KEEPING THE BOOKS

A MESSAGE FOR THE 8th SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST

It’s true that in life, we tend to judge a book by its cover.  The world values very highly the cover, with its names, titles and endorsements.  But the world makes very little of the contents of the book, and nothing at all of the last page.  When weare judged on the other hand, God pays no attention to the cover; his searching eye goes through the whole contents most carefully, noting all we have done, and all we have failed to do. He then makes his final judgment based solely on the very last page.  The state of our soul as we pass into the world beyond, and our book is closed forever.  This is our Book of Life—the one we hear spoken of in the Dies Iraeof the Requiem Mass, when we hear the words “Liber scriptus proferetur”—“a written Book shall be put forward”.  This book contains every single moral and immoral act we shall have performed in the course of our life, everything on which we shall be judged. 

This Book of Life is therefore something we need to keep under extremely careful control.  It is our account-book, and to keep it balanced, we should go regularly—once a month at least—to confession.  We need this frequent opportunity to humble ourselves and be sincere in our self-accusation, so that we might have nothing to fear from our future Judge.  As St. Augustine so nicely puts it: “Accuse yourself and you will be excused.  Excuse yourself and you will be accused.”  If we have debts to pay, let’s make restitution now while we still can.  And if we have debtors, let us write off those debts, forgive them that trespass against us, so that our own debts, often neglected and forgotten, may also be forgiven.  Let’s resolve today to do this more frequently, to make a daily examination of conscience and add an act of contrition to our night prayers.  This way, when God calls, and tells us “thou canst be steward no longer,” we may be received into the everlasting dwellings.