Final times, final judgement

All of our Scripture readings this weekend give horrifying signs that may portend the end of the world. Earthquakes, famine, wars, tornadoes, storms and persecutions — all are warning signs from over two thousand years ago and still are, yet the world has not ended.

We still pray, yearn for and seek justice for all and that is our responsorial psalm, “The Lord comes to rule the earth with justice.” Malachi sets the tone in our first reading as he speaks of fire consuming the earth. Look at the news on California each month! Isn’t it enough to frighten you?

St. Paul writes to the Thessalonians and tells them to keep busy living their faith and not minding the business of others. How much of our daily newspaper and news is either putting someone down or stressing the negative on another? Jesus, in this Gospel of Luke, states that we do not need to worry about end times, but to daily pray and act on our faith and we will be safe.

Since the beginning of time, this end of time literature, called apocalyptic literature, gives a violent and dramatic end of the world. It drives people to fear or despair. However, our faith teaches us that God is more powerful than any earthly disaster. Yes, terrible things happened, are happening and will continue to happen, but Jesus, the Son of Justice, will prevail.

In Egypt, the Final Judgment is the most popular painting in all tombs and pyramids. This painting comes from the “Book of the Dead” as a dead person is going on a journey to know his or her fate. Anubis, the God of mummification, leads the person to the balance of justice which has two scales. When a person dies before they are mummified, their body’s organs are taken out and put separately in a ceramic pot to be buried with them when they are mummified and ready to bury.

Just before this process, the heart of the dead person is removed and placed on a scale of justice, with a feather on the other scale. The heart is seen as the symbol of good and bad deeds, and the feather a symbol of justice. If the person has a heavy heart, this means he or she is a bad person and the heart will be eaten by Aman, the wild animal, a symbol of hell that stands next to the scale.

But if the heart is light, this means that the person is good and will enter into paradise by Horus the God of Protection. The light heart is placed back into the person to be mummified so that he or she is now ready for the final judgment and with a loving, kind and gentle heart will proceed to eternal life.

Jesus states that not a hair of your head will be destroyed, and thus gives us the challenge to live with justice. Justice is true love of God and Neighbor and thus, we will balance the scale of Justice and gain heaven. It is not ours to worry about when we will be called, but to know that we will be called. It is ours to strive to live in true love and justice for all.