So, what will it be like to stand before God at the moment of our death? The best way any of us can answer this question is, “Don’t ask me. I have no idea.” Trust me, if I had any idea what this upcoming experience is like to stand before God, I would not hold back on you. And I suspect any person would do the same. They would not hold back pertinent information, or private revelation, regarding what it’s like to stand before God. There may be a few people out there in the world who have been “blessed” to have a vision or mystical experience concerning the question, “What is it like to stand before God at the moment of our death?” Some future Saints may have been personally given some small amount of information on this topic that no human being will avoid, whatever our beliefs happen to be. We have no power to prevent the unpreventable. It matters not what religious belief system we subscribe to, or none at all. All the “Nones” today who profess no religion, except for the state religion possibly, even these folks will stand before their Creator at the moment of their death. God does not choose Catholics only for this future experience. He has chosen the life of every person to come to him, for better or for worse, in eternal life. As Catholics, we pray for the better for all people. This is our solemn responsibility.
Why this topic of entering God’s presence at the moment of our death and what it looks like? And, how will that moment potentially affect how we think and act in the present? Each January 28 in the Church, we celebrate the memorial of St. Thomas Aquinas, unless it falls on a Sunday as it did last week. St. Thomas lived in the 13th century, a time in the Church of other great Saints such as Francis, Anthony, Clare, Dominic, and others. St. Thomas Aquinas was the Catholic brainchild of the 13th century, and could be considered the leading brainchild of most every century. In other words, he was smart. Really smart. Gifted intellectually in ways that very few have reached in their thinking of Catholicism and the Christian faith. Aquinas produced a mammoth writing called the Summa Theologica, a very lengthy treatise of 3000 articles, hundreds of questions, thousands of objections, and their answers. It’s hard to fathom how one person could put together as one writing such an immense amount of information about God and Christianity. His Summa makes War and Peace look like a short novel.
In his five-volume set of questions, objections, and answers, St. Thomas has given the Church a great treasure of thoughts, interpretations, and teachings about God that will never be outdated until the Lord himself returns. I consider the same about the extensive writings of two recent Popes; John Paul II and Benedict XVI. Their exhaustive writings will take centuries to unpack, advancing our understanding of God’s relationship with us, his people, and how we can draw ourselves in, through the generosity of Divine grace, to some portion of the essence of God on this journey of faith. One example of such writing would be St. John Paul’s Theology of the Body.
St. Thomas Aquinas, in his treatise called the Summa Theologica, addresses a variety of issues that touch on God’s plan for us. And seemingly – and amazingly - the many religious parts connected to this Road to Emmaus journey we presently walk. An example of this in the Summa would be St. Thomas’ consideration on the topic of angels. Appropriately enough, Aquinas is affectionately known as “TheAngelic Doctor.” He’s the Saint who asked the question, “How many angels can stand on the head of a pin?” If you know the answer to this question, please feel free to tell me. Is it one lucky angel? Or only half an angel? Or is it ten thousand or more? Is it the entire number of angels God has created for our benefit, with Gabriel, Raphael, and Micheal standing on top of them all? Who knows? Forward the answer if you do know.
The angelic question is simply one of many, many topics that St. Thomas addressed in writing over many years of his short 50 years of life. You name it, the topic is likely found somewhere in the pages of the Summa Theologica. If you decide to read parts of the five volumes, just make sure you take your super brain pill before opening the pages. But here’s the deal with St. Thomas Aquinas and his exhaustive writings that our Church has treasured, and will continue to treasure for good… The deal is, when Thomas was entering the final moments of his life as a Dominican Friar, he was blessed with a mystical experience of God. Understanding in exact terms what his mystical experience consisted of, well, it was like Aquinas trying to answer the question, “What will it be like when we come before God at the moment of our death?” What we do know about this question is that no person, sane or insane, can answer it with an accuracy that allows us certain knowledge where we can say, “Yea, I get that. That’s not so hard to picture.” St. Thomas’ most profound experience of God, which reminds us of St. Paul being snatched up to the third heaven, ironically enough, after writing thousands and thousands of words in the Summa Theologica, was a God-experience he was unable to explain in written words or verbal language. Or even sign language. The best he could do was experience it. Which is our truest relationship with God. Our experience of God, and with God. Our being personally touched by the hand of the Divine, is, in my humble opinion, the truest relational character in the I-Thou relationship between each of us as individuals and the One who created us through our parents.
After Aquinas was graced and blessed with a supreme moment of God entering his body, soul, and vision in a way that was all new to this great Saint, he looked over at the many the books he wrote or dictated and said, “The end of my labors has come. All I have written appears to be as so much straw after the things that have been revealed to me.” Now, for a person to look over at the great work of their life, a work that has helped so many on the road to salvation, work that has provided us understanding of the Lord in truer ways, a work that gets picked up and read somewhere in the world every day of the year, a work that God obviously sanctioned and moved St. Thomas to bring together for the good of His Church, and for the Dominican to call it “so much straw” when placed aside of his revelatory moment which God sent his way… Well, it does inform us that what God has prepared for those who love him is far beyond our present capacity to grasp on a level of human understanding where we can say, “Okay, this will be my exact experience when I stand before God at the moment of my death.” Words fall short, as they should, when considering our truest relationship with our Creator, which is eternal experience. And to think St. Thomas had just a short moment of it. Can we begin to imagine what it will be like when we enter the presence of God forever?
The good news on this matter is trusting that St. Thomas, in his supreme moment with the Lord, was not given a vision of hell, but of heaven. Some Saints have been “blessed” with a mystical vision of hell. The reason, obviously, is to warn, which is a type of language Jesus used throughout the Gospels. Have we forgotten the language of warning, or pushed it aside thinking that all souls are destined for heaven no matter how we live our lives? I think of a few politicians – and others too in different walks of life - who have paid no attention to the language of warning from Shepherds of the Church. To their own detriment, I fear. Yet, the concept of heaven is where our first focus is to be in this life, while never forgetting along the way, on this Road to Emmaus, that hell is a real possibility for every person. Our eternal up or down direction, if you will, depends on our love for God and how well we hear and heed the teachings of our Lord Jesus, as given to us through him, his Apostles, and through each writer of the Scriptures.
St. Thomas’ vision of heaven left him speechless. Which is the proper reaction to any person’s mystical experience of God’s revelation, whatever the revelation consisted of. And when we stand before God at the moment of our death, it makes sense how this future experience presently lacks words to describe. And, it’s not like God is going to give us “time” to reflect upon and explain our sins and shortcomings when we stand before him, saying to the Lord, “Well, Lord, this is why I did what I did, or said what I said in that situation.” God already knows our intentions in what we say or do in every event and situation over the entirety of our lives. Even our silent thoughts he already knows. It’s rather funny, for lack of a better term, when someone presently says, “I’ll explain to God how and why I supported financially and verbally the destruction of human life in the womb, and considered it to be proper and good.” Or even worse, “It was none of God’s business.” There will be no chance to explain away before God our sins. Whatever our future encounter with the Lord is like at the moment of our death, it will not involve explanation or speech. Such words must be spoken beforehand, like, “Lord Jesus, have mercy on me, a sinner.”
St. Thomas, a rather intelligent Saint, had a mystical event that caused him to go silent, making him realize that what we can do for God culminates in “so much straw.” This, of course, is no excuse to not love and live our faith in Christ. But it is a reason that refers to God’s power, and how what Christ has prepared for us in his life, death and resurrection is far beyond our comprehension. Which, in the end, is a beautiful thing.