From: 1 Corinthians 15:20-26, 28
The Basis of Our Faith (Continuation)
[28] When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be sub-
jected to him who put all things under him, that God may be everything to every
one.
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Commentary:
20-28. The Apostle insists on the solidarity that exists between Christ and Chris-
tians: as members of one single body, of which Christ is the head, they form as
it were one organism (cf. Rom 6:3-11; Gal 3:28). Therefore, once the resurrection
of Christ is affirmed, the resurrection of the just necessarily follows. Adam’s diso-
bedience brought death for all; Jesus, the new Adam, has merited that all should
rise (cf. Rom 5:12-21). “Again, the resurrection of Christ effects for us the resur-
rection of our bodies not only because it was the efficient cause of this mystery,
but also because we all ought to arise after the example of the Lord. For with re-
gard to the resurrection of the body we have this testimony of the Apostle: ‘As by
a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead’ (1 Cor
15:21). In all that God did to accomplish the mystery of our redemption he made
use of the humanity of Christ as an effective instrument, and hence his resurrec-
tion was, as it were, an instrument for the accomplishment of our resurrection”
(”St Pius V Catechism”, I, 6, 13).
Although St Paul here is referring only to the resurrection of the just (v. 23), he
does speak elsewhere of the resurrection of all mankind (cf. Acts 24:15). The
doctrine of the resurrection of the bodies of all at the end of time, when Jesus will
come in glory to judge everyone, has always been part of the faith of the Church;
“he [Christ] will come at the end of the world, he will judge the living and the dead;
and he will reward all, both the lost and the elect, according to their works. And
all those will rise with their own bodies which they now have so that they may re-
ceive according to their works, whether good or bad; the wicked, a perpetual
punishment with the devil; the good, eternal glory with ‘Christ” (Fourth Lateran
Council, “De Fide Catholica”, chap. 1).
23-28. St Paul outlines very succinctly the entire messianic and redemptive work
of Christ: by decree of the Father, Christ has been made Lord of the universe (cf.
Mt 28:18), in fulfillment of Ps 110:1 and Ps 8:7. When it says here that “the Son
himself will also be subjected to him who put all things under him”, this must be
understood as referring to Christ in his capacity of Messiah and head of the
Church; not Christ as God, because the Son is “begotten, not created, consub-
stantial with the Father” (”Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed”).
Christ’s sovereignty over all creation comes about in history, but it will achieve
its final, complete, form after the Last Judgment. The Apostle presents that last
event — a mystery to us—as a solemn act of homage to the Father. Christ will of-
fer all creation to his Father as a kind of trophy, offering him the Kingdom which
up to then had been confided to his care. From that moment on, the sovereignty
of God and Christ will be absolute, they will have no enemies, no rivals; the stage
of combat will have given way to that of contemplation, as St Augustine puts it
(cf. “De Trinitate”, 1, 8).
The Parousia or second coming of Christ in glory at the end of time, when he es-
tablishes the new heaven and the new earth (cf. Rev 21:1-2), will mean definitive
victory over the devil, over sin, suffering and death. A Christian’s hope in this vic-
tory is not something passive: rather, it is something that spurs him on to ensure
that even in this present life Christ’s teaching and spirit imbue all human activities.
“Far from diminishing our concern to develop this earth,” Vatican II teaches, “the
expectancy of a new earth should spur us on, for it is here that the body of a new
human family grows, foreshadowing in some way the age which is to come. That
is why, although we must be careful to distinguish earthly progress clearly from
the increase of the Kingdom of Christ, such progress is of vital concern to the
Kingdom of God, insofar as it can contribute to the better ordering of human so-
ciety.
“When we have spread on earth the fruits of our nature and our enterprise — hu-
man dignity, brotherly communion, and freedom — according to the command of
the Lord and in his Spirit, we will find them once again, cleansed this time from
the stain of sin, illuminated and transfigured, when Christ presents to his Father
an eternal and universal kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and
grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace (”Roman Missal”, preface for the so-
lemnity of Christ the King). Here on earth the Kingdom is mysteriously present;
when the Lord comes it will enter into its perfection” (”Gaudium Et Spes”, 39).
24. “When he delivers the kingdom to God the Father”: this does not quite catch
the beauty of the Greek which literally means “when he delivers the kingdom to
the God and Father”. In New Testament Greek, when the word “Theos” (God) is
preceded by the definite article (”ho Theos”) the first person of the Blessed Trini-
ty is being referred to.
25. “He must reign”: every year, on the last Sunday of ordinary time, the Church
celebrates the solemnity of Christ the King, to acknowledge his absolute sove-
reignty over all created things. On instituting this feast, Pius XI pointed out that
“He must reign in our minds, which should assent with perfect submission and
firm belief to revealed truths and to the teachings of Christ. He must reign in our
wills, which should obey the laws and precepts of God. He must reign in our
hearts, which should spurn natural desires and love God above all things, and
cleave to him alone. He must reign in our bodies and in our members, which
should serve as instruments for the interior sanctification of our souls, or, to use
the words of the Apostle Paul, as instruments of righteousness unto God (Rom
6:13)” (”Quas Primas”).
28. The subjection of the son which St Paul speaks of here is in no way op-
posed to his divinity. He is referring to what will happen when Christ’s mission
as Redeemer and Messiah comes to an end, that is, once final victory is won
over the devil, sin and its consequences. The final victory of Jesus Christ will re-
store to all creation its original harmony, which sin destroyed.
