On this Sunday of the Last Judgment, Fr. Stephen Freeman discusses how we should view Christ’s judgment.

He first expounds on the parable of the sheep and the goats from today’s Gospel reading. He explains that, within each of us, there is both sheep (the good) and goat (the bad). They are mixed within our hearts, and the judgment separates the two.

In the second part of today’s Gospel reading, Christ says that whatever we do for the hungry, the naked, the imprisoned, and the sick, we do for him. “In all human suffering, Jesus is there on the cross,” Fr. Stephen says. He shows us how the cross is the judgment seat of Christ, and this judgment is all around us in our fellow humans’ suffering. Therefore, we do not have to fear his judgment but can welcome it as an opportunity to serve him everywhere and in all people.