"When Evening Comes..."

As Fall continues and Winter begins to announce its arrival, there are many reminders that the year is coming to an end. The seasons of the year teach us about life. The lesson plan assigned to us for today, however, is: life comes to an end, and in the perspective of that end we must evaluate what is most important as evening approaches. Before sounding too somber, we must recall that each day we witness the promise of resurrection with the rising of every new Sun. (The thought of Spring sustains me in the long Minnesota winters. It's not too early to think: "Spring!"). But still the fact remains, at the end of the day evening comes. There is a certain finality for each and every one of us in life. None of us can escape death. We must know too that with death there will be a final examination; what is called our personal judgment.

John of the Cross' statement, above, sheds light on what happens in the twilight. "When evening comes, you will be examined… in love." There are three moments in the instruction of the present saying: 1.) the moment of examen, 2.) the lesson of love, 3.) and that last instance of self- abandonment. There will be a time when we will have to make an account before God as to how we spent the Today of this present life. Secondly, there will be a review of love. And finally, the last moment arrives in which we abandon ourselves forever into the hands of God.

As many of you know, we are neighbors to a Jesuit Retreat Center. Some of the retreatants have commented in the past, especially as they get older, that for them retreat is: "cramming for the final exam." I usually laugh when I hear this because it sounds funny; but there is wisdom to be found in the humor.

Exams are part and parcel of life. Every student knows that at the end of a semester there is a final paper or exam designed to test what has come to be known throughout the school year. These are usually moments of great anxiety. I still remember the timed math tests that I had to take as a first grader… box dividers (to prevent cheating) and all! The panic rises every time I think of a clock ticking away as a project needs to be finished. I am a contemplative, in part, so that I could take on a new perspective no longer living for the clock but living for eternity. Here's the first piece of useful information in today's lesson plan: the human person is not created for time but for eternity. That eternity will be defined by how you live in time. With that in mind we have to ask, "what is a life lived well?"

To answer that question, one has to turn and think about what is most important. How do we evaluate the value of our own lives? Typical standards are set by the mindset of our own culture: educational background, job position, power, influence, money, what we own, where we live, what we wear, who we know, life experience, and in the world of social media how many followers we have! The list could go on… But the question begs itself, are these genuine standards by which the value of a human person is measured? Do we measure the ones we love in this manner? Our spouses, our children, our friends, our neighbors, our communities?

St. Paul provides a clue about the true worth of every man, woman, and child before God:

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing."

- 1 Cor 13, 1–3

The Apostle is speaking about the more excellent way which we are able to follow as free persons. The human person is at his or her best when they follow the way of love. Learning to love is the most important lesson that we can learn before the eventide of life. The truth is, I am nothing if I do not love. Love is the genuine standard for quality of life. The opposite of this is to make some noise, to move mountains, to know everything, to do everything and be the best for my own sake. Self-love can creep into everything we do and destroy all that we accomplish even if we are doing great things for God, our families, our country, our employers and so on. We must not live for ourselves. God has programmed man and woman for the gift of self. Out of love, then, I must learn to give it all away for the sake of the Other - for God's sake and of all those whom we claim to love. To learn to love means that there has to be a process of unlearning our selfishness in all of its forms. John of Cross explains: "…Learn to love as God desires to be loved and abandon your own ways of acting." That's it! That's the key, self-abandonment - forgetfulness of self!

The course of readings within the liturgical cycle of the Church will begin to focus our attention on the last things (death, judgment, heaven, and hell). Among these texts, one stands out to give us concrete information about the way that God desires to be loved. The text: Mt 25, 31- 46. (Please take the time to read the whole text). It is the parable which concerns the judgment of the nations. The Son of Man comes in his glory with all his angels. From his glorious throne he will sit and judge all peoples of all times. The standard of his judgment will be love! Speaking to those who withstood the final scrutiny, those standing on his right after he separated the sheep from the goats, Jesus the King of Glory speaks his sentence:

"Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me."

- Mt 25, 35-36

So, the final exam will be in love, or rather in acts of mercy. "The good life" is to be found in our neighbor who is in need. We are called to care for the person of Christ in the persons of the poor. This kind of mercy begins in our own home and in our own communities. The lesson is to learn to love one another because we see Christ in every human being. There are many things we could "do" for God. However, all he wants is for us to love him, the one thing necessary. There is no need to do any more.

One final thought. St. John of the Cross will speak of an essential disposition or attitude which must be acquired at prayer. He names it: "loving attentiveness." This is a spiritual activity by which we go to prayer out of love, setting aside all the other things which demand our attention in order to focus the gaze of our heart on God alone. This means that we unlatch the bonds of love created by desire and affection and reattach the strings of the heart to God. We learn to attend to God in faith and in love in the interior of our souls. Going to prayer is an act of love - a concrete way to love God with our time which is so precious to us. Consider the time in prayer as a necessary prerequisite for running the way of love. In moments of prayer, the reservoir of our hearts is filled. It is how God chooses to pour out his love into our hearts - through the gift of the Spirit. If you want to love, learn to pray within your heart finding in your deepest center a God who loves you more than the whole world itself. The evenings after a busy day are a good time to give to God. If you form this habit of heart, you will not be disappointed. You will learn this final lesson: "When evening comes, you will be examined in love." By this, I intend the gift of contemplation in which you discover with a single glance that God is looking at you… not judging you… but examining you in love!

To practice this loving attentiveness, St. John of the Cross provides his summary of perfection (a cheat sheet for the final exam!):

"Forgetfulness of created things, remembrance of the Creator, attention turned toward inward things, and loving the Beloved."

- The Sum of Perfection

What are we waiting for? We do not need to wait until the Sun sets before we start loving. Open your heart now to God and to those who are around you. Do not be afraid to love. This is what God desires for us and our lifetime on Earth. Teresa of Jesus remarking about death and judgment states that she cannot fear one whom she has loved all her life long. Final judgment is not something to fear if we spend our Today loving his majesty, the King of Glory. The only thing to fear is that you never took the risk to love.

Peter PeachOctober 22, 2023