Considering Final Judgement (Mark 4:26-34)

Hi everyone, and welcome to Weekly Homilies with Father Mark Suslenko, Pastor of SS. Isidore and Maria Parish in Glastonbury, Connecticut. We are part of the Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford. I'm Carol Vassar, parish director of communications, and this is Episode 21 of Season 7 for the Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time  - June 16, 2024. Our Gospel reading is from Mark Chapter 4, verses 26-34.

Jesus said to the crowds: “This is how it is with the kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and through it all the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come.”

He said, “To what shall we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use for it? It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.” With many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it. Without parables he did not speak to them,

but to his own disciples he explained everything in private.

The Gospel of the Lord 

“Considering Final Judgement,” by Father Mark S. Suslenko, Pastor, SS. Isidore and Maria Parish, Glastonbury, Connecticut

How much thought and serious reflection do we put into contemplating our final judgment? How much thought and serious reflection do we put into contemplating our final judgment? If we listen carefully to the theology of St. Paul, it is very clear that this is a definite future reality for us all.  It is not in his mind a fairy tale, nor is it to be considered an option. The final judgment awaits each of us when we leave this life and go to the next.

St. Paul considers this to be such a significant event that he encourages those in the early church to see that as a motivator for how they negotiate the affairs of their lives in this world, to see what happens here in light of what is to come. Now, it's very important that he does this, not out of a sense of fear, but simply out of the fact of what is. So, in essence, what is to come has a great bearing on what happens here. 

In our lives, according to St. Paul, the call, then, is to please God in all things. And so, if we truly believe that in the end we will meet God face to face, then that event causes us here  to then want to please God in all things. So then, how do we please God? Well, the short answer to that question is we please God by serving God and by doing God's will,  serving God, and doing God's will.  

We've reflected in the past couple of weeks about God's will and God's place in our lives, and the proper disposition for the Christian is to always walk behind God because the goal is to have our will turn over to God's will so that what we do is what God does. And so by our baptism, we are called to be the image of Christ transformed into the image of Christ, so our lives then are directed toward that end, of beginning to think, to act, and to do and to love as God does. So, the affairs of our lives are not ordered just to our own preferences, but the affairs of our lives and the affairs of this world are always linked to pleasing God, to doing what God wants, to doing and serving God through our deeds and our thoughts. 

So, how do we do this in a practical sense? Where do we begin?  

Well, if you look to St. John Vianney for some words of wisdom, we can get a starting point for how we can begin to reorientate ourselves a bit.  St. John Vianney tells us that we should never begin our day, never ever begin our day, without first saying our morning prayers.  Very simple. Never begin our day without first saying our morning prayers. Why? Because before we even put our feet on the ground, we have to collect ourselves once again. We have to place ourselves in proper disposition. We can't just be willy-nilly going about our business, taking things as they come without any direction or purpose.  Saying our morning prayers and making that a purposeful act orientates us properly to God and reminds us who we serve. Taking that moment to say our morning prayers reminds us of how our day ought to unfold, of who we serve in the events, in the course of our day, of whose will we follow, and who is the strength behind our actions. Stopping and saying our morning prayers reminds us of who God is and reminds us of who we are, two very important things before we even put our feet on the ground. Doing this as a regular routine will begin to change how we approach life. It's going to color how we see things, our priorities, and the like. I would add to St. John Vianney's request that at the end of the day, we never go to bed without finding, in the midst of our life somewhere, something for which we can be thankful. Even if life causes us to go to our knees, even if life is overly challenging or perplexing, there is. If we look carefully enough, always something for which we can be thankful.  And to close our eyes before we go to bed, focusing not on what we didn't achieve or didn't get that day but on the one, maybe only one, blessing that did come our way and give thanks. 

In doing this, we will begin to place ourselves in proper disposition and orientate us toward our proper end. So, what is it about this final judgment? What can we even hope to experience when we leave this life and go to the next?  

Well, some of our popular notions about the final judgment may be more of a deterrent to changing our behavior than they are helpful. So these images of meeting a tribunal of judges when we leave this life, let's put that aside for a minute. This image of leaving this life and being greeted by St. Peter, who will present us with a list of what we did well and what we didn't do well, and when we get our heavenly report card, it will then determine which door we go through and whether the elevator goes up or whether the elevator goes down. Let's get rid of that image.  

Let's get rid of the idea that we leave this life and go to the next, meet God face to face, and all is well and good, except that one Friday in Lent in 1982, I ate meat, which put me in the penance room for a period of unknown time to be cleansed of that wrongdoing. Let's give up that idea.  

Let's also not fall into another trap. And the trap is this: it's called presumption - presumption. And this is one of the biggest mistakes we can make as Christians is falling into this trap of presumption. And presumption is this: we hear a lot about God's mercy. We hear a lot about God's love. We hear a lot about God's forgiveness, unconditional love, unconditional forgiveness, and that is absolutely 100% true. God is all of those things. But we cannot presume that regardless of how we lived our lives here, that when we face God in heaven, that God has this giant eraser that just automatically goes over everything, and the gold carpet is laid out, and here I go to meet my maker. That somehow all of everything gets set right. Let's put that idea aside.  

So if none of those things are what our final judgment may be, then where can we possibly look? Well, let's look to St. John Vianney again 'cause he has something else that will give us something to reflect upon a bit. 

St. John Vianney says this, all religion and listen carefully: all religion is but a false religion. All religion is but a false religion. All virtues are mere illusions. All virtues are mere illusions. And we ourselves are hypocrites in the sight of God. We ourselves are hypocrites in the sight of God if,  if we do not have a universal charity for all; if we do not have a universal charity for all the good and the bad, the poor and the rich, and here's where it gets difficult for those who would do us harm,  and for those who would do us good. If we do not have a universal charity that is, in and of itself, unconditional.  

I have a suspicion that our final judgment has something to do with that. 

We have to admit, if we're honest with ourselves, that nobody here finds any of that very easy. In fact, we find it very difficult. And that's where healthy and real religion comes in. Because healthy and good religion doesn't fill us with a bunch of superstitions. Healthy and good religion helps us do what we're meant to do: to love unconditionally those who are most difficult to love. That's why we have the Eucharist:  to give us that strength and the power to do so. That's why we come back so frequently to be reminded and refreshed and to ask forgiveness for those times when we have failed to live up to that command.  

And so our final judgment awaits. When we leave this life and go to the next, we will leave with the disposition we cultivated here. If we have been following behind the Lord and desire to see him face to face, we will meet that loving and merciful God and leave our souls in his care. If we lived our life with God behind us, doing our own thing in our own way, with a good measure of self-sufficiency, what makes us think when we close our eyes in death, we're going to need anyone else at that time, either. 

Father Mark Suslenko is the pastor of SS. Isidore and Maria Parish in Glastonbury, Connecticut. Learn more about our parish community at www.isidoreandmaria.org. And follow us on social media: Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Our music comes free of charge from Blue Dot Sessions in Fall River, Massachusetts. I’m Carol Vassar. Thanks for joining us.