Here is a sermon I gave at the Advent Penance Service for St. John Jesuit High School in Toledo.  Regular confession of our sins through the Sacrament of Penance is always a good thing.

Advent Penance Service @ Saint John’s

Our opening prayer reminded us that Advent is about preparing for two things.  And every year, one of those two things comes to pass.  Every year, at the end of Advent, the Church celebrates the birth of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  But what if this year it was different?  What if this year, the other thing we are preparing for came to pass instead?  What if this year, instead of Advent ending with Christmas it ended with Christ’s Second Coming?  What would our reaction be?

What would our reaction be if instead of hearing Christmas bells at Midnight Mass we heard the trumpet blast of the Final Judgment?

What if, instead of seeing the children’s choir gathering in the choir loft getting ready to sing the Mass, we saw the choirs of angels gathering in the sky getting ready to separate out the sheep from the goats?

What if, instead of wondering what awaits us under the Christmas tree, we were all standing before the glorious throne of God wondering what our eternal fate will be?

How would we react to that?  I mean, it’s the end of time; it’s the final judgment; it means getting sent to Heaven or hell.  It’s worth thinking about…  In the end, I suppose there are three ways we could react. 

First, I suppose it’s a logical possibility that we could not react at all; we could just kind of remain “cool” to the whole thing.  This kind of reaction, however, is nothing but a fantasy.  The Lord promises us so much pomp and circumstance when He returns that I doubt any of us will remain “cool” in the face of it.  It’s more likely we’ll die of fright.

And so, the second way we could react is with fear.  I mean, the fact that God will be giving us a thumbs up or a thumbs down for all eternity is a pretty serious matter.  This is where I often find myself, and my guess is that this is where most people find themselves.  We don’t want to merit hell; we want to gain Heaven; and the Judgment is where we’ll find that out.  So fear in the face of it isn’t something unreasonable.

The third way we could react is with joy.  This way seems to me to be the most fitting.  After all, if we have done things right, if we have lived the life of grace God wants us to live, then meeting Our Lord Jesus Christ face to face will be more like a reunion with our best friend than it will be a moment of terror. 

But, let’s face it, we are all fallen men, with two feet on the ground.  We are not angels.  We know we need God’s forgiveness and so we still are moved by fear when we think of His Judgment.  Rightly so.  Life is all about this movement from fear into joy.  It’s a movement from alienation to union with God through love, and the forgiveness of our sins through confession makes that movement all the more complete.  If we make our confession a good one today, we’ll be moving from a healthy fear into a more healthy joy.

--Fr. Adam Hertzfeld