12th Sunday of Ordinary Time, A June 25, 2023
Fr. Alexander Albert St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette
“Nothing is concealed that will not be revealed.” Does that frighten you a little bit? It does me. There are things in my life I would rather remain concealed. I’m sure that’s true for every human being. It’s also true that there are things which should not be publicized. Jesus is not suggesting we shout out our every fault and sin in public. There is such a thing as prudent silence, discretion, and confidentiality. Indeed, the sacrament of Confession is built on these very concepts.
But even what is wisely kept discrete will one day be known. Most people know that they face God’s judgment when they die. On the day of their death, God will lay before them their whole life, revealing to them the eternal fate that they have chosen for themselves by the life they lived. We call this the particular judgment. What fewer people realize, however, is that there is a second judgment, the final judgment when everything will be revealed, the whole story unveiled, and every injustice made right. This does mean all will see how what you did and didn’t do factored into the grand scheme of God’s victory over evil.
That might inspire a certain kind of shame or fear – “everyone will see what I did?” There are three things to remember before you sink into a pit of shame. First is that God’s opinion matters much more and He already sees everything. Compared to that, everyone else knowing is hardly worth mentioning. Secondly, if you die in a state of grace, then your whole story will be seen in the light of redemption. Yes, your hidden faults will be seen, but they’ll be seen in the context of how God’s grace overcame them in you, giving you and all the saints in heaven more reason to rejoice in God’s goodness and your redemption.
Thirdly, this cuts both ways. Your hidden faults be revealed, but so will your hidden virtues… even the ones you don’t see. When Jesus teaches us to pray, give alms, and fast in secret, he is training us to view our actions from that larger perspective. It’s a practical application of the teaching that all will be revealed, building the habit of caring more about the final judgment than what people think and see right now.
This is important because we are all so incredibly prone to get caught up in the things we see right now. For example, we might look the rapid expansion of celebrating “Pride month” and be tempted to go along just to be accepted. Or maybe we just despair that we’ve lost already. Yet, even if you don’t see it in this life, the final judgment will reveal how all the tiny acts of faith, hope, and love done by those who refuse to give in are ultimately more significant than the trillions of dollars spent on celebrating sin for a month. And just maybe we’ll be blessed with a glimpse of the final victory in the form of seeing the culture and the law shift back towards the truth even in this life, for a little while at least.
After all, yesterday was the anniversary of the overturning of Roe vs. Wade – something we weren’t sure would ever happen. Last year, it happened to fall on the feast of the Sacred Heart. Most years, however, it will fall on the feast of St. John the Baptist – June 24th. A victory won for life on the day of the Sacred Heart will be forever commemorated on the feast of the first person to recognize Jesus in the womb. This kind of providential occurrence is but a tiny foretaste of final victory. And we still don’t know exactly how every prayer, every fast, every act of love played into that victory. Only when at final judgment will we be able to rightly praise the millions who were the channels of grace that made the change. Nor should we forget that that judgment will also reveal our complacency and the ways in which we allow this one political victory to excuse us from having to care for mothers and their children.
Yesterday was also the day our diocese consecrated a woman to a life of virginity in the world. Kaitlin will spend the rest of her life in service to God and his church, bearing witness to the unique joy and power that comes from the practice of chastity and obedience to the gospel. Her witness and the witness of all those who choose to live lives radically contrary to the what is promoted by high-powered athletes, content creators, and politicians are reminders to us that not only does the final judgment matter in the future, it matters now, it affects decisions, careers, and happiness now. The world calls what Kaitlin has done a waste, but those there yesterday saw that she has chosen the better part and the final judgment will only confirm it all the more.
Yes, God sees everything and all we do will be revealed to all. But, if we surrender it all to him now, if we embrace the fact of our brokenness and weakness now, if we trust him now, this eventual revelation should no longer be a source of fear and shame, but of joy. For it is the proof of just how detailed, how specific, how utterly all-encompassing God’s love for you really is.
This is why Jesus follows this promise of revelation with the call to proclaim on the housetops what he is whispering to you. Only God at the final judgment will be able to tell the full story of all there ever was, but you can still tell part of that story now. We are not mindless characters, mere descriptions on the pages of a story written without our consent. No, in some mysterious way God the Divine Author has made us authors with him, granting us a share in his authority. By knowing how the story ends, by learning to tell our part in that story – how God has saved us from our sins – we make meaningful contributions to that story. It is all by his grace that such is possible, yet it is possible.
So, do not be afraid. Do not be afraid of what will become known about you. Do not be afraid that your tiny efforts and seemingly wasted acts of love will be washed away in the flood of sin and evil around us. Do not be afraid to speak the truth about sin and Christ’s call to repentance. Do not be afraid when the world plots to destroy you for trying to live this life of grace. Not only should you “acknowledge” Jesus before the world, you ought to shout out, to proclaim him as a King, Judge, Brother, Friend, and Lord so good that he counts even the hairs on your head in anticipation of the day that your hair, your body, your soul, your whole self will be so filled with light that not even your darkest moments will be able to cast the slightest shadow upon the glory of God’s love revealed in your life for all to see.