In this month of November, we continue our reflections on the Last Things. Those are death and judgment and the reality of heaven and hell. Taken together they are the final door that we must pass through at the end of our lives as we hope to be granted a place in Jesus’s Kingdom. 

 

In the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 25, we read the parable by which Jesus describes the Last Judgement. We are familiar with the description of the Son of Man coming at the end of time and separating the human family to His right and to His left. We should be moved to picture ourselves there, awaiting the judgement on our own lives. We will join all the others who stand in judgment placing their final hope in God’s mercy.

 

Jesus describes how those on the right, who have lived righteously, will be awarded what St. Paul calls the merited crown. God’s mercy is realized in them because, as Jesus said, they have shown mercy. Conversely, those on the left will be sent away into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. And they are told it is because they have not shown mercy to the needy that surrounded them in this life.

 

The point is that God’s mercy to us is linked to and reflected in our own mercy toward others. 

 

As part of our November reflection in preparation for standing before Christ, we need to examine well how we forgive and how we offer love to assist others.

 

The Church has furnished us with guideposts in order to monitor and even to expand our charitable acts. For those needs related to the body, the Church has drawn from the Gospels the Seven Corporal Works of Mercy. These are feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and those in prison, and burying the dead.

 

We are also to show mercy by aiding the spiritual needs of those around us. Those Spiritual Works of Mercy involve instructing, advising, consoling, comforting others, forgiving them and bearing wrongs patiently.

 

The parable of the Last Judgement calls us to deeply personal acts of charity and mercy. In this we are to imitate God’s love for every human person. We can, of course, show mercy by contributing money or food or jackets to collections, for example, at our parish, or to the St. Vincent de Paul Society, or to St. Elizabeth Catholic Community Center in Rockford. In doing that we assist the Church or other worthy organizations to do the work of Jesus.

 

But there is an even deeper call to our mercy described in the Last Judgement. Those awarded a place in heaven are told that they personally carried out the works of mercy to the person of Jesus. For this reason, Pope Francis has frequently called upon members of the Church to reach out and engage the needy personally.

 

This means that the faith can be lived out in the quiet everyday moments and people around us. We might find the person of Christ in members of our family or our neighbors. We need to open our eyes and to see the needs for money or food or a consoling word or an encouragement to come back to Mass after having been away.

 

Often we can find ourselves reluctant to engage personally, finding reasons why we are too busy or not prepared for charity. We must be more like the Good Samaritan than like the priest and Levite who did not stop to help the beaten man on the road to Jericho.

 

In every act of charity, God gives us the grace and the opportunity. The month of November reminds us to be attentive to those moments of mercy.