God’s Mercy and Our Particular Judgement

Have you ever wondered what your particular judgment is going to be like when you die?  With each passing week/month/year, I’m getting closer to mine, so I can’t help but wonder what it’s going to be like.

I know I’m not a saint, so I can’t say I’m looking forward to my particular judgement.  I’m thinking I’ll probably end up in Purgatory for some time.

But I also can’t help thinking about how others are judged.  I expressed some of my concerns in another CS article a couple years ago, “ Some Thoughts on Where ‘Not Bad’ People Might End Up.”  Because I know and care for a few lapsed Catholics, how they will be judged concerns me.

I tend to think the third Commandment is the one broken most often by the lapsed Catholics I know.   It’s probably also broken by many other Christians as well.  And not keeping holy the Lord’s Day is a grievous sin.

Statistics say the majority of Catholics break the third commandment every week.  And many of these Catholics may also be breaking the first commandment as well when they don’t go to Mass.  I wonder if Jesus will say to them when they die, “I never knew you” (Mathew 7:23).

But God loves Me!

I’ve met a few lapsed-Catholics (and at least a couple Protestants) who’ve essentially said, “I’m not going to end up in hell just because I don’t go to Mass on Sunday.  After all, God loves me and He is merciful.”

I wonder if this is how many lapsed Catholics (and other Christians) think.  If so, I don’t think it’s very sound thinking.

Most children know their parents love them, but most every child also knows that when he or she does something wrong there are consequences.   And God is our parent – our Father.   But since He is perfect we can know that whatever consequences He give us will be right and just.

Jesus Himself tells us, in Mathew 22:37, that “the greatest and the first commandment” is “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”

But it’s pretty much impossible to keep this commandment when you are not going to Mass on Sunday.  The old truism ‘actions speak louder than words‘ probably applies here.  What consequences will not keeping the Lord’s day holy bring?

Take, for instance, an adult who has ample free time and lives only a short drive away from his or her parents, but never bothers to drop in and visit them.  He or she may say, “I love my parents,” but that person’s actions say otherwise.   This is a very superficial kind of love (and it’s also not keeping the fourth commandment).  It’s not walking the talk.

Catholic Thinking

Jesus told the rich young man in Mathew 19:17, “If you wish to enter into [eternal] life, keep the commandments.”  And the Catholic Church tells us that keeping the third commandment means going to Mass on Sunday.

Some may say this is only a man-made rule so we can ignore it.  But Jesus Christ Himself gave the Catholic Church the authority to make this a rule.  Jesus told Peter, who became the head of the Church here on earth following Christ’s death and Resurrection, in Mathew 16:19, “Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. . .”   He even repeats this in Mathew 18:18.

So the Catholic Church, by Jesus own words, definitely has the authority to say we keep the Lord’s Day holy by going to Mass on Sunday.  Conversely, not going to Mass on Sunday means one is breaking the third commandment (and possibly the first, as well).

Church on Sunday and Direct Confession

According to Google AI, “no Protestant denomination has a formal, mandatory obligation for Sunday church attendance like Catholicism” but they “strongly emphasize and expect it as part of their tradition and theology of the “Lord’s Day” or Christian Sabbath.”  So Protestants are pretty much free to keep the third commandment however they see fit.  Or so they seem to think.

Most Protestant denominations also say direct confession of a sin to God takes away sin.  They point to King David confessing to God in Psalms 32:5 as justification for this belief.  They also point to 1 John 1:9, “If we acknowledge our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from every wrongdoing” as further justification.

But the error in this thinking is that David lived under the laws of the Mosaic Covenant.  Jesus’ birth and death ushered in the New Covenant.  And 1 John 1:9  is really not endorsing direct confession to God.  It refers to the Sacrament of Confession that Christ instituted as part of His New Covenant with both Jews and Gentiles in John 20:23, “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”

So Jesus clearly gave His Apostles (and their successors) both the power to decide how we keep holy the Lord’s Day and the power to forgive sins.  And while admitting a sin and confessing the sin directly to God may be laudable, it does not take the place of confessing the sin to a priest acting in persona Christi.

Such a confession also avoids any obligation to do any kind of penance.  And if someone can confess a sin directly to God, and there is no penance for sinful thoughts or behaviors, is the person’s contrition really contrite?  Sorry God, I sinned.  Okay we’re good now!

God’s Mercy

Jesus told Sr. Faustina how and where we can obtain His mercy.

“Write, speak of My mercy. Tell souls where they are to look for solace; that is, in the Tribunal of Mercy [the Sacrament of Reconciliation]. There the greatest miracles take place [and] are incessantly repeated.  To avail oneself of this miracle, it is not necessary to go on a great pilgrimage or to carry out some external ceremony; it suffices to come with faith to the feet of My representative and to reveal to him one’s misery, and the miracle of Divine Mercy will be fully demonstrated.” [pg. 318, par. 1448].

And in paragraph 1486, He says He calls out to every “despairing soul,” three times, to “Come and confide in your God, who is love and mercy.”  If, however, His mercy is spurned, “God will leave the soul in this self-chosen disposition for eternity.”

So it would seem that every despairing soul gets three chances to avail themselves of God’s infinite mercy.  But what about the self-righteous individual who is not despairing?  What of the person who thinks he or she is good and not in need of God’s mercy?

No ‘Last Chance’ When We’re Dead

Catholic teaching says, “1022 Each man receives his eternal retribution 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” (emphasis added).

So we don’t get one last chance to ask for forgiveness and mercy when our bodies die.

Jesus tells us the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector in Luke 18:9-14.  The tax collector is in despair.  The Pharisee, however, thinks of himself as a good person.  Jesus tells us the tax collector will be exalted but the Pharisee will be humbled.

So if someone thinks of himself or herself as a good person (like the Pharisee did) when he or she dies, even if he or she is not, will God still ask such a person if he or she desires His mercy?

Obviously, we can’t know the answer to this question, or even if it is a valid question.  But since Jesus made a point of talking about the self-righteous Pharisee as an ‘everyman,’  it should make every lapsed Catholic, and every Christian, pause and reflect.

How will the judgment of the self-righteous person who couldn’t be bothered going to Mass unfold?  Will Jesus even ask such a person if he or she desires His mercy?  Or will He just say, “ I never knew you.”