Mt 25:31-46
“When the Son of Man comes in his glory with all his angels, he will sit on the throne of his Glory. All the nations will be brought before him, and as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, so will he do with them, placing the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
The King will say to those on his right: ‘Come, blessed of my Father! Take possession of the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world. For I was hungry and you fed me, I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you welcomed me into your house. I was naked and you clothed me. I was sick and you visited me. I was in prison and you came to see me.’
Then the righteous will ask him: ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and give you food; thirsty and give you drink, or a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to see you?’ The King will answer, ‘Truly, I say to you: whenever you did this to these little ones who are my brothers and sisters, you did it to me.’
Then he will say to those on his left: ‘Go, cursed people, out of my sight into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels! For I was hungry and you did not give me anything to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink; I was a stranger and you did not welcome me into your house; I was naked and you did not clothe me; I was sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’
They, too, will ask: ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, thirsty, naked or a stranger, sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ The King will answer them: ‘Truly, I say to you: whatever you did not do for one of these little ones, you did not do for me.’
And these will go into eternal punishment, but the just to eternal life.
REFLECTION
The Gospel of today is well known. Let us however underline a double expression of Jesus. To the blessed, Jesus says: “Come, blessed of my Father! Take possession of the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world.” To the cursed, he says: “Go, cursed people, out of my sight into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels!”
It seems then that the Son of Man in glory and with all his angels is putting into practice the eternal design God the Father has prepared since the creation of the world. In fact, each one of us, during the life, must freely answer to the call of the Lord to enter the final joyful or painful condition. In this solemn moment we will understand the true meaning of the life we lived in the obscurity of faith. But through the words of Jesus we know actually the criterion of the judgment. It will be our charitable or selfish conduct toward neighbor. What a simple and touching question! The invisible Lord is somehow visible in the people that surround us. The occasions of loving and serving are many and very frequent. Will we grasp them? All Souls will be judged according to charity.
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