Monday in the First Week of Lent, February  19, 2024

Matthew 25, 31-46

Jesus said to his disciples: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’ And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’ Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’ Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’ He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’ And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

The Lord Jesus fully reveals what the Son of Man will do when he comes “in his glory”.  The Prophet Daniel had spoken more generally of what he would do: “I beheld, therefore, in the vision of the night, and lo, one like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven, and he came even to the Ancient of days: and they [the angels] presented him before him.  And he gave him power, and glory, and a kingdom: and all peoples, tribes, and tongues shall serve him: his power is an everlasting power that shall not be taken away: and his kingdom that shall not be destroyed” (Daniel 7, 13–14).  Thus, the Lord, who has taught many times that he is “the Son of Man” tells how the prophesy will be fulfilled.  And he does this on the last great day of his public teaching, before his arrest.

This teach very definitely describes the judgment at the end of the world.  But it is a different kind of judgment from the individual judgment each of us will experience immediately after our deaths.  After we die the Lord will assign to a place in heaven or hell, with purgatory a place for the good to be made perfect so they may enter heaven.  At the final judgment, all the souls of those who have ever lived will be reunited with their bodies so that each human person will be made while again.  This will be the work of the angels.  Our bodies will at that time share in the immortality of our souls and go to our place in eternity.  This is a work of justice, for body and soul in this life we have performed good works or we have sinned, and so we go as a whole human person into the next world.  The judgment the Lord Jesus details in today’s Gospel Reading is more the unfolding before our eyes of the lives of all.  It is the revelation of God’s justice for everyone to see.  This is the “closure” people yearn for here on earth but which only comes at the end of time.  We will see all the good deeds done in secret as well as all the evil.  No one will be left in any doubt as to the justness of God’s verdicts.

Still, the righteous will be overwhelmed with amazement that their deeds, so pale beside the great works of God’s mercy, mean anything to him.  The wicked will cry out in despair, babbling and blaming others — even God himself — in order to evade or delay the undying fire that awaits them.  They will know why they are damned and how they could have fled  from temptation in this life even as they would seek to flee their punishment in the next.

Let us hurry to feed the Lord and give him drink, and clothe him now so that we will see him look into our eyes and hear say say directly to us, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father.”