1 Maccabees 6:8-13: a reflection

At the end of his life, the king Antiochus, who had done great evil to God's people, falls sick with grief and comes to a bitter reckoning with his own past. Now I remember the evils which I did at Jerusalem, he says, and that I took all the vessels of silver and gold that were in it, and sent out to destroy the inhabitants of Judah without a cause. I perceive that it is because of this that these evils have come upon me. On his deathbed, the wrongs he had done come back to him, and he sees them for what they were, and connects his own ruin to them. But it is too late; he is perishing, far from home, in bitter regret. The wrongs we do have a way of catching up with us, and a conscience that would not reckon with them in the day of power reckons with them at last, often too late. Better to face our wrongs now than to meet them in too-late regret at the end. The reckoning comes; it is wiser to face it in time.

Notice when Antiochus faced his wrongs: at the end, too late. In the day of his power, he did great evil without a thought, taking and destroying without cause. But at the end, sick and dying, the wrongs came back to him; he remembered them, saw them clearly, connected his ruin to them. His conscience, silent in the day of power, spoke at last, but too late to undo anything, only in time for bitter regret. This is a sobering pattern: the wrongs we do, however we ignore them at the time, have a way of catching up with us, and a reckoning comes, whether now or at the end. It is far better to face our wrongs while there is time to repent and amend, than to meet them, as Antiochus did, in the too-late regret of the end. The conscience that will not reckon now will reckon later, and later is often too late. To face our wrongs in time is wisdom; to leave them for the end is to court a bitter reckoning. The reckoning of conscience is better met early than late.

That is worth taking to heart, for the wrongs we do catch up with us, and it is better to face them now than in too-late regret. We can do wrong and ignore it, silencing conscience in the day of our strength, as though there would be no reckoning; but Antiochus's wrongs caught up with him at the end, in bitter, too-late regret. The reckoning comes, whether now or later, and later is often too late to do anything but regret. It is wiser to face our wrongs while there is time to repent and amend. Do not silence conscience and leave your wrongs unreckoned; face them now, while there is time, rather than in the too-late regret Antiochus met. Face your wrongs now, while there is time to repent and amend, rather than leaving them for a too-late reckoning at the end, as Antiochus, who did great evil without a thought in the day of his power, remembered his wrongs at last on his deathbed in bitter regret; for the wrongs we do catch up with us, and the conscience that will not reckon with them now will reckon at last, often too late to do anything but regret, so that it is far wiser to face them in time than to meet them at the end.