The experiences of people who have died for several minutes and come back to life have become an area of intensive medical and psychological research in the past couple of decades. Dr. Elizabeth
Kubler-Ross is a former professor of psychiatry at the University of Chicago who authored the groundbreaking study in this area some years ago. She interviewed hundreds of people involved in these experiences. Consistently, they reported a kind of instant replay of their lives. It was like seeing a rapid fire movie of everything they had ever said or done. “When you come to this point,” says Dr. Kubler-Ross, “you see there are only two things that matter: the service you rendered to others and love. All those things we think are important, like fame, money, prestige and power are insignificant.” It is interesting to compare these experiences to the teaching of the Lord. In the last judgement scene in the Gospel of St. Matthew, He welcomes people into the Kingdom of His Father
with the words, “I was hungry and you gave me food. I was thirsty and you gave me drink“ and so forth. It is clear that God’s judgment of us is made precisely on the service and love we have shown Him in the way we care for one another. Is my life right now filled with service and love? If not how can I make it so?
