Gospel: Matthew 25:31-46

 

The Gospel of Matthew presents Jesus as the New Messiah. Like Moses, Jesus also promulgates the Law of God. As with the ancient law, the new one, given by Jesus, also contains five books or discourses. 

 

The Sermon on the Mountain, the first discourse, opens with eight Beatitudes. The discourse on vigilance, the fifth discourse, contains the description of the Last Judgment. The Beatitudes describe the door of entrance into the Kingdom, enumerating eight categories of people. The parable of the Last Judgment tells us what we should do in order to possess the Kingdom.

 

The Son of Man gathers together around Him the nations of the world. The shepherd knows how to discern. Jesus does not judge nor condemn. He does not separate alone. It is the person himself who judges and condemns because of the way in which he behaves toward the little ones and the excluded.

 

Those who accept the excluded are called just. The justice of the Kingdom is attained by accepting those in need and welcoming others with total gratuity, independently of the fact that they are Christians or not. Those who were on the other side of the Judge are called cursed and they are destined to go to the eternal fire. It is not that Jesus prevents them from entering into the Kingdom, rather it is our way of acting that is blindness which prevents them from seeing Jesus.