On the final Sunday in the liturgical year, it is time to remember things that we’d prefer to forget. For starters, we recall that there is an infinite qualitative difference between us and God. He is immortal and infinite. We are not. Each one of us will come to our individual end. But so will our society, our world, even our universe.

Another thing to call to mind on this day is that while the Son of God came the first time in a way both lowly and hidden, he will come one day in a way both public and glorious. Yes, he is the Lamb of God. But He is also the Lion of Judah. He takes away the sin of those who let him. But he is also will bring things hidden in darkness into the light, call a spade a spade, and insist all bear the consequences of their choices.

Clearly, all of us expect that the Judge will condemn evil and impose sentence on the guilty. And we tend to think of evildoing as stepping over the line and infringing on the rights of others, taking their possessions, maybe even taking their lives. The language of the Our Father lends itself to this interpretation of sin when it says “forgive us our trespasses.”

The problem with this understanding of sin is that it is incomplete, even shallow. Lots of people think that as long as they don’t lie, cheat, and steal, but just keep to themselves and mind their own business, they deserve big rewards from God.

The story of the Last Judgment addresses these “decent folks.” Imagine their shock as they swagger smugly up to the judge’s bench expecting praise only to be sent off to eternal punishment! Why? Because they neglected to do the good love required them to do. They did not “commit” offenses or infractions of the law; they did nothing positively destructive. They just, in the presence of suffering, heartlessly did absolutely nothing. Their sin was not a sin of “commission” but a sin of “omission.” But note–these sins of omission ultimately seal the fate of the damned.
;)How many are guilty of the sins of omission?;)
:)Peace and kindness,:)
Fred

It's not the time for any of us to be saying "I thank you God that I am not like others, because I do good such as.......".

But we can say "I thank you God that you are changing me more and more into the person you intended me to be in my love for you and for my neighbor"

AND: "I thank you God that you have forgiven my sins of omission through Jesus the Christ when I have failed. Help me recognize and respond to the real needs of others".


Yes, those Advent lections are scarier than the Lenten ones.

revdrgade
Indeed they are.
But they do help remind us in loving those neighbors who we have never met but who are in need.
Peace and kindness,
Fred

Rom 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, [which is] your reasonable service.
Rom 12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Rom 12:3 For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think [of himself] more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.

cogs,
So you don't want to answer the question.
OK by me.
Fred.

revdrgade

But they do help remind us in loving those neighbors who we have never met but who are in need.
Fred

And we do, indeed, need to be reminded or we get all full of ourselves.

revdrgade,
Right.
"Getting full of ourselves" is the way to becoming empty on judgment day.
Peace and kindness,
Fred