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CONCERNING JUDGMENT

Read­ing Time: 2 minutes

Con­tents

Introduction

Accord­ing to the eccle­si­ast­ic­al arrange­ment, the litur­gic­al year ends with this Sunday, the solem­nity of our Lord Jesus Christ, king of the uni­verse. After the teach­ings on wis­dom and fool­ish­ness (Matt 25:1–13), and on the adequate use of tal­ents (Matt 25:14–30), Mat­thew 25:31–46 is the con­clu­sion of the dis­course that will accom­pany the Par­ousia, the judg­ment day when the entire nations will gath­er before the Author of life. Accord­ing to Mat­thew, on that day, all nations, which implies all peoples, will assemble before the Cre­at­or and they will be divided into two groups: The group of the Sheep who will be kept on the right side of the King, and the group of the Goat who will occupy the left side, then fol­lows the hear­ing, the ver­dict and the con­sequence – sal­va­tion or dam­na­tion; joy or suf­fer­ing; feast­ing or weep­ing and gnash­ing of teeth.

The great separation

When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will sep­ar­ate people one from anoth­er as a shep­herd sep­ar­ates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left” (Matt 25:31–33). Every teach­ing bout the king­dom is ori­ented towards the eschat­o­lo­gic­al sep­ar­a­tion. It is the sep­ar­a­tion of the evil/wicked and the lazy (ponēros kai okun­ēros); the good and the faith­ful (agathos kai pis­tos); the good and the evil/wicked (agathos kai ponēros); the sep­ar­a­tion of the wise and the fool­ish; the dis­crim­in­a­tion of the faith­ful and the unfaith­ful; the obed­i­ent and the dis­obedi­ent; the right­eous and the unright­eous; the just and the unjust; the godly and the ungodly; the saved and the damned.

Conclusion    

Accord­ing to the Cat­ech­ism of the Cath­ol­ic Church (n. 1039), “in the pres­ence of Christ, who is Truth itself, the truth of each man’s rela­tion­ship with God will be laid bare. The Last Judg­ment will reveal even to its fur­thest con­sequences the good each per­son has done or failed to do dur­ing his earthly life.” By sep­ar­at­ing the sheep from the goats, Jesus actu­al­izes his words in Mat­thew 7:21–23 and 13:40–4343. While those who did the will of the Fath­er will be gathered on the right side of the king, those who lim­ited them­selves only to mere pro­fes­sion of faith will be gathered on the left hand. As Paul rightly noted.….

FOR DETAILS, GET YOUR OWN COPY OF THE BOOKTHE WORD OF LIFE: SUNDAY REFLECTIONS” (vol. I)!! The reflec­tion for the 34th Sunday is found on pages 544–555. Happy reading!

For details on how to get it, con­tact the author on this link: https://m.me/uchennabiblia?fbclid=IwAR2yeg4a6sDGBp9QGkIvKj6FSADumMokN6lshdE0zuo-JHs6qOmlhA7jyHo or email me at: postmaster@uchennabiblia.com or simply send an SMS on 08116100926, and I will get back to you.

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