My wife and I will be participating in a “How Well Do You Know Your Spouse Game” at our parish this Friday, so we’ve been getting to know each other on a deeper level by asking each other commonly asked questions. So my wife asked me what my greatest fear was. To be both romantic and truthful, I responded, “losing you and the kids”. Here I thought I tallied up a point on the board. I followed up asking my wife what her biggest fear was.

“Judgement”.

As soon as she said it, I knew that my response, while noble it is, was the wrong answer.

We are on this planet for one purpose; to serve Jesus Christ. Nothing else matters. At the end of our lives, after we have passed from this Earth, Jesus Christ will judge us. All of our sins and merits will be laid before us. Jesus will lay down the verdict as to whether we have lived a holy life and are worthy to enter into Heaven, to spend some time in Purgatory, or if we have lived a wretched and unrepentant life and are cast into the fires of Hell.

We can not presume that because of our love of God that we are for certain going to make it to Heaven, or even Purgatory. Presumption of God’s mercy is a sin against the Holy Spirit. We can trust in His mercy, but we can not assume that He will give it to us.

For this reason, we should have a healthy fear of the Lord. Let us not confuse having fear with being afraid. Much like an employee has a healthy fear of his employer in that if the employee does not do his job he might get fired. Likewise, we should fear the Lord that if we sin, we might go to Hell.

It is crucial that we stay in a state of grace and go to confession as often as we need to. We do not know when God will remove us from this world and sentence us in the next. Go to confession, stay in a state of grace, pray the Rosary daily, and live a holy life.