“Who can realize”, St Bernard comments, “the indescribable sweetness con-
tained in these few words: God will be everything to everyone? Not to speak of
the body, I see three things in the soul—mind, will and memory; and these three
are one and the same. Everyone who lives according to the spirit senses in this
present life how far he falls short of wholeness and perfection. Why is this, if not
because God is not yet everything to everyone? That is why ones’ mind is so of-
ten mistaken in the judgment it makes, that is why one’s will experiences such
restlessness, why one’s memory is thrown into confusion by many things. The
noble person is, without wanting to be, at the mercy of this triple vanity, yet he
does not lose hope. For he who responds so generously to the desires of the
soul must also provide the mind with fullness and light, the will with abundance
of peace, and the memory with visions of eternity. O truth, O charity, O eternity,
O blessed and blessing Trinity! This wretched trinity of mine, sighs for thee, for
it is unfortunately still far from thee” (”Sermon on the Song of Songs”, 11).
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.
From: Matthew 25:31-46
The Last Judgment
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Commentary:
31-46. The three parables (Matthew 24:42-51; 25:1-13; and 25:14-30) are comple-
ted by the announcement of a rigorous last judgment, a last act in a drama, in
which all matters of justice are resolved. Christian tradition calls it the Last Judg-
ment, to distinguish it from the “Particular Judgment” which everyone undergoes
immediately after death. The sentence pronounced at the end of time will simply
be a public, formal confirmation of that already passed on the good and the evil,
the elect and the reprobate.
31-33. In the Prophets and in the Book of Revelation the Messiah is depicted on
a throne, like a judge. This is how Jesus will come at the end of the world, to
judge the living and the dead.
The Last Judgment is a truth spelled out in the very earliest credal statements
of the Church and dogma of faith solemnly defined by Benedict XII in the Consti-
tution “Benedictus Deus” (29 January 1336).
35-46. All the various things listed in this passage (giving people food and drink,
clothing them, visiting them) become works of Christian charity when the person
doing them sees Christ in these “least” of His brethren.
Here we can see the seriousness of sins of omission. Failure to do something
which one should do means leaving Christ unattended.
“We must learn to recognize Christ when He comes out to meet us in our bro-
thers, the people around us. No human life is ever isolated. It is bound up with
other lives. No man or woman is a single verse; we all make up one divine poem
which God writes with the cooperation of our freedom” St. J. Escriva, “Christ Is
Passing By”, 111).
We will be judged on the degree and quality of our love (cf. St. John of the Cross,
“Spiritual Sentences and Maxims”, 57). Our Lord will ask us to account not only
for the evil we have done but also for the good we have omitted. We can see that
sins of omission are a very serious matter and that the basis of love of neighbor
is Christ’s presence in the least of our brothers and sisters.
St. Teresa of Avila writes: “Here the Lord asks only two things of us: love for His
Majesty and love of our neighbor. It is for these two virtues that we must strive,
and if we attain them perfectly we are doing His will [...]. The surest sign that we
are keeping these two commandments is, I think, that we should really be loving
our neighbor; for we cannot be sure if we are loving God, although we may have
good reasons for believing that we are, but we can know quite well if we are loving
our neighbor. And be certain that, the farther advanced you find you are in this,
the greater the love you will have for God; for so dearly does His Majesty love us
that He will reward our love for our neighbor by increasing the love which we bear
to Himself, and that in a thousand ways: this I cannot doubt” (”Interior Castle”, V,
3).
This parable clearly shows that Christianity cannot be reduced to a kind of agen-
cy for “doing good”. Service of our neighbor acquires supernatural value when it
is done out of love for Christ, when we see Christ in the person in need. This is
why St. Paul asserts that “if I give away all I have...but have not love, I gain no-
thing” (1 Corinthians 13:3). Any interpretation of Jesus’ teaching on the Last Judg-
ment would be wide of the mark if it gave it a materialistic meaning or confused
mere philanthropy with genuine Christian charity.
40-45. In describing the exigencies of Christian charity which gives meaning to
“social aid”, the Second Vatican Council says: “Wishing to come to topics that
are practical and of some urgency, the Council lays stress on respect for the
human person: everyone should look upon his neighbor (without any exception)
as another self, bearing in mind, above all, his life and the means necessary for
living it in a dignified way, ‘lest he follow the example of the rich man who ignored
Lazarus, the poor man’ (cf. Luke 16:18-31).
“Today there is an inescapable duty to make ourselves the neighbor of every
man, no matter who he is, and if we meet him, to come to his aid in a positive
way, whether he is an aged person abandoned by all, a foreign worker despised
without reason, a refugee, an illegitimate child wrongly suffering for a sin he did
not commit, or a starving human being who awakens our conscience by calling
to mind the words of Christ: ‘As you did it to one of the least of these My breth-
ren, you did it to Me.’” (”Gaudium Et Spes,” 27).
46. The eternal punishment of the reprobate and the eternal reward of the elect
are a dogma of faith solemnly defined by the Magisterium of the Church in the
Fourth Lateran Council (1215): “He [Christ] will come at the end of the world; He
will judge the living and the dead; and He will reward all, both the lost and the e-
lect, according to their works. And all these will rise with their own bodies which
they now have so that they may receive according to their works, whether good
or bad; the wicked, a perpetual punishment with the devil; the good, eternal glory
with Christ.”
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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.
Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.