“…it is appointed for mortals to die once, and after that the judgement…” (NRSV Hebrews 9:27)

When death severs the soul from its earthly body, the brief time of our probation and our opportunity is ended.  “…night is coming when no one can work” (NRSV, John 9:4).  We have no second chance then of proving whether we are worthy of the life which God has given us, for we shall already have proved it.  Nothing can alter the things we have done in this world or left undone.  They stand for ever in the record.  And although they themselves are past, yet they live on in the results they have produced in the soul, in its pride, its self-love and its self-satisfaction.

The actions of the past are over, but they survive in the character they have gone to form.  For what counts in the end is not so much what things we have done, but what we have become in doing them. Therein lies the finality of death: we are what we have become.

Then our stewardship will be over, and the account of our life will be reckoned up.  To each of us our Maker will say, “Give an account of your stewardship, for you may be no longer steward” (Luke 16:2).

God has made us in his own image so that we might truly become like him, in purity, and charity, and holiness.  And he has given us our life which we are living now, in which to become so.  And when it is eventually over so will our time of probation be over, and we shall be called on to justify our existence before him.  God will say to each of us, “I have given you your life: what have you done with it?  I have given you your soul: what have you made of it?”

There will be no excuses then such as we employ here to camouflage the true facts: for in the words of Holy Scripture, “…all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account” (NRSV, Hebrews 4:13).

We shall then instead reflect on the abundance of opportunities which God has lavished upon us: his own words freely given to us in Holy Scripture, bringing us the knowledge of all that his Son has done and suffered to accomplish our perfection; the gift of Holy Communion and all the opportunities to join in the worship of the Church; the warnings we have so often heard to repent and amend our lives and devote them to him; and our church with the Blessed Sacrament reserved in it inviting our prayers and adoration.

All of these things, if we use them devotionally are now to our good.  But when they are over, then our past neglect of them will stand accusingly against us.

For at our death, when we appear before our Blessed Lord, we shall be judged according to our opportunities.  That servant, Our Lord has warned us, “who knew what his master wanted, but did not prepare himself or do what was wanted, will receive a severe beating.  But one who did not know and did what deserved a beating will receive a light beating.  From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required…” (NRSV, Luke 12:47-48).

We know our opportunities now, and when we are judged we shall also know and see spread out before us our every neglect of them.  For then we shall at last know the truth, and shall see ourselves, not as we seem now either to others or to ourselves, but as we really are.

And Our Lord, as he looks into us, will pass sentence, according to the direction in which the soul has been moving.  Those souls who die in penitence and the love of God and who are moving nearer to him will go to Purgatory where the process will continue until it issues in perfection.  But those who have by their own will moved so far away from God that, in the words of Holy Scripture, “there is no remedy” (2 Chronicles 36:16), they will depart to Hell, that place of permanent separation from the all-holy God.

Each of us in now fashioning his or her own judgement, and preparing the evidence which will then be given.  The state of our soul will be our own prosecution, our own witness against ourself.  There will be no defence, because the truth will be as apparent to us as it will be to our Judge.

One of the best preparations that we can make for that day is regular and detailed self-examination of conscience.  We should do this at the end of each day, and especially before we make our Communion, in a straightforward, practical way.  Business people who never or rarely made up their books would never know where they were until they found themselves bankrupt, and a similar spiritual account taking is just as necessary for the soul.  If we neglect self-examination now, we shall have no idea of our real, inward state until the judgement, which follows immediately on death, reveals it to us in all its stark detail.

But if we judge ourselves severely now, we shall be better prepared when we come to be judged by Our Lord after our death.