The judgment of nations
Our Gospel reading this Sunday is about the judgment of the nations, which you can read in your Bibles in Matt. 25: 31-46. It is also one of the holiest celebrations of the Catholic Church as it is the Solemnity of Christ the King, a.k.a. Cristo Rey. There will be a huge procession today from the Provincial Capitol to Plaza Independencia. Traffic along this route would be closed to vehicular traffic so expect a massive traffic jam today. So now let’s read what our Lord Jesus Christ speaks to us in today’s gospel.
“[Jesus said to his disciples,] 31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, 32 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.
33 He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34 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. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’
37 Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and clothe you? 39 When did we see you ill or in prison, and visited you?’
40 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. 41 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. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43, 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.”
44 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?’ 45 He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for these least ones, you did not do for me.’ 46 And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
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Whenever I speak before a Catholic group in a pro-life conference, I usually ask my audience to examine themselves and reflect on this scripture passage and for each individual to ask the question to himself… “am I a sheep or a goat?” Of course this is in reference to today’s gospel on what we can expect to happen on Judgment Day. So many books today focus on the end of times… that our Pope Francis is considered “The Last Pope” or as in the prophesy of St. Malachi, he is “Petrus Romanus” the numberless pope.
But as we’ve learned in our Bible readings, even our Lord Jesus Christ himself did not know the time and the place when the world would end as only the Father knows all these things. As what our Lord Jesus Christ said to the sheep in his right, which we just read in today’s scripture reading, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Unfortunately, God gave us the freewill to choose him or deny his existence. This is man’s folly!
If Christianity today is waning, especially in Europe where we got our Catholic faith from, this is due to modernism and liberalism. In fact, many famous scientists, yes including the eminent Stephen Hawking no longer believe that God exists… and that the universe just created itself. They write many books, which many learned people read and believe in. But I dare say that we Catholics should be steadfast in our faith, which is why we are called the “faithful” in the first place. Peer pressure should never be a reason to make compromises in our faith; least we become goats rather than sheep.
I know of many Catholics, especially from our Filipino-Chinese community, who still worship their ancient gods; I mean they are still Hindu or Buddhist in their practices. These Catholics do not realize that they have offended God’s first commandment: to love God only and they should not worship other gods. But we know that our God is a jealous God and woe to those who worship other gods for they have self-excommunicated themselves.
Just take a good look at the Academy Awards on TV and you will rarely hear someone who won that gold statuette thanking God for winning that coveted award. Yes actors and actresses idolize that golden statuette. Others idolize money, while many others idolize women and yes the Catholic religion has become passé’ like most of history. But in the end, God will triumph on Judgment Day where all of us will be turned into either a sheep or a goat. Woe to those who have become goats in their present life.
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