"To Judge the Quick and the Dead"

 “From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead,” my friend said, quoting The Creed, and then asked: “What does that judgment look like?”

His question caught my attention, but I held my piece for a moment and envisioned the creed, “looking” at it for a moment, and then, boom, the third part of The Creed came into focus. It doesn’t stand alone, or independent of what precedes it - but actually answers the question: “What does judgment look like?” 

For me, at least, God’s judgment is not retribution, but restoration; repairing what has been broken; undoing the damages of sin; restoring the lost to community, healing the broken hearted, and rebalancing, retuning, the earth, and the universe.

In this context, for me at least, the restorative justice of God, the judgment of God, which is never to be feared, but rather welcomed with grateful praise, is outlined in the third element of The Creed: “I believe in the Holy Ghost, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.”

Here’s is the judgement of God - the work of the Holy Spirit, consistent with Genesis 1 - that which brings life into being, deals with light and fecundity, ordains the trees and fish to make a go of it, reproduce, replicate themselves, create and recreate in their own ways and purposes.

The Holy Spirit initiates the work of Christ from the get-go, from creating community, forgiving sins, giving death a run for the money, to wrapping it up with life undying.

I don’t know what any of that will actually look like, but at least, for me, the third part of The Creed maps out the program - with evidence already at hand - evidence consist with Creation, and then the New Creation. 

When someone raises a question of justice and welcome, it’s the work of the Holy Spirit. When someone offers a cup of cold water to the thirsty, a ham sandwich to the hungry, a jacket to keep a child warm, and a political program to keep in check the hideous forces of greed, it’s the work of the Holy Spirit.

From the moment of creation, to the moment of recreation, and with and through and in every moment of time, the work of the Holy Spirit, bringing to bear upon creation the judgment/justice of God.

This is what it looks like: “I believe in the Holy Ghost….”

God be praised!