We all fear judgment. We fear being seen with everything inside us, some of which we don’t want exposed to the light. Conversely, we fear being misunderstood and not being seen in the full light, and not being seen for who we are. And what we fear most, perhaps, is a final judgment, the ultimate revelation of ourselves. Whether we are religious or not, most of us fear having to one day face our Maker, judgment day. We fear standing naked in complete light where nothing’s hidden, and all that’s in the dark inside us is brought to light. For many, the above words from Fr. Ron Rolheiser might be our human response to the reality that light, as our reflection verse notes, exposes everything. When, one day, we stand in the full light of God, stripped naked in soul, morally defenseless, with everything we have ever done exposed, that light will, I suspect, indeed be a bit of hell before it turns into heaven. It will expose all that’s selfish and impure inside us and all the ways we have hurt others in our selfishness, even as it will expose its opposite, namely, all that’s selfless and pure inside us. That judgment will bring with it a certain condemnation even as it brings at the same time an understanding, forgiveness, and consolation such as we have never known before. That judgment will be momentarily bitter but ultimately consoling. For those of us who are Roman Catholics, this notion of judgment is also, I believe, what we mean by our concept of purgatory. Purgatory is not a place separate from heaven where one goes for a time to do penance for one’s sins and purify one’s heart. Our hearts are purified by being embraced by God, not by being separated from God for a time so as to be made worthy of that embrace. Therese of Lisieux implies that the punishment for our sin is in the embrace itself. Final judgment takes place by being unconditionally embraced by love. When that happens to the extent that we’re sinful and selfish, that embrace of pure goodness and love will make us painfully aware of our own sin, and that will be hell until it is heaven. None of us deserves either the cruelty or the grace we experience in this world. Only the embrace of unconditional love, God’s kiss, will make us aware both of how cruel we’ve been and how good we really are.