Every week, sometimes several times a week, Karidat staff has reason to go attend court hearings, and sometimes we are present for longer trials. Our presence is mostly silent, providing moral support or behind-the-scenes encouragement to individuals and families who find themselves confronting abusers, past employers, or perhaps human traffickers.
We learn a lot from the time spent in this setting but perhaps the strongest impression comes from sitting there, mostly helpless.
Victims and perpetrators, witnesses and defendants, spectators, families and friends—all have this in common: we are at the mercy of the judge or jury.
We are on the time schedule of the court; we sit or stand according to the judge’s instruction. Evidence is submitted and permitted (or withdrawn) according to the assessment or the whim of the presider. The judge’s temperament, knowledge, experience, and current mood all factor in to these decisions.
At trial, legal counsel and their aides prepare as well as possible but must also be ready to improvise and switch gears when the case takes an unexpected turn.
It can be unnerving.
What if they don’t protect me from my abuser(s)? What if they let them go free?
What if no one believes me that I didn’t do it, or that I didn’t mean to? What if I spend the rest of my years regretting one small mistake…
What if the judge decides to reopen the trial, even after it is completed?
The Final Judgment, as Christians understand it, will not be like this. Our closest Friend will be our Advocate. Jesus himself will stand at our side as One who knows us better than ourselves. The Gospel tells us that He made himself one of us, our Brother, and that He speaks in our defense before the Father.
During the course of our lifetimes, we have responsibilities and duties towards our spouses, our children, our parents and siblings. We owe the members of our community (and others among the human race) respect and kind consideration and we are bound to respect the laws of the land and our local municipalities.
But at the end of our lives each one of us will have this in common: we will answer to no one but God alone. That judgment will be in a courtroom unlike any other, where all that has been hidden will be exposed.
In that “courtroom,” we will be face to face with a Judge who is perfect and never makes mistakes. This Judge is kind and entirely just and perfectly loving and who knows the ins and outs of our lives and the inner workings of our hearts better than we ourselves do.
Let us, then, entrust ourselves to the only perfectly good Judge, who is full of mercy and kindness.
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.(Lamentations 3:22, 23)