There is an old saying that goes something like this: If you and I are being chased by a bear I don’t need to be faster than the bear, I only need to be faster than you.
I sometimes wonder if this is how our personal judgment will go? If the bear represents hell, do I only need to be better than the guy next to me to eek my way into purgatory? I guess what I am wondering is—does God grade on a curve?
I think by 21st century standards, I am a stand-up guy. I mean, look how most people act these days; by comparison, I am like St. Francis. Well, maybe not St. Francis, but probably almost as good as St. Rene Goupil - Patron saint of Anesthesiologists.
If you remember back in college, one of the first things you wanted to know on the first day of a new class is if the professor graded on a curve and how much the mid-term and the final counted toward your final grade. That is all I am asking here. How much does the time and place that I live in influence my final grade?
Look at it this way, I am pretty sure that if I lived in Sodom I’d be doing the walk of the righteous—high-fiving Lot at the end of the day with ol’ salty pulling up the rear. But if I am to be compared to those Christians that were singing hymns of praise while being eaten by lions, I have a problem on my hands.
I am a little worried by all of this. I am worried that I might not live next to bad enough people. When I am standing before the pearly gates, I am not sure if pointing out that the neighbor across the street steals cable T.V. and the guy next door has his fence 10 feet past the property line is going to be enough for entry. Perhaps I need to play it safer and move to San Francisco. Or, if I really want to be safe, maybe I should move to Washington D.C..
But the unruly thought that I can’t get out of my head is, what if, perchance, God doesn’t grade on a time and place curve? What if I am judged by how much I loved, and not how much my neighbors didn’t? What if I am judged by how well I saw Christ in a stranger and invited him in, clothed Him when he was naked, or fed Him when he was hungry, or visited Him in prison? What if I am to be judged by what I did and not how well I noticed what my neighbors were not doing?
If this is how I am to be judged, and what my neighbors in the Castro or on K-Street were doing doesn’t matter, then one thing is for sure. I am definitely going to need some lions.
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In a curve yes, but not compared to others. Rather you’d be compared to your better self that has been blessed with grace and to your worst self that has been weakened by sin. Everything will be taken into consideration - circumstances, intent, your nature so the judgment will be strict, yet fair.
Very nicely put, Patrick. I don’t believe I’ve worried about being just a bit holier than my neighbor, but I have often wondered if I’m the type of Christian that could go to the lions and still be singing hymns of praise. I’m fairly certain I could do that, but I definitely worry whether I could watch my children be eaten by lions and still sing hymns of praise, myself. I pray God does not put me to the test!
I think this is a question worthy of “Go Ask Your Father” on relevant radio. Think I’ll send the link to them. Hope Fr. Rocky will answer it.
With Vatican II as an approximate cutoff, Catholics (I’m sure I’m not alone) were educated to think not in terms of a “curve” but in terms of “Did I break the law?” If one did he went to Hell. If not he went to Heaven (with, most likely, a temporary stopover).
That led to a mentality, as one my friends put it, “How bad can I be and still get to Heaven” (said tongue in cheek. (I think)). Using this standard we don’t need to know the curve, but we do need a good lawyer with us at our particular judgment.
I think each of us needs to have real concern for his or her own behavior: (1) the entrance is narrow and (2) many are called but…..
He is a loving God Who forgives and He may “not care where we have been, only where we are going,” as a little wood carving I have says. But it’s that “where we are going” that is key and…. see first paragraph.
I think each of us needs to have real concern for his or her own behavior: (1) the entrance is narrow and (2) many are called but….. He is a loving God Who forgives and He may “not care where we have been, only where we are going,” as a little wood carving I have says. But it’s that “where we are going” that is key and…. see first paragraph.
Perhaps the nuns had it right when they said” Aim high…aim for Heaven and you may at least land in purgatory”. In others be the best you can
be…at loving God and loving neighbor. That is far, far more difficult than it sounds…we will all, no doubt,fall short and have to rely totally on the mercy of God. In other words, we don’t earn Heaven, it is a gift freely offered…but it comes at great price! And Jesus paid the price. Praise be His Holy Name!
Yes, the entrance is narrow. Chesterton describes the attempts of modern men to enlarge the entrance into heaven, saying:
“I know that the most modern manufacture has been really occupied in trying to produce an abnormally large needle. I know that the most recent biologists have been chiefly anxious to discover a very small camel. But if we diminish the camel to his smallest, or open the eye of the needle to its largest—if, in short, we assume the words of Christ to have meant the very least that they could mean, His words must at the very least mean this—that rich men are not very likely to be morally trustworthy.”
Perhaps we all know that we are a little too “rich” to make it through that needle, so we make relative comparisons to ease our anxiety.
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