The Last Judgment
One morning, 4-year-old Kevin and his grandpa went out to buy donuts. On the way, Grandpa turned to Kevin and asked, “Which way is heaven?” Kevin pointed to the sky.
“Which way is hell?” Kevin pointed towards the floor of the truck.
Grandpa continued, “And where are you going?”
“Dunkin' Donuts,” Kevin replied.
You can judge a book by its cover when it’s the Book of Life mentioned in the Last Book of the Bible. It is the book in which God records the names of every person who is going to Heaven.
Fix your eyes on what it will be like to see Jesus siting upon his glorious throne with all the nations gathered around him. illus--The 2013 Hindu pilgrimage in India is currently the largest gathering of people in one place on a single day—about 30 million. But this pales in comparison to all the people who ever lived who will be assembled in one place.
Key takeaway- the road of human life divides into two, one half splitting off toward a punishment that never ceases and the other toward an undying life with the Lord in his Kingdom.
This is not predestined, rather God’s invitation goes out to all and the choice to accept or reject it is the decision of each.
The Catechism says that each person receives his eternal retribution in his immortal soul at the very moment of death—heaven or hell. That is called the individual or particular judgment (see Hebrews).
At the end of history, when Jesus returns to the earth, all the dead will be resurrected and everybody who ever lived will be assembled for the Last Judgement. At this time we will see not just the value of our all deeds, but we will see EVERYBODY else’s.
As the Catechism says, “The Last Judgment will reveal even to its furthest consequences the good each person has done or failed to do during his earthly life (1039).
Knowing this hopefully will motivate us to produce the ripple effects of good, and we will see the full ripple effect of the good and holy things we do at the Last Judgment.
The Church has a remarkable term, “cooperating grace” for the process whereby we choose our eternal destiny by freely cooperating with God’s initiative.
Being devoted to Jesus should lead us to help the poor. Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia often says, “I’ve said many times over many years that if we ignore the poor, we will go to hell, literally”
The principal crimes of the wicked are sins of omission. James 4:17!
It was their unwillingness to serve the Lord through a life of service toward others that earns them this awful punishment. What is key is that they declined opportunities to show kindness to the hungry, thirsty, the stranger, etc.
The most important word in Matthew 25 is the adjective “eternal’ as in eternal punishment or eternal life.
In our First Reading, Ezekiel says that the Lord will destroy the sleek and the strong—he means the elite of society who had oppressed the weak, the ill, and the needy.
On the other hand, for those who chose life, the King will reply, "I tell you, whenever you did this for the least important of these brothers of mine, you did it for me."
The motto for Karios Prison ministry is Listen, Listen, Love, Love. Lets get out there!
