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You Will Stand Before God When You Die: A Lenten Meditation

You Will Stand Before God When You Die: A Lenten Meditation

Last updated on: March 5, 2025 at 8:00 am by Mark Wilson

You Will Stand Before God When You Die: A Lenten Meditation 2025-03-03T22:23:31-05:00 Mark Wilson

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On March 5, 1496, King Henry VII of England issues letters patent to John Cabot and his sons, authorising them to explore unknown lands.

John Cabot in traditional Venetian garb – mural painting by Giustino Menescardi (1762), in the Sala dello Scudo in the Doge’s Palace, Venice

On March 5, 2025 Catholics around the globe are authorised by holy mother church to explore the unknown lands of Lent 2025. It is a chance once again to rekindle and reshape our relationship with God through prayer, sacrifice and charitable works. It’s a season that reminds you that you will one day turn back to dust and stand before God after you die.

Their are some basic minimal requirements for all baptized Catholics.

Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are obligatory days of fasting and abstinence for Catholics. In addition, Fridays during Lent are obligatory days of abstinence.

For members of the Latin Catholic Church, the norms on fasting are obligatory from age 18 until age 59. When fasting, a person is permitted to eat one full meal, as well as two smaller meals that together are not equal to a full meal. The norms concerning abstinence from meat are binding upon members of the Latin Catholic Church from age 14 onwards.

Members of the Eastern Catholic Churches are to observe the particular law of their own sui iuris Church.

A Reflection on Lenten Fasting

If possible, the fast on Good Friday is continued until the Easter Vigil (on Holy Saturday night) as the “paschal fast” to honor the suffering and death of the Lord Jesus and to prepare ourselves to share more fully and to celebrate more readily his Resurrection.

Fast & Abstinence | USCCB

On March 5, 1770 Five Americans, including the American whaler, sailor, and stevedore of African and Native American descent, Crispus Attucks, were fatally shot by British troops in an event that would contribute to the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War (also known as the American War of Independence) five years later. These five men left their mortal bodies and stood before the one that created them. They stood before pure love as he looked in their souls. How did they respond?

Several centuries later on March 5, 1953, Joseph Stalin, the longest serving leader of the Soviet Union, died at his Volynskoe dacha in Moscow after suffering a cerebral hemorrhage four days earlier. It is believed by some Western historians that the number of people killed by Stalin’s regime were 20 million or higher. He stood before the pure light of truth that day and the reality of his actions stood clear before him in all its clarity. How did he respond.

On March 5, 1963 Famed American country music stars Patsy Cline, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Cowboy Copas and their pilot Randy Hughes were killed in a plane crash in Camden, Tennessee. They got into a plane on earth and flew into eternity. They died but stood before the essence of life itself. What song did they sing for the king of kings in all his glory?

A Church, a Courtroom and Then Goodbye Song by Patsy Cline

The first scene was the church, then the altar
Where we claimed each other
With tears of joy we cried
Our friends wished us luck there forever
As we walked from the church side by side

The next scene was a crowded courtroom
And like strangers we sat side by side
Then I heard the judge make his decision
And no longer were we man and wife

I hate the sight of that courtroom
Where men made laws push God’s laws aside
Then the clerk wrote our story in the record
A church, a courtroom and then goodbye

We walked from that courtroom together
We shook hands and once again we cried
Then it was the end of our story
A church, a courtroom and then goodbye

How will you fare when you stand in the heavenly courts before the loving just judge when you say bye to earth?

Will you face justice or mercy?

The church reminds us at the start of Lent

Even now, says the LORD,
return to me with your whole heart,
with fasting, and weeping, and mourning;
Rend your hearts, not your garments,
and return to the LORD, your God.
For gracious and merciful is he,
slow to anger, rich in kindness,
and relenting in punishment.
Perhaps he will again relent
and leave behind him a blessing,
Offerings and libations
for the LORD, your God.

Joel 2:12-14

How will you fare at the end of Lent?

How will you fare at the end of your life?

Lent is a time to ponder, reflect and contemplate this very fact.

Early Americans, Communist Dictators and American Country singers all died and stood before the Lord.

I and everyone else reading these words will also stand before God when we die.

Let us examine our lives, cast off sin and start loving God with all our heart and our neighbor as ourselves.

I hope you have a holy and spiritually healthy Lent.

Here is a good mediative way of praying the stations of the cross during Lent.

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