Particular Judgement

ONE

I love this passage from the Diary of St. Faustyna because it shows the reality of our particular judgment and that our purification or purgatory can be worked out in this life.

Once I was summoned to the judgment seat of God. I stood alone before the Lord. Jesus appeared such as we know Him during His Passion. After a moment, His wounds disappeared except for five, those in His hands, His feet and His side. Suddenly I saw the complete condition of my soul as God sees it. I could clearly see all that is displeasing to God. I did not know that even the smallest transgressions will have to be accounted for. What a moment! Who can describe it? To stand before the Thrice-Holy God! Jesus asked me; “Who are you?” I answered, “I am Your servant, Lord.” You are guilty of one day of fire in purgatory. I wanted to throw myself immediately into the flames of purgatory, but Jesus stopped me and said; “Which do you prefer, suffer now for one day in Purgatory or for a short while on earth?” I replied; “Jesus, I want to suffer in Purgatory, and I want to suffer also the greatest pains on Earth, even if it were until the end of the world.” Jesus said; “One [of the two] is enough; you will go back to Earth, and there you will suffer much, but not for long; you will accomplish My will and My desires, and a faithful servant of Mine will help you to do this. Now, rest your head on My heart, and draw from its strength and power for these sufferings because you will find neither relief nor help nor comfort anywhere else. Know that you will have much, much to suffer, but don’t let this frighten you; I am with you.” Diary 36

TWO

Today is Our Particular Judgment.

Death puts an end to human life as the time is open to either accepting or rejecting the divine grace manifested in Christ. Immediately after death each person will be rewarded in accordance with his works and faith. CCC 1021

Jesus said, “The hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come forth, those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.” John 5:28-29

CCC 1022 “Each man receives his eternal reward or punishment in his immortal soul at the very moment of his death, in a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ: either entrance into the blessedness of heaven-through a purification or immediately, or immediate and everlasting damnation.”

St. John of the Cross says “At the evening of life, we shall be judged on our love.”

Love is not a fuzzy feeling. Love is the concrete choice to think, speak and do what is right and good toward God, yourself, and all others, including enemies.

Just to be clear, pride, vanity, envy, sloth, wrath, greed, gluttony, lust (which includes all the sins related to sex, marriage and childbearing – there’s a bunch of stuff there…), gossip, deceit, impatience, resentment, unforgiveness, ingratitude, self-absorption, rebellion, disobedience…in a word, every wrong thought, word and action is not love.

We turn thoughts, words, and actions into habits. Habits become our nature. With God’s grace, good habits form a divine nature in us. Bad habits create a hellish nature in us. If you choose to have a hellish unloving nature in life you will choose Hell in death. 

THREE

Examination of Conscience.

We are really good about looking at and judging others. We don’t like to look at ourselves. In fact, we do all we can to prevent looking honestly at ourselves. We keep busy. We work, take care of the kids, then veg out in entertainment, news and sports. Work, busyness, entertainment, sleep – repeat.

We never stop moving and we keep busy because if we stop, and stop for long enough – we will start to examine our lives and that can be a very frightening thing. But one day, the day of our death, everything will stop and God will examine our lives. We don’t want that to be the first examination.  

Better to do it ourselves, today, and every-day before the big day!

At the beginning or end of each day or at the beginning of your Rosary, hit pause and do a brief examination of your conscience:

1.  Begin with gratitude

a.  For what am I grateful?

b.  To whom am I grateful? First, I am grateful to God. All these things for which I am grateful are concrete manifestations of his love for me.

c.   How have I corresponded to His love?

2.  Then look back over your last 24 hours and acknowledge where you have thought, said and done things that were wrong or failed to do what was right, the things that left us empty and unhappy.

a.  This honest assessment will cause us to grow in our desire and love for God, purifying our disordered desires

3.  Finally, make a game plan to learn from this and live better today – this is part of your resolution flowing out of prayer – some simple concrete thing to put into practice today to live better and be more happy.

FOUR

Since we will all face our particular judgment immediately after death St. Francis De Sales writes; “Detest your sins. They alone can condemn on that dreadful day. I will judge myself now, so that I may not be judged then! I will examine my conscience and condemn myself. I will accuse myself and amend my life, so that the eternal Judge may not condemn me on that dreadful day. I will, therefore, confess my sins and receive all necessary advice.”

FIVE

Frequent confession is the best way to prepare for our Particular Judgment.

CCC 1470 In the sacrament of Reconciliation, the sinner, placing himself before the merciful judgment of God, anticipates in a certain way the judgment to which he will be subjected at the end of his earthly life. For it is now, in this life, that we are offered the choice between life and death, and it is only by the road of conversion that we can enter the Kingdom, from which one is excluded by grave sin. In converting to Christ through penance and faith, the sinner passes from death to life and "does not come into judgment."

Confession is like a dress-rehearsal of Our Particular Judgment

Let’s end with this…

Proverbs 24:16 says “For though the virtuous man falls seven times, he stands up again.”

Don’t let sin keep you down – that is the Devil.

Admit your sin, be sorry, be resolute to change it, and with God’s grace stand up and go forward.

For perfection is not measured by never falling. It is measured by how quickly you rise once you have fallen. The more quickly you get up the more perfect you become.