“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 welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit 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 one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’ 46 And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”
When the “Son of Man” returns in glory with the angels and sits on his throne to judge all the nations including Israel (the final universal judgment), Christ the Shepherd will separate the righteous (sheep – Jn. 10:3, 27) from the unrighteous (Mt. 12:39) and invite those who are blessed by God and saved by the Blood of Christ to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. In verses 35 and 36 Jesus identifies himself with the poor and needy and explains that all who perform works of kindness and charity to the needy with the love of Christ in their hearts perform those works for him. Those acts of charity and kindness are referred to as the Corporal Works of Mercy - feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, give shelter to travelers, visit the sick, and visit the imprisoned. The only one excluded from Matthew’s Gospel is bury the dead (Ex. 20:12).
The nations being judged have themselves determined the outcome of the judgment based on whether they helped or neglected those in need. In loving and serving our neighbor we are loving and serving Christ and by extension loving and serving God. Those who have not shown mercy will be banished, “Into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels (v. 41)". Mercy leads to eternal life but neglecting to show mercy leads to spiritual death. Mankind will be judged according to how it treats its most disadvantaged.
Almighty God, fill our hearts with love so that we may see Christ in everyone and humbly love and serve everyone as you want us to love and serve them. This we pray through the same Christ our Lord. Amen!
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References
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
Orchard, Bernard, et al. A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture. Feb. 1953.
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