The kingdom of God and his judgement are the two themes which stand out in this Sunday’s readings.
In the gospel from Saint Mark, Jesus uses two parables, one simply about a growing seed and the other, the parable of the mustard seed to illustrate how the kingdom of God starts small but, with grace, mercy, time and patience, and our collaborative efforts, grows to become something great and wonderful. These parables, in fact, emphasize the mysterious and gradual growth of the kingdom.
In our first reading from the Prophet of Ezekiel, we hear a prophecy about God planting a tender twig from the lofty cedar (the Davidic kingdom) which will grow into a noble cedar itself. This imagery of the small plant becoming a great tree is similar to Jesus' parables about the kingdom's growth from humble beginnings and is meant to be a foretelling of the Church, which having just celebrated Pentecost, we have seen had very humble beginnings, but was aided so powerfully and beautifully by the Holy Spirit.In the second reading, Saint Paul spoke to the Corinthians, and through them to all of us, about being away from the Lord while in the body, but desiring to be present with him. It also mentions appearing before the judgment seat of Christ to receive recompense for what was done in the body. From here we see that Paul was already understanding God to have revealed how our soul parts our mortal body at death, and appears before God immediately to be judged.
The "particular judgment" refers to the Catholic teaching that immediately after death, each individual human soul undergoes a judgment by God to determine its eternal destiny. This is distinct from the "general" or "final" judgment that will occur at the end of the world when all will be judged as a public manifestation of God’s glory.
The soul's eternal fate is decided based on the state of the soul and the deeds performed during one's earthly life. The possible outcomes are:
Heaven - For those who died in a state of perfect grace and communion with God. Their souls go directly to heaven.
Hell - For those who willfully rejected God through grave/mortal sin and did not repent before death. Their souls are judged to eternal separation from God.
Purgatory - For those who died with lesser/venial sins or spiritual impurities that need to be purified before entering heaven. Their souls undergo a purifying process in purgatory before eventually entering heaven.
The Church teaches that only God can judge the soul justly since only He knows the fullness of one's thoughts, words and deeds. The particular judgment emphasizes the eternal significance of how one has lived their life.
Just as the Kingdom of God grows gradually through the nurture it receives from the Sacramental presence of Christ within it, so too, our individual souls and each of our earthly journeys is meant to give us time, if we are humble and respond to God’s grace, to grow gradually within a beautiful relationship with our Lord. As in all relationships, the more you are in the presence of a person, the more you get to know, trust, cherish, and miss
them when they’re not around for example. A soul that has continuously given itself to prayer, and to daily seeking God in its thoughts, words and deeds, is a soul that more safely secures an eternity with him in heaven. Yet, we must never be presumptuous. The Devil is subtle and the Father of Lies has had many thousands of years of practice in the art of deception. He will continue to oppose us to the end, and at that hour of our death is when he intensifies his attack the most, given it is his last chance to obtain a soul in hell. But God has given us help. He has given us our Guardian Angel, and the chief of all Angels, Saint Michael. He has given us his Mother to whom we pray each day, that at the hour of our death, she will think of us and intercede for us as we thought of, and loved her throughout our entire lives.
And then of course, having gazed upon the God of all glory, nailed to the Cross ou of love for us… having loved him and tried to serve him our entire lives, will he not then defend us from this malicious foe when it comes time to step over to the other side? Of course he will. The King of Glory will never abandon us. But… let us continue to irrigate that wonderful seed of grace that was planted within our hearts and souls at Baptism, strenghthened at Confirmation, and daily nurtured through the Body and Blood of the Lord. Let us heal its wounds whenever its growth is stifled through the healing Sacrament of Reconciliation, and let us live more and more for others, as we show our love for God, in the way we love others, especially the less fortunate. With God’s help, he will cause the life within our souls to sprout up into a wonderful testament of love to the glory of his name. Amen.
Add comment
Comments