Think of the war in Ukraine! Think of the First and Second World Wars! Think of Nazism and Stalinism! Thinik of Pol Pot! Think of all the massacres and wars of all time! And if you are not already overcome by despair, think of what your cry to God must be: “where are You? Where is your justice?”

The Word of God reassures us that every injustice of human history will be judged by God: of whatever kind it may be, whoever committed it and however great or small it was: God will judge them all. And it is indeed reassuring to know that those whose arrogance has blinded them into thinking they could get away with injustice will face their day in the court of the divine Judge.

It is even more reassuring to know that the poor, the oppressed, and every other victim of injustice wounded by the arrogant and evil-doer, will receive total and everlasting healing from God, the rising Sun of righteousness, as the prophet Malachi puts it.

And yet it is easy to point the finger elsewhere and think of the huge crimes of others. What about my own petty, or more than petty, injustices? And before we object that we are not unjust, remember that every sin is an injustice ….

How, then, might we understand God’s final judgment on a human person? On me? Judges pronounce verdicts. A verdict just means saying officially what is the truth of a situation. At the end of a court case, the judge’s verdict pronounces the truth of that case as it has emerged from all the evidence before him. So, God’s judgment, God’s verdict upon each person, will mean that God will pronounce the definitive truth about our lives. The truth meant here is not so much some detailed record of all we have done or failed to do. It is more the truth of who we have become as the result of what we have done. It’s God’s verdict on who we are.

Every free decision and action we take, especially the more serious ones, forms who we are, bit by bit. To some degree, the decisions and actions of other people also form us, especially those of God himself. We shape ourselves and are shaped by others to become who we are. We carry within ourselves our entire personal history, the complete story of our lives, our very own personal and living autobiography. Yet, in this life, it is hard for us to see, never mind remember, the full picture of our lives and thus of ourselves. Prayer and reflection, honest confessions and conversations can greatly help us to have deeper insight into the truth of who I am. But that’s hard work, though if we can, we should do it. Yes, it can be so easy for us to miss things, to misunderstand things and even to deny things about ourselves. Only the Lord can see the complete me. He sees with love and compassion, of course, yet he also sees with truth and justice.

It’s unlikely that God’s judgment on each of us at the moment of death, or on the whole of history on the last Day, will consist of a detailed recounting of all that has happened. Rather, when we come face to face with Christ and he looks upon us, we will know intuitively, in an instant, his verdict on us. He is the Truth in person. In our encounter with Him who is the Truth, what is false in us will be apparent immediately without any need for words or explanations. We will see rather that all the sins and injustices committed by us or done against us by others have all in fact, in the end, landed on Him. He says it himself: “whatever you do to the least of my brethren (that includes my own self), that you do unto me.” That is why he carried them all on the Cross. We may feel at times unjustly done by, but it is He who bore the price so that both the perpetrator and the victim of injustice might be set free.

Malachi makes it clear that there will be those who, when they see the Lord, will burn like stubble. He calls them the arrogant and evil-doers. They simply cannot stand the verdict, the gaze of Christ’s Truth, about them. It’s a sobering thought, a disturbing thought. But Malachi also speaks of those who have feared God’s name during their lifetime. Even if they have been wounded by sin in the battle of life, they have remained faithful. For them, the sight and presence of the Lord will bring healing. His gaze will purify and purge them with divine love until they can stand face to face before Him and behold Him serenely and peacefully with pure hearts.

But if anyone fears he or she may be among the arrogant or evil-doers, the response to that fear now is not to wait for the Day of final Judgment, but to let today become a day of salvation and to find remission and forgiveness in the judgment of sacramental absolution. And if we are wounded, but not mortally, by sin, then we need not wait until the last Day for healing. We can receive it by allowing the real presence of the Lord to cleanse us in the Eucharist, by prayer, by penance and by the spiritual and corporal works of mercy.

The main thing is not to remain indifferent before the Lord and his will for us, or to procrastinate or fall asleep in the notion that we will escape judgment. As the Scriptures put it elsewhere: today is the day of salvation. That is the verdict we want. That is the verdict God wants for us. And its outcome will be the freedom of everlasting healing and peace in the contemplation of the Beatific Vision, of the God who has only ever loved us and wanted us to love Him in return.