Meditation for Thursday

JUDGMENT

I

Consider that the moment your soul departs from your body, it will stand before the tribunal of God for judgment. Your Judge is the Almighty, whose justice is provoked by your sins. Your accuser will be your mortal enemy, the devil. The evidence against you will be your sins. The sentence will be final—no appeals, no second chances. If found guilty, your punishment will be eternal hell.

You will have no parents, no friends, no companions to defend you. It will be you alone before God. You will see the full deformity of your crimes, unable to excuse them as you do now. Every sin—of thought, word, action, omission, and scandal—will be laid bare. You will be weighed in the scales of divine justice, and if you are found wanting in a single point, you are lost.

O my Jesus, my Judge, grant me mercy before You call me to judgment.

II

Consider that, at the end of the world, your body will rise again to share in the eternal fate of your soul, whether reward or punishment. All the nations of the earth will gather in the valley of Josaphat for the final judgment. If you are condemned, your body will rise only to become an eternal prison for your tormented soul. In that sorrowful reunion, your soul will curse your body, and your body will curse your soul. Though they once conspired together in sin, they will now be each other’s tormentors forever. But if you are saved, your body will rise in glory, impassible and radiant, to share in eternal joy. Both body and soul will enter into perfect happiness. Then, all the grandeur, pleasures, and vanities of this world will have passed away. Nothing will remain but two eternities—one of glory, the other of torment. The just will reign in heaven, and the wicked will be cast into hell.

Woe to the one who loved this world more than God! Woe to the soul that, for fleeting pleasures, has lost its body, its soul, heaven, and God Himself!

III

Consider the eternal sentence that Jesus Christ will pronounce upon the reprobate and the elect. Turning to the damned, He will say: "Behold, ungrateful wretches, the consequence of your sins! My hour has come—the hour of truth, justice, and wrath. You have chosen My curse; let it fall upon you. Depart from Me, stripped of every good and burdened with every evil, into everlasting fire."

Then, turning to the just, He will say: "Come, blessed children of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you. Come, not to carry the cross, but to wear the crown. Come, not to suffer, but to rejoice. Come from exile to your true home, from sorrow to eternal joy."

O my Jesus, I long to be among those whom You will bless on that day. I love You above all things. Bless me now and keep me faithful.

O Mary, my Mother, bless me and guide me to heaven.

Amen.