Fr. Frank Majka, SJ – The Bridge

The Judgment

In Matthew’s gospel (chapter 25), Jesus says that at the end of the world there will be a judgment in which the good people (the sheep) will be told to enter Heaven while the bad people (the goats) will be condemned to Hell. The verdict will be made by the Judge, based on whether one has, or has not, shown compassion to “the least” of Christ’s brothers and sisters.

In his gospel, John (chapter 3) also says there will be a judgment. But it won’t be imposed by some outside Judge. Instead, the verdict will be our own, based on whether, throughout our lives, we have chosen to come into the light or stay in the darkness. We come into the light by loving our brothers or sisters, or we stay in the darkness by refusing to love them.

If we decide not to love others, we are actually rejecting eternal life because, in John’s view, whether we love or refuse to love in this life makes us who we are. And God won’t force us to be different, even in eternity. We choose our eternal destiny by choosing to love or not; it isn’t imposed on us from outside. We pass the sentence ourselves.