“The Lord is testing me. And I didn’t study.” ~ Unknown
There were many things that were frightening to me when I was a youngster in school. Bullies were scary. Some of my teachers scared me. Having to climb that stupid rope in PE tormented me. But I think the most consistent fright that I would get always began with the words: “Clear your desks, take out a piece of paper, and write your name on it.” Oh, Lord. The dreaded pop quiz!
Even though the teacher told us the day before that we should study something for the following day, most of us came to school blissfully unaware because we did not do what was assigned. And the pop quizzes often proved that. Why would the teacher do that to us? we often thought. Why me? Why does this keep happening? Those questions always swirled in our minds.
The one question that most of us never asked ourselves, though, was the simple and direct one: “Why did I not do what was expected?” For, if we did, we would have no reason to fear. We would not fail the quiz. We would be able to feel good about ourselves.
There are many people who face the possibility of their lives ending with the same kind of fear as a child facing a pop quiz. We know that it is coming. We know what we have to do in order to “pass”. Why don’t we just do it?
That is a question that each of us needs to ask of ourselves. God expects us to do certain things and to be a certain kind of people. One day we will face Him and He will ask us to give an accounting of ourselves before Him. We cannot cheat on that final pop quiz. We cannot write the answers on our hands. We will have to face Him squarely and pour out our souls.
It is only frightening if we have not done our work here on earth. The preparation is not really that difficult. We need to pray. We need to go to Mass. We need to receive the sacraments — Communion and Confession — regularly. We need to do good to and for others. If we do that, we do not have to worry about failing.
FAITH ACTION: Make sure that you pray today and do some corporal and/or spiritual work of mercy.