Gospel:
Matthew 25:31-46
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?’ i 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.’ * j 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.’ l And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to
eternal life.”
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Reflection:
Jesus
speaks about the last judgment today, the separation of those who are worthy in
His eyes and those who are not. Those who are worthy will be at His right and
those who are not will be at His left.
Do we
need to fear His last judgment? Of course not! We who truly follow Jesus should
not fear the judgment of God. If it comes to us we would welcome it with open
arms, we will not hide from it.
Why
welcome the judgment of God with open arms? For the reason that we did what we
have to do, we feed the hungry. We gave water to the thirsty, we welcomed
strangers without any reservations. We clothed the naked, we took care of the
sick and visited those who were in prison.
Put these
virtues together and we could label it now as Devine charity. We give not a
part of ourselves to help our fellowmen but our very selves. We give and help
the marginalized without any hidden motives whatsoever for we are just doing
what Christ Jesus told us to do.
Someday
we will be joining the multitude of souls in the great beyond. We will now be
the ones who will be visited and prayed for by those who love us. But the
paradox of the end of our lives is we don’t know which side we would be. Would
we end up on the right side or left side of God?
Nobody knows
except God, for now we simply have to continue our journey of faith, love and obedience to Him. – Marino J. Dasmarinas