St. Joseph of the Lakes

say to those whose hearts are frightened: Be strong, fear not! 
Here is your God, he comes with vindication; with divine recompense he comes to save you. 

I have experienced too often in my 36 years of priesthood a person who is approaching death being afraid. They are afraid of what the moment of death will bring; they are afraid of the judgement of God; they are afraid of losing control. It makes sense when one considers the way that many of us have been taught, especially about God. He is the great judge who is going to weigh out all our actions and ultimately will decide whether we are worthy of heaven or should be sent in the other direction. In this teaching all the action depends on us and we naturally realize that we fall short of the perfection of God. But if we can realize this on our own; so too one must assume, that God knows what he has created in us. 

Thus, in today’s first reading from Isaiah we have the beautiful announcement: Fear not! Here is your God, he comes with vindication; with divine recompense he comes to save you. To speak of recompense is to say, “pay back”.  It is God coming to pay us back for all that we have suffered. Isaiah does not see God counting all our failures, but instead it is God who has seen what we have endured and now he comes to lift us out of our suffering.  Isaiah gives us a wonderful promise: “Those whom the LORD has ransomed will return and enter Zion singing, crowned with everlasting joy; they will meet with joy and gladness, sorrow and mourning will flee.”