It
was a couple years ago, I think. It was
late on a dark night. My wife and I were
driving home from the southern tier, travelling north on Route 96 down in
Waterloo. Now just as you’re leaving the
village, there’s a stop sign, you turn left and head toward the thruway, and
look for the 55 sign so you can speed up.
Just as I was starting to speed up, I saw bright flashing lights in my
rear view mirror – the village police. I
thought he wanted to get by me, so I pulled over, but he pulled over too. So Pam and nervously waited for the officer
to come to my window. We were shocked –
what had I done? I know I wasn’t speeding.
Well I rolled down the window and he flashed his light on the two of us
and asked if I knew why he’d pulled me over.
I said I had no idea. He told me
I hadn’t fully stopped at the stop sign and was going to have to give me a
ticket.
Long
story short, I decided there and then to fight that ticket, so I plead not
guilty and about six weeks later made my appearance in Village Court. I took time off from work and got there early
and spoke with the ADA, who asked me if I was interested in pleading guilty to
a lesser charge, fewer points. I said
no, I wanted to state my case in court.
I sat down and watched as people filed in including a whole string of
men in orange jumpsuits and chained at the feet who were marched in and put in
a holding room. Finally, “all rise” and
the Justice of the Peace came in. He
called my name first and I nervously approached the bench.
Now
the reason I tell this story is this – I remember to this day how nervous I
felt before that judge. At this point in
my life, I don’t get nervous very much.
I go to work and very seldom get nervous, even in meetings with the CEO
of the company. And I don’t even get
nervous standing up here and preaching any more. But that day?
I was nervous. I was
sweating. I brought pictures and
diagrams and I was prepared to make my case, but all I remember now was how
nervous I was!
This
all came to mind as I was imagining the day when I’ll be brought it in to a
much higher court, with a much more important judge, that day Our Lord
describes in today’s Gospel. Imagine for
a moment that day! After the stress and
strain of dying, whether it be after a lengthy illness, or suddenly in an
accident, or peacefully in sleep, like being born it’s going to be
stressful. And then, to be escorted to
the judgment seat of the King, the Lord of the universe, through whom all this
was created, through whom you and I were created! To face Him and His eternal judgment!
I
don’t know about you, but that makes me very nervous! It will be just Him and you. Him and me. Face to face.
No pictures, no diagrams, no case to be made for our eternal judgment
other than what Our Lord describes in this Gospel. My sisters and brothers, Our
Lord and King will judge you and me on one thing – our faith. Were we His disciples? Did we truly believe in Him and follow Him?
And
the only evidence we can present at that moment in our defense - is the record
of our lives…how did we live? How did we
live? You see, Christian faith is not only to believe with the mind and heart,
to “accept Jesus as our personal Lord and savior.” No, it is that, but it is more than
that. To accept Jesus is to believe with
the actions of our lives. In short, to
accept Jesus is to love. Faith and love
are really one and the same thing.
And
more specifically, as our Blessed Lord spells it out for us – we will be judged
based on whether we loved Him enough to serve the needs of others, the needs of
the least of His brothers and sisters – whether we fed the hungry, gave
drink to the thirsty, clothed the naked, welcomed the stranger, cared for the
sick, visited the prisoner.
Now
understand this - there’s no way that you and I can “do enough” to merit
eternal life. Christ has already done
all that is necessary to merit for us eternal life, right then and there. But while you and I can’t “do enough,” we are
called, as I heard a priest on the radio say this week, we are called to “die
trying.”
So
there are three things you and I can take home from this Gospel –
1.
If
we’re not already living this kind of faith, let’s get to work. We have a limited number of hours on the
earth, and He’s telling us today exactly how He wants us to spend them. Our Lord makes clear in this Gospel that the
most serious sin of the wicked is omission – in what we fail to do. So let’s get to work. It’s never too late to start.
2.
Look
for Jesus in every single person we encounter.
Look for Jesus in those around us, especially those we find most
difficult to accept, to get along with.
And look for Jesus in the poor, the hungry, the immigrant, the prisoner,
the dying. We have no excuse, we can’t
say that we never encountered them, for they’re right there now in our living
rooms, on our TVs. We can change the
channel and put them out of our mind, but we do so at our own peril
3.
BE
Jesus to every single person we encounter.
There’s a world of hurt out there and the only real answer, the only
real salvation for that world is right here in Jesus Christ. Brothers and sisters, it’s up to you and me
to bring Him whom we encounter here, out there.
Into our homes, our workplaces, our communities. Our soup kitchens, hospitals, hospices, and
jails.
Get
to work. Seek Jesus. Be Jesus.
With
that kind of living, active faith, my sisters and brothers, you and I will have
nothing to fear on the day we are escorted into the eternal courtroom. We will present ourselves before the Lord, with
our imperfections and sins and no doubt having fallen short of fully living out
our calling as Christians. But on that
day, despite our flaws, if we’ve loved the Lord so much so as to have given our
all, if we’ve truly “died trying,” well we have nothing to fear standing before
the throne of our Savior King, our loving and merciful Lord, and we shall hear
the most beautiful words ever spoken:
“Well done, my good and faithful servant, you
who are blessed by my Father. Come,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
P.S. not to leave you hanging -
the police officer was a no show, not guilty!
