds herself in sin before this Judge, the first time she shall see him—and see him full of wrath! St. Basil says that she shall be tortured more by her shame and confusion than by the very fire of hell. Horridior quam ignis, erit pudor—“More horrible than fire shall be the shame.”
Philip II, having found that one of his servants had told him a lie, rebuked him, saying: “Is it thus you deceive me?” The poor man returned home and died of grief. Scripture tells us that when Joseph reproved his brothers, saying, “I am Joseph, whom you sold,” they were so terrified that they could not answer, and were struck dumb. “His brethren could not answer him, being struck with exceeding great fear” (Gen. 45:3). Now what answer shall sinners make to Jesus Christ when he says to them: I am that Redeemer and Judge of yours whom you have so greatly despised?
Where shall the wretched flee, asks St. Augustine, when they shall see an angry Judge above, hell open below, their own sins accusing them on one side and the devils dragging them to punishment on the other, and their conscience burning them within? “Above, an enraged Judge; below, a horrid chaos; on the right, sins accusing; on the left, demons dragging to punishment; within, a burning conscience! Whither shall a sinner, so beset, flee?” Perhaps he will cry for mercy? But how, asks Eusebius Emissenus, can he dare to beg for mercy, when he must first render an account of the contempt he showed for the mercy that Jesus Christ extended to him? “With what face will you, who are to be judged first for contempt of mercy, ask for mercy?” But let us come to the rendering of the accounts.
Second Point.—Terror of the soul when she shall be examined.
4. As soon as the soul is presented before the tribunal of Jesus Christ, he will say to her: “Give an account of thy stewardship”—render me at once an account of your whole life. The Apostle tells us that, to be made worthy of eternal glory, our life must be found conformable to the life of Jesus Christ. “For whom he foreknew, he also predestinated to be made conformable to the image of his Son;…them he also glorified” (Rom. 8:29, 30).
Hence St. Peter writes that in the judgment of Jesus Christ, the just man—who has kept the divine law, has pardoned his enemies, has respected the saints, has been chaste and meek and practiced the other virtues—shall scarcely be saved. “The just man shall scarcely be saved.” And then he adds: “Where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” (1 Pet. 4:18). What shall become of the vindictive, the blasphemers, the unchaste, the slanderers? What shall become of those whose whole life has been almost wholly opposed to the life of Jesus Christ?
5. First of all, the Judge will demand of the sinner an account of the blessings and graces he bestowed on him to bring him to salvation, and which the sinner failed to use. He will demand an account of the years granted him to serve God—“He hath called against me the time” (Lam. 1:15)—and which he spent in offending him. Then he will demand an account of his sins. Sinners commit their sins and afterward forget them; but Jesus Christ does not forget them. He keeps all our iniquities numbered, as Job says, as it were in a bag: “Thou hast sealed up my iniquities, as it were in a bag” (Job 14:17).
And he lets us know that, on the day of accounts, he will take a lamp to scrutinize every action of our life. “And it shall come to pass at that time, that I will search Jerusalem with lamps” (Zeph. 1:12). The lamp, says Mendoza on this passage, with its light penetrates every corner of the house; that is to say, God will reveal every defect of our conscience, great and small. According to St. Anselm, an account shall be demanded of every glance of the eye: Exigitur usque ad ictum oculi—“It is required even to the glance of the eye.” And according to St. Matthew, of every idle word: “Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account for it on the day of judgment” (Matt. 12:36).
6. The prophet Malachi says that, as gold is refined by separating out its dross, so on that day all our actions shall be examined, and everything impure that is found in them shall be punished. “He shall purify the sons of Levi, and shall refine them as gold” (Mal. 3:3). Even our justices—that is, our good works, our confessions, communions, and prayers—shall be examined, to see how we performed them. “When I shall take a time, I will judge justices” (Ps. 75:3). But if even glances, idle words, and good works shall be judged, with what rigor shall immodest words, blasphemies, grievous detractions, thefts, and sacrileges be judged? Ah, on that day, as St. Jerome says, every soul shall see for herself, to her own confusion, all the evil she has done: Videbit unusquisque quod fecit—“Each one shall see what he has done.”
7. “Weight and balance are judgments of the Lord” (Prov. 16:11). In the balance of the Lord, nobility, wealth, and learning carry no weight; only a holy life and good works make the scale descend. And so the peasant, the poor man, and the unlearned shall be rewarded if they are found innocent; while the noble, the wealthy, and the learned shall be condemned if they are found guilty. “Thou art weighed in the balance,” Daniel said to King Belshazzar, “and art found wanting” (Dan. 5:27). “Neither his gold nor his wealth,” says Father Alvarez, “but the king alone was weighed.”
8. At the divine tribunal the poor sinner shall see himself accused by the devil, who, as St. Augustine writes, “will recite the words of our profession, and will charge us to our face with all that we have done, naming the day and the hour in which we sinned” (Cont. Jud., tom. 6). “He will recite the words of our profession”—that is, he will present the promises we made to God and afterward broke. “He will charge us to our face”—he will reproach us with all our wicked deeds, marking the day and the hour in which we committed them.
And, as the same saint says, he will conclude his accusation by saying: “For this man I have suffered neither blows nor scourges.” Lord, for this ungrateful sinner I have suffered nothing; yet, to make himself my slave, he has turned his back on you, who suffered so much to save him. He therefore rightly belongs to me. His guardian angel too, according to Origen, will come forward to accuse him and will say: I have labored so many years for him, but he has despised all my warnings. Unusquisque angelorum perhibet testimonium, quot annis circa eum laboraverit, sed ille monita sprevit—“Each of the angels bears witness, how many years he labored for him, but he spurned the warnings” (Hom. 66). Thus even his friends shall despise the guilty soul. “All her friends have despised her” (Lam. 1:2). Her very sins shall accuse her, says St. Bernard. “And they shall say: You have made us; we are your work; we shall not desert you” (Meditations, ch. 2). We are your offspring, they shall say; we shall not leave you; we shall be your companions in hell for all eternity.
