Justice will be served
November 2, 2025 – Commemoration of the Souls of all the Faithful Departed
Readings: Wisdom 3: 1-9; Psalm 23, R. The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.; Romans 6: 3-9; Gospel – Matthew 25: 31-46
Today’s Gospel, the Parable of the Final Judgment, reminds us not as a warning but as an assurance that there will be a final judgment.
It also gives us a clear measure with which we will be measured when the parable tells us that it is what we do to the last, the least, and the lost.
Finally, it summarizes what is the most important grace and virtue of our faith, compassion, and mercy.
In our world now of so much turmoil and the seeming victory of evil over good, the assurance of a final judgment is a source of great consolation and courage.
The parable clearly spells out that the sheep will be separated from the goats, and sheep will be rewarded, and the goats will be condemned to eternal punishment.
I shared over the past weeks how people, amid so much shameless corruption, would often ask desperately if there is hope.
Many questions of despair: Will we know the full truth of the corruption fiasco? Will anybody really be charged and imprisoned? Will this really be a turning point and see the end of widespread corruption?
In my mind the answer is clear and singular. It is not a “yes,” but “I hope.”
Yes, my hope springs from the assurance of this parable, that judgment will be rendered. My hope comes from the assurance of this parable that the goats will suffer “eternal punishment.”
This assurance is also a warning. There will be a day of reckoning. The good will be rewarded and the evil punished.
I am sure of this because the parable gives us the clear measure. It is how we will respond to the needs of the last, the lost, and the least. This is the measure that will earn us the reward of eternal joy and life.
I also wish to point out the flip side. The parable tells us that those who fail to do this will be condemned.
But in our present context, those who robbed the last, the lost, and the least of the resources to help alleviate their suffering will receive the harshest punishment.
“The poor pay for corruption,” Pope Francis pointed out, time and again.
They pay for corruption by being the ones who suffer the most from the floods and are deprived of basic healthcare services, quality education or even just decent classrooms, and other social services because of how the scoundrels siphoned off funds intended for these.
Justice will be served. I am certain. And it gives me the inspiration to work to ensure that it will be served by doing what I can to make sure the truth will come out and the guilty be punished.
We also should take part in this because it is a way to make sure that the last, the lost, and the least will receive the services due them.
The parable gives the underlying principle to all this. Compassion and mercy are what must inspire and guide us in all that we do.
We can never go wrong. Especially in our current situation where it is not only the evil of corruption that we deal with but also the competing vested interests jockeying for position to take hold of power, to confront all this. And acting out of compassion and mercy is the only way to work for a new and lasting order.
The final judgment will always be one of compassion and mercy. These graces and virtues are both our means to combat the evils of our society and the vision of the kind of society we hope and aspire to build.
