Read­ing Time: 3 minutes

Introduction

Dear friends, Wel­come to the last Sunday of the eccle­si­ast­ic­al year. 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 nation 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 are 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 about 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.

In the great com­mis­sion, Jesus instruc­ted the dis­ciples to “go there­fore and make dis­ciples of all nations, bap­tiz­ing them in the name of the Fath­er and of the Son and of the Holy Spir­it” (Matt 28:19). Again, in this eschat­o­lo­gic­al moment, Mat­thew explains that once the Son of Man sits on his judg­ment throne, all the nations (Greek: ta eth­nē) will be gathered before him. The Greek word eth­nos means nation, people (cf. Luke 7:5). The plur­al ta eth­nē is fre­quently used to des­ig­nate non-Jews (cf. Matt 6:32; Rom 15:10.11). In Mat­thew 25:32, ta eth­nē should be under­stood, as in Mat­thew 28:19. “All nations” should not be lim­ited only to non-Jews but to Jews, Gen­tiles, and the entire humanity.

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 the mere pro­fes­sion of faith will be gathered on the left hand. As Paul rightly noted, “if I speak in the tongues of mor­tals and of angels but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cym­bal. And if I have proph­et­ic powers and under­stand all mys­ter­ies and all know­ledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove moun­tains, but do not have love, I am noth­ing. If I give away all my pos­ses­sions and if I hand over my body so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain noth­ing. Love nev­er ends. But as for proph­ecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for know­ledge, it will come to an end” (1Cor 13:1–3.8). While the sheep will inher­it the king­dom, the goats will be con­demned to etern­al fire pre­pared for the dev­il and his angels.

FOR DETAILS, GET YOUR OWN COPY OF THE BOOK “THE WORD OF LIFE: SUNDAY REFLECTIONS” (vol. I)!! The reflec­tion for the 34^th 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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