9. Let us now consider the excuses the sinner will be able to offer. He will say that the evil inclination of his nature drew him into sin. But he will be told that, although his lower nature urged him to evil, no one forced him to commit it; and that, had he turned to God in his temptations, God would surely have given him the grace to resist. For this very purpose Jesus Christ has left us the sacraments; and if we choose not to use them, of whom can we complain but ourselves? “But now they have no excuse for their sin” (John 15:22).
To excuse himself, the sinner will also say that the devil tempted him. But, as St. Augustine says, “The enemy is bound like a dog on a chain, and can bite no one except him who joins himself to it with deadly carelessness.” The devil can bark, but he cannot bite—except the one who draws near and gives him a hearing. Hence the saint adds: “See how foolish is the man whom a dog on a chain bites.”
Perhaps he will offer his bad habits as an excuse; but this too will not avail him. For the same St. Augustine says that, though it is hard to resist an evil habit, “if a man does not abandon himself, he will conquer it with God’s help.” If a man does not give himself up to sin and calls on God for aid, then with God’s help he will overcome. The Apostle tells us that the Lord does not permit us to be tempted beyond our strength: “God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able” (1 Cor. 10:13).
10. “For what shall I do,” said Job, “when God shall rise to judge me? And when he shall examine, what shall I answer him?” (Job 31:14). What answer shall the sinner give to Jesus Christ? What can he possibly say, seeing himself so clearly convicted? Covered with confusion, he shall remain silent, like the man found without the wedding garment. “But he was silent” (Matt. 22:12). His very sins shall stop his mouth. “And all iniquity shall stop her mouth” (Ps. 107:42).
There, says St. Thomas of Villanova, there shall be no intercessor to whom the sinner can turn. “There is no place there for sinning; there no intercessor shall stand by him, no friend, no father.” Who, then, shall save you? God? But how, asks St. Basil, can he save you, whom you have despised? “Who shall deliver you? Is it God, whom you have insulted?” (St. Basil, Oration 4). Ah, the guilty soul that leaves this world in sin condemns herself before the Judge even pronounces sentence. But let us come at last to the sentence.
Third Point.—Terror of the soul when she shall be condemned.
11. How great shall be the joy of a soul when, at death, she sees herself welcomed by Jesus Christ with these most sweet words: “Well done, good and faithful servant; because thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will place thee over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord” (Matt. 25:21). Just as great shall be the anguish and despair of a guilty soul that sees herself driven away by the Judge with these words: “Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire” (v. 41). Oh, what a terrible thunderclap that sentence shall be to her! “Oh, how frightfully,” says the Carthusian, “shall that thunder resound!”
Eusebius writes that so great shall be the terror of sinners when they hear their condemnation pronounced that, if they could, they would die a second time. “Such terror shall seize the wicked at the sight of the Judge pronouncing sentence that, were they not immortal, they would die again.” But, my hearers, before I end this sermon, let us make some reflections that will profit us.
St. Thomas of Villanova says that some hear of the judgment and the condemnation of the wicked but make little of it, as if they were sure that such things did not concern them, or as if the day of judgment were never to come for them. Heu quam securi haec dicimus et audimus, quasi nos non tangeret haec sententia, aut quasi dies ille nunquam esset venturus!—“Alas, how securely we say and hear these things, as if this sentence did not touch us, or as if this day were never to come!” (Conc. 1, de Jud.). And then he adds: But what folly it is to feel secure in a matter of such great peril! Quae est ista stulta securitas in discrimine tanto?—“What is this foolish security in so great a peril?”
There are some, says St. Augustine, who, though they live in sin, cannot imagine that God would send them to hell. “Will God,” they say, “really condemn us?” No, my son, says the saint, do not speak so. Many of the damned did not believe they would be sent to hell; but the end came, and there they were cast, according to the threat God made through Ezekiel: “The end is come, the end is come…and I will send my wrath upon thee, and I will judge thee” (Ezek. 7:2, 3). Sinner, who knows whether punishment is not already near at hand for you—while you laugh and sleep in your sin?
Who will not tremble at the words of the Baptist: “For now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree, therefore, that doth not yield good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire” (Matt. 3:10). He says that every tree that does not bring forth good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire; and he warns that, with regard to these trees—which stand for sinners—the axe is already laid to the root; that is, their punishment is near.
Dearly beloved, let us follow the counsel of the Holy Spirit: “Before judgment, prepare thee justice” (Ecclus. 18:19). Let us settle our accounts before the day of accounts. Let us seek God now, while we can find him; for the time will come when we shall wish to find him and shall not be able. “You shall seek me, and shall not find me” (John 7:36). “Before judgment,” says St. Augustine, “the Judge can be appeased, but not in judgment.” Now, by changing our life, we can appease Jesus Christ and recover his grace; but when he comes as Judge and finds us in sin, he must do justice, and we shall be lost.
Points for Reflection
1. “Let us settle our accounts before the day of accounts. Let us seek God now, while we can find him; for the time will come when we shall wish to find him and shall not be able” (§11)
2. “Now, by changing our life, we can appease Jesus Christ and recover his grace; but when he comes as Judge and finds us in sin, he must do justice, and we shall be lost” (§11)
3. “Before judgment, prepare thee justice” (§11)