In the End, We will be Judged by Our Love
Alexandra Clark | The Daily Knight
In the end it is all about how we loved, what we loved and who we loved...
Listen well souls, how it is that will we be judged in the end:
On the last day, when the general examination takes place... charity will be the whole syllabus." - St. Robert Bellarmine and "In the evening of life, we will be judged on love alone." ~ St. John of the Cross and "You are rewarded not according to your work or your time but according to the measure of your love.” ~ St. Catherine of Siena
Do we ever think about that?! Do we reflect on our Love for God and what it means to love Him? How do we love? Who do we love? What do we love? Why do we love?
Are we lacking in love for God? Are we lacking in love for neighbor? What kind of Love does God expect of us...want from us? Does our love please God? Do we live that kind of love? How do we grow in that true love?
Let us take the following Sacred Scripture passages as our meditation to really answer these questions on Love:
Jesus Christ Himself said:
"If you love me, keep my commandments." [John 14:15]
"If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love; as I also have kept my Father's commandments, and do abide in his love." [John 15:10]
"A new commandment I give unto you: That you love one another, as I have loved you, that you also love one another." [John 13:34]
"These things I command you, that you love one another." [John 5:17]
"He that loveth me not, keepeth not my words." [John 14:24]
You have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thy enemy. But I say to you, Love your enemies: do good to them that hate you: and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you: That you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven, who maketh his sun to rise upon the good, and bad, and raineth upon the just and the unjust. For if you love them that love you, what reward shall you have? do not even the publicans this? And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more? do not also the heathens this? Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect. [Matthew 5:43-48]
"Owe no man any thing, but to love one another. For he that loveth his neighbour, hath fulfilled the law." [Romans 13:8]
Purifying your souls in the obedience of charity, with a brotherly love, from a sincere heart love one another earnestly:" [1 Peter 1:22]
"Dearly beloved, let us love one another, for charity is of God. And every one that loveth, is born of God, and knoweth God."[1 John 4:7] "My dearest, if God hath so loved us; we also ought to love one another." [1 John 4:11]
"No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abideth in us, and his charity is perfected in us."
Jesus answered, and said to him: If any one love me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and will make our abode with him." [John 14:23]
"And thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy whole strength. This is the first commandment." [Mark 12:30]
St. Paul had this to say about Love:
If I speak with the tongues of men, and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. [2] And if I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. [3] And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. [4] Charity is patient, is kind: charity envieth not, dealeth not perversely; is not puffed up; [5] Is not ambitious, seeketh not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil; [6] Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth with the truth; [7] Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. [8] Charity never falleth away: whether prophecies shall be made void, or tongues shall cease, or knowledge shall be destroyed. [9] For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. [10] But when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away. [11] When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But, when I became a man, I put away the things of a child. [12] We see now through a glass in a dark manner; but then face to face. Now I know in part; but then I shall know even as I am known. [13] And now there remain faith, hope, and charity, these three: but the greatest of these is charity.
“The proof of love is in the works. Where love exists, it works great things. But when it ceases to act, it ceases to exist.” ~Pope St. Gregory the Great Corporal Works of Mercy
1) Feeding the hungry
2) Giving a drink to the thirsty
3) Clothing the naked
4) Sheltering the homeless
5) Visiting the imprisoned
6) Visiting the sick
7) Burying the dead.
The 7 Spiritual Works of Mercy
1) Admonish the Sinner
2) Instruct the Ignorant. 3) Council the Doubtful
4) Comfort the Afflicted (or Sorrowful).
5) Bear Wrongs Patiently
6) Forgive offenses willingly. 7) Pray for the Living and the Dead.
"If any man say, I love God, and hateth his brother; he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother, whom he seeth, how can he love God, whom he seeth not?" [1 John 4:20]
"May the Pure Love of God reign in our hearts!" ~St. John Eudes
Comments