21st Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C) - 24 August 2025
24th August 2025
“Man dies once only, and upon this death depends his eternity. Where the tree falls, there it shall lie. If, at the hour of death, someone is living in bad habit, the poor soul will fall on the side of hell. If, on the other hand, he is in the state of grace, it will take the road for heaven.” - St John Vianney
A reflection on the theme of today's Gospel by the Venerable Archbishop Fulton J Sheen:
"We are all on the roadway of life in this world but we travel in different vehicles. Some are in trucks, jeeps, and ambulances. Others are in twelve cylinder cars and others in broken down old wrecks, but each of us is doing the driving. The judgment is something like being stopped by a policeman. When we are stopped by God, He does not say to us, as the policeman does not say, ‘What kind of a car are you driving?’ God is no respecter of persons. He asks, ‘How well did you drive? Did you obey the laws?’
"At death we leave our vehicles behind, our emotions, prejudices, feelings, our state in life, our opportunities, the accidents of talent, duty, intelligence, and position. It will make no difference to God if we were crippled, ignorant, or hated by the world; our judgment will be based not on our social position, but on the way we lived, on the choices we made, on the things we loved. Do not think when you go before the judgment seat of God that you will argue a case. You will plead no extenuating circumstances, you will not ask for a new trial or a new jury; you will be your own judge! You will be your own jury. As scripture says, We will be condemned out of our own mouths. God will merely seal our judgment.
"What then is judgment from God’s point of view and from our point of view? From God’s point of view, judgment is recognition. Two souls appear before the sight of God in that split second after death, one is in the state of grace, the other is not. Remember grace is a participation of divine nature. Just as by nature you resemble your parents, so by grace we partake in the nature of God. Our blessed Lord looks into the soul and the state of grace. He sees the resemblance of His nature. A mother knows her child because the child shares her nature, so God knows His own children by resemblance of nature as we are born of Him. By seeing in our soul His divine likeness, He says to us, Come ye blessed of My Father. I have taught you to pray ‘Our Father.’ I am the natural Son, you the adopted son, come into the Kingdom I have prepared for you from all eternity.
"Let us look at the other soul that does not possess the family traits of the Trinity. A mother knows her neighbour’s son is not her own because there’s no sharing in her nature. Our Lord, seeing in the sinful soul no likeness of His own, can only say those terrible words which signify non-recognition, I know you not! It is a terrible thing not to be known by God.
"From the human perspective, there is recognition of unfitness or fitness. Just suppose a very distinguished visitor is announced one day at your door. You are in working clothes and your hands and face are dirty. You are in no condition to present yourself before such an important person. You refuse to see him until you can improve your appearance.
"A soul stained with sin acts much the same when it goes before the judgment seat of God. It sees His majesty, purity, and brilliance. But the soul knows its own sinfulness and unworthiness. It does not entreat, argue, or plead a case. The soul sees from out of the depth and says, ‘O Lord, I am not worthy.’ A soul stained with venial sins says, ‘Give me time to clean up,’ and goes into purgatory to wash its baptismal robes. But the soul that is irremediably stained, dead to divine life, casts itself into hell just as naturally as a stone released from my hand falls to the ground. The soul full of divine love and without any temporal punishment due to its sins is like a bird released from its cage; it flies to Heaven.
"Three possible destinies await you at death and judgment: hell, which is pain without love; purgatory, pain with love; and heaven, love without pain."
(Your Life is Worth Living)
Prayer for a Happy Death by St Vincent Ferrer
Lord Jesus Christ, Who wilIest that no man should perish, and to Whom supplication is never made without the hope of mercy, for Thou saidst with Thine Own holy and blessed lips: "All things whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, shall be done unto you"; I ask of Thee, O Lord, for Thy holy Name's sake, to grant me at the hour of my death full consciousness and the power of speech, sincere contrition for my sins, true faith, firm hope and perfect charity, that I may be able to say unto Thee with a clean heart: Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit: Thou hast redeemed me, O God of truth, Who art blessed for ever and ever. Amen. 💖💐🙏