Last Judgement (20240827)

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The church today is trying to bring people back by promoting and emphasizing prayer, adoration, Eucharistic processions, and the Real Presence. This is good. It would be difficult to find fault with this if this were not the main focus. On a daily basis each is promoted repeatedly with books, talks, and flyers. Let’s see how it fits in with what Jesus says about judgement. (Matt 25:31-46) When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, 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. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

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. For I was hungry, and you gave me food, I was thirsty, and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me’. Then the righteous* will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’

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’. 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.  For I was hungry, and you gave me no food, I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink, 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’.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?’

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.’  And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

So, if this is what the Lord says we should be doing, then that is what the church should be focusing on, leading its members too. But what is the church doing? It is acting as if the Lord’s concerns are : How many rosaries have you said, how many hours in adoration, how many processions have you participated in and how much gold have you decorated your churches in? Yes these may be good things to do, but they should be done while we are doing the Lord’s work; they should not be the definition of the Lord’s work in the world. We are surrounded by the Lord’s work needing to be done, and the church seems to be looking the other way.