Not Fair

Many years ago during Prohibition times in the United States there was a gangster named Dutch Schulz who was mortally wounded in a gunfight in Chicago. As he lay dying in the street, a priest ran out and gave Dutch absolution. Not fair!' some claimed. 'Here was a man who stole everything all his life and at the last minute seemed to have stolen heaven!'

In contrast, Dutch's critics might have com­pared him to the theoretical monk who had lived innocently all his life in a monastery and at the last minute committed one mortal sin and would be condemned to hell. Not fair!' they might cry —and they'd be right...

But thank God, that's not how it works. Jesus has told us not to judge others (Lk 6:37). We never really know what goes on in people like Dutch over the years — perhaps a real desire to break away from his life's patterns and the failure to do so, deep psychological scars, whatever. We simply don't know what goes on in the depths of other people (1Cor 2:11). Oftentimes we're not even sure of what's really going on in ourselves!

And so the Lord says to leave judgment to him On 9:39). He knows of our longing for good, and how rare may be our complete turning away from him (mortal sin). He knows of the good in us when even we may not recognize it. The 'good thief on the cross castigated the other one who had de­nounced Jesus:

"'Have you no fear of God at all? You got the same sentence as he did, but in our case we deserved it: we are paying for what we did. But this man has done nothing wrong.' Then he said, 'Jesus, re­member me when you come into your kingdom.' Jesus answered him, 'In truth I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.' " — Lk 23:40-43

Where did this sentiment and hope come from in the good thief, and how many of his contempo­raries would have judged him the way Jesus did?

Prescinding from these rather rare cases how-ever, there's an old adage that life is a continuum and we die pretty much as we have lived. The whole of one's life is a time for growing—or for no growing. Hopefully, over the course of life a person will more and more come to know and love God and other people, as well as himself or herself.

I recall the obituary of a Maryknoll priest who died a few years ago. He was a scripture scholar as well as a missionary and throughout his life his knowledge and love of the lord had continually deepened. It was mentioned in the obituary that in the last few years of his life he would spend long periods in the chapel apparently engrossed in God’s presence. His death was simply the culmination and ratification of his long life in which he came to be totally immersed in the lord with whom he had been growing more and more in love over the years. Death was his passage to the fullness of that love.


To be continued....