Judgement Archives - Meditate Like the Saints

TRANSCRIPT:

Good morning! Today is the feast of Saint Stanislaus. He was a very pious Polish bishop who oftentimes was confronting the king at the time who was a very cruel and tyrannical man. Saint Stanislaus was killed while he was offering Mass. The Tradition says that at the moment that he raised the host to consecrate it, the king struck him from behind, killed him, and then his soldiers chopped up the body and threw it out into a field. Quite the way to go.

So, this morning on our talk, we were working through this new questionnaire, digging a little bit deeper into what’s going on behind our lives, what’s contributing to the success or failure of what we’re trying to do with our lives. And I got to thinking that we are doing this to better prepare ourselves for God, not just to grow or improve in some measurable way, but actually to better prepare ourselves for that individual judgment, and none of us knows when or how that’s going to happen.

Saint Stanislaus died facing our Lord; actually in the middle of the highest act of his life. He was a very pious man, he did great works of charity and service to the poor, and so forth. He’s a saint, and so he was clearly prepared for that moment. He didn’t know how it was going to happen, when it was going to happen, but he was prepared.

These sheets that we work on- this little plan of life that we have that we check in every day or several times a day- Christopher is helping us to prepare ourselves for that individual judgment. So, if we were to go to sleep tonight and not wake up in the morning, how would our sheet look? How would the sheet of our life look when it’s time to be judged?

And so, in some way we’re getting a little insight. It’s like a little cheat sheet, if you will, for that final, end-of-life review of the sheet. How well did we do? What were our goals in life? Were we approaching God as we came to that moment in our life where our life is going to end? Or was our back to God, and maybe we were focused on something else?

So, I’m going to take kind of a different look at my sheet going forward and ask myself, “Does this sheet show today, and this last week, that I’m actually preparing myself to meet God? Have I turned away from the things of the world and turned myself towards God so that I’m ready to meet my Maker?”

That’s what I’m going to think about this week. I look forward to reviewing your videos.

TRANSCRIPT:

This is Jeff with my insight video for this week. I was thinking on our last phone call about accountability, and Christopher’s done a great job for us with establishing all of these norms of accountability and holding us to them.

And I realized on the call, while listening, that I have no problem getting up at this ridiculous hour in the morning to join the group of guys that Christopher has assembled; I set my timer, I’ve got a back-up alarm, it’s several hours early for me, and yet I’m there, right?

And I think the reason that I’m there and the reason I don’t always get up at the same ridiculous early hour for my own prayers is that I’m worried that Christopher’s going to be on the call with all the guys, and he’s going to pick up the phone and call me and say, “Jeff, where are you? Are you going to join us?” And maybe it’s out of pride or something else, but I don’t want that to happen.

And it occurred to me that in this respect, I actually fear Christopher more than I do God, and that’s because my judgment from God is delayed. I don’t have to face that judgment, right? But we’re all going to, one day, face that final judgment, and everybody’s going to know everything and see us.

And so I resolved myself to realize that I’m the one that benefits here. God doesn’t benefit from my early morning prayers- I benefit. And by making present a little bit more that eventual reality, the one we all believe in, I’m actually serving myself, even while I serve God better. So, I hope this has been valuable to you, and I look forward to seeing you next time.