THE LAST JUDGMENT IS NOT INDIVIDUAL

Here are some thoughts, my dear friends, on yesterday’s provocative Gospel-reading about The Last Judgment, Matthew 25: 31-46. It’s provocative, because here our Lord describes the Last Judgment in a new way; not in the way it was envisioned previously in biblical tradition, and not in the way many of us are accustomed to thinking about it.

First of all, it will be communal and not individual. The Judge, called here the “Son of Man” (remember that), will not be calling each of us on the carpet, so to say, to ask or rebuke us for this or that thing we said or did, or even believed. We will be judged together with all the others, “all the nations,” who “did” or “did not,” in practical terms, demonstrate active care for the Son(s) of Man in need. This means all human beings, all of our suffering-and-resurrected humanity, re-presented and eternally dignified in the crucified and risen Christ, including the imprisoned criminals, the naked, the hungry, and the displaced “strangers.” This also means our annoying friends and foes, believers and non-believers, in their hours of vulnerability, sin, pain, loneliness, etc. Our hearts are to be open, and our hands, feet and kind words set in motion, to help in any small or big ways we can; to offer (and thus ourselves receive) the light and joy of divine love into the lives of cross-carrying others.

This brings me to the other curious thing about Christ’s description of the Last Judgment: While He informs us about something in the future, the Last Judgment, He is seeking to inform our present. If we were to compare our Lord to a professor, who is asked by the students, what questions will be on the final exam, here He is telling us very clearly, what the questions will be, so we don’t waste time studying that which won’t be on the exam. Does this mean that our Christian faith and tradition is unimportant, in light of this Gospel passage? No, because the passage centers on recognizing the Son of Man in our midst, in all of vulnerable and suffering humanity, which includes all of us. And it is through our beautiful tradition that our attention is drawn to this revelation one week before Lent, on the Sunday of the Last Judgment. Thank You, Lord, for that. Help us not waste time and open our hearts to one another today, as You reveal Yourself to us through all of us, in our broken yet eternally dignified humanity.