Today's readings: Ezekiel 34, 11-12.15-17; 1 Corinthians 15, 20-26.28; Matthew 25, 31-46.
Our lives are journeys towards God. He is where we start and where we shall be fulfilled. It is also a journey towards happiness. God commands us to love because He gave us love. As Pope Benedict says in Deus Caritas Est, we all have our origin and end in Him, and He is more deeply present to me than I am to myself.
We are called not just to behave well. Morality is not merely about rules and commandments. If 'being good' is only about obeying rules, we just focus on individual acts. Virtue instead should be restored in morality. It gives shape and unity to our being fully human. It is our calling to happiness with God that energises our moral life. Deep down, we all know that the only way to be happy is to love and be loved.
The account of the dramatic events at the end of time foretold in today's Gospel connects remarkably with the prophetic words in Mary's Magnificat which almost tells the same story but from a different perspective. In her song of praise, Mary prophetically tells how, in the end, through God's power and might, the entire human story is to change course.
God's judgment coincides exactly with our final judgment. Many people find the idea of judgment deeply threatening. Judgment is what happens to us when we are removed from time by death. Being no longer subject to the body's limitations, we are shown what we are and what we have made ourselves to be. We will see this reflected in God's eyes. This moment is sometimes described as a final choice for or against God.
This is what we believe will happen when we all stand in judgment before the Lord of history. It is difficult for us to imagine how and when it will happen. It is even harder to figure out where. But it will happen. It is what we believe to be the second coming. God once came in great humility, and one day He will come again in great glory.
But what is significant in all this is what the fathers of the Church considered to be the third coming of Jesus. This third coming should happen somewhere in between the first and the second, in our lifetime, where we are all invited to let this encounter happen.
If we let ourselves be judged and enlightened by God's Word along the way, the judgment we will receive when the Son of Man comes in glory will be a joyful and peaceful encounter. This is because, in the first place, we are being judged by someone who loves us and knows us intimately. Normally, we fear judgment by someone who may know us only superficially.
Besides knowing us, the Lord is passionately committed to us. Here, what counts is the true self, not the image we project or what we want to make believe about ourselves. We are also going to be judged by someone who cares. His trial, which was conducted by biased judges, hostile crowds, and an indifferent public prosecutor, was very different from the fair trial He will give us.
When we look around us and see things as they are, it is very difficult to take today's Gospel to mean that, at such a late hour, everything will be resolved. We all would have wished things to be put right much before.
This is why we need a king to rule over our hearts and why we continue to pray 'Thy kingdom come'. Ours is a different king. He is our true shepherd, coming to our rescue. Ezekiel's words sound so consoling and compassionate: "I will look for those that are lost, bring back those that wander off, bandage those that are hurt, and heal those that are sick".