Never knew you...

St Anselm: Eph 3.14-19 and Matt 7.21-29
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
St Albert the Great Priory

Here you are. At the end of a long life. You have spent your adult life in the Church. You sang in the choir. Served on the parish council. Worked every year at the capital fundraising fair. Once a week at confession, daily Mass. Never missed an Ash Wednesday and said your rosary even before the first cup of coffee. You were absolutely faithful in your marriage, raised the kids in the Church, sent them to good Catholic grade schools and then to U.D. You volunteered for every mission trip that came around. Now, here you are, just about ready to die. No one who knew you would think that you were anything but the best Catholic, the most sincere Christian, and that once you has passed on you would take the express elevator straight to the throne of God. And this is very likely exactly what will happen. But we have one caution from Jesus, just a small warning: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the Kingdom of heaven…Many will say to me on that day…’Lord, did we not do might deeds in your name? [Go to the homeless shelter, protest the abortion clinic, give money to Catholic Charities, attend every First Saturday Mass, pray novenas to St Jude, visit the grieving, gave lots of money to the Dominicans!] Did we not do might deeds in your name? Then I will declare to them solemnly, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.’”

You have to thinking at this point: “He never knew me!? Who’s he calling an evildoer!?” What is Jesus doing here? At the very least, he is teasing out for us the delicate balance we must achieve between the fervor of our faith in him AND the quality and amount of work we do for others in his name. Faith and no works is dead. All works but done without faith is also dead. Jesus puts it to us this way: “…only the one who does the will of my Father [will enter the Kingdom of heaven].” So, cry “Lord, Lord” and pray without ceasing all you want; break your back doing social justice works for the poor and oppressed all you want. But if you pray outside the will of the Father or you do good works outside the will of the Father, then Jesus will say to you on the last day, “I never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.”

Yes, this seems harsh. Even slightly cruel. But if we understand what Jesus means by “doing the will of the Father,” the blow is somewhat softened. Turning to Paul in his letter to the Ephesians, we learn a bit more about how to come to know Christ so that Christ might know you on the last day. Paul prays for the Ephesian church, “I kneel before the Father…that he may grant you…that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” First, faith is granted to us, given to us. Our ability to trust God is a gift. Think of it as a seed you must nurture with prayer and good works. Paul continues to pray, “…that he may grant that you, rooted and grounded in love, may have the strength to comprehend…to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge…” Love surpasses knowledge, faith precedes understanding; willing the Good, doing the Good trumps merely knowing about the Good. And we love, according to Paul’s prayer, “so that [we] may be filled with all the fullness of God.”

On the last day, when looks into your face, will he see a long, honorable tradition of good works? Will he see a fervent prayer life, a life faithful to the sacraments and scripture. Or, will he look into your face and see there reflected his own face: a life strengthened by the Spirit, rooted and grounded in love, a life of breadth, length, height and depth, measured on all sides by the immeasurable fullness of God who dwells within you? Will our God Who Is Love on the last day see the face of Christ in you, a single will to will one thing? Love. If so, you will NOT enter heaven on the last day. Why not? Because you have been there all along.