Important point about judgment upon one's death

Father Z has a very important posting on his blog about the reality of hell. I'm glad to see that some are being responsible and repeating that important point over and over. Especially because he makes clear the gifts of the sacraments and the ability to purify in purgatory as the free and open avenues to saving grace that they are.

I notice a typical erroneous assumption in many of the comments which I must correct (as I have before on this blog). Modern people do not understand that when they die God "judges" them as in renders the verdict. Modern people think that they are giving some sort of "trial" or at least "final summation" in dialogue with God when they die. No, that's not what judgment means. Your entire life is your "trial" and the state of grace (or not) that you die in IS YOUR "final summation." You do not get the chance to "accept the mercy of God" after you die, doofus. Jesus and the Apostles make that abundantly clear in the Gospels. God's mercy and forgiveness are extended while you are alive, dolts, not when you die and can no longer recompense the sins you have done against God and to others. There is no "dialogue" or bargaining when one is dead; it is the final rendering of the verdict based on everything up to your moment of death.

Life: all of one's deeds, sacraments, graces, sins up to the moment of death and the moment of death = "the trial and jury deliberations"
After death judgment = "the reading of the verdict"

Here is a quick example. Suppose you have a horrible sinner, I mean, a real jerk. But one day he sees a child drowning and he jumps in, and loses his life in her rescue. He dies and finds to his horror that God is real and that the jerk's entire life has been hell bound. However, God tells him immediately, without saying a word, "Your sins are forgiven because you gave up your life for that girl child."

The minute that a soul appears in front of God everything that could mitigate a life has already happened, including the death. There is no "Oh Wow! You really exist! Wow I don't want to go to hell! Gee, I therefore accept Jesus Christ as my Savior!" No, that does not happen, there is only the judgement. But God's mercy is unknowable and one can only have hope and do the best one can. That is why I give the example that even a terrible sinner can (intentionally or unintentionally) actually redeem himself in full in the manner of his or her death (in a genuine set of circumstances, not a manipulated "death bed charity act.")

***This is an important analogy***
People keep imagining "what they are going to say to God" when they die. They aren't going to say anything at all; they are just going to hear their judgment from God.

Think of what you do your entire life AS "what you are going to say to God when you die" because that's actually the way it is. So everything you say and do and think WHILE ALIVE up to and including the moment of death ARE "what you are going to say to God when you die." By the time you die God's "already heard it all from you."

So you cannot "argue your case" because you are no longer alive (the "exhibits" and "the deeds" are all gone). You just hear your verdict.

That's why deathbed confession and genuine repentance is no joke. It's literally one's "last chance" and "final summation" before hearing your judgment for all eternity.