A1262288553YSAcV

1
Jesus Christ Has the Power to Judge General
audience of September 30, 1987
2

•  God is the judge of the living and the dead
• the final judge, the judge of everyone.
• Already in the catechesis preceding the descent
  of the Holy Spirit on the pagans
• St. Peter proclaimed concerning Christ
• "He is the one set apart by God as judge of the
  living and the dead."
• This divine power (exousia) is,
• according to Christ's teaching,
• connected with the Son of Man.

3

• The well-known text in St. Matthew's Gospel on
  the last judgment begins with the words,
• "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, escorted
  by all the angels of heaven, he will sit upon his
  royal throne, and all the nations will be
  assembled before him. Then he will separate them
  into two groups, as a shepherd separates sheep
  from goats"
• (Mt 2531-33).

4

• The text then speaks of the unfolding of the
  process and foretells the sentence
• that of approbation
• "Come, you have my Father's blessing!
• Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the
  creation of the world"
• (Mt 2534)
• and that of condemnation,
• "Out of my sight, you condemned, into that
  everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his
  angels"
• (Mt 2541).

5

• Linked with the power to grant life
•  Jesus Christ,
• who is Son of Man,
• is at the same time truly God because he has the
  divine power to judge human works and
  consciences, and this power is definitive and
  universal.
• He himself explained why he has this power,
  saying,
• "The Father himself judges no one,
• but has assigned all judgment to the Son,
• so that all men may honor the Son just as they
  honor the Father"
• (Jn 522-23).

6

• This power is linked by Jesus with the power to
  grant life.
• "Just as the Father raises the dead and grants
  life,
• so the Son grants life to those to whom he
  wishes"
• (Jn 521).
• "Just as the Father possesses life in himself, so
  has he granted it to the Son to have life in
  himself.
• The Father has given over to him power to pass
  judgment because he is Son of Man"
• (Jn 526-27).
• Therefore, according to this assertion of Jesus,
  the divine power to judge has been linked to
  Christ's mission as Savior, as Redeemer of the
  world.

7

• Judgment itself belongs to the work of salvation,
  
• to the order of salvation
• it is a definitive salvific act.
• The scope of the judgment is the full
  participation in the divine life as the final
  gift made to man
• the definitive fulfillment of his eternal
  vocation.

8

• At the same time the power of judging is linked
  with the external revelation of the Father's
  glory in his Son as Redeemer of mankind.
• "The Son of Man will come with his Father's
  glory...and he will repay each one according to
  his conduct"
• (Mt 1627).
• From the very beginning the order of justice has
  been inscribed in the order of grace.

9

• The final judgment is to be the definitive
  confirmation of this bond.
• Jesus said clearly that
• "the saints will shine like the sun in their
  Father's kingdom"
• (Mt 1343).
• But he no less clearly announced the rejection of
  those who have done evil
• (cf. Mt 723).
• As is evident from the parable of the talents
• (Mt 2514-30),
• the measure of judgment will be the cooperation
  with the gift received from God, cooperation with
  grace or its rejection.

10

• The divine power to judge each and every person
  belongs to the Son of Man.
• The classical text of Matthew's Gospel emphasizes
  the fact that Christ exercises this power not
  only as God the Son, but also as man.
• He exercises it
• and pronounces sentence
• in the name of solidarity with every person, who
  receives from others either good or evil.
• "I was hungry and you gave me food"
• (Mt 2535),
• or "I was hungry and you gave me no food"
• (Mt 2542).

11

• The works of charity in regard to one's neighbor
  are a fundamental element of the judgment.
• Christ identifies himself precisely with this
  neighbor.
• "As often as you did it for one of my least
  brothers, you did it for me"
• (Mt 2540)
• "As often as you neglected to do it to one of
  these least ones, you neglected to do it to me"
• (Mt 2545).

12

• According to this text of Matthew we shall all be
  judged according to love.
• But there is no doubt that we shall all be judged
  also on our faith.
• "Whoever acknowledges me before men
• the Son of Man will acknowledge him before the
  angels of God"
• (Lk 128).
• "If anyone is ashamed of me and my doctrine,
• the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he
  comes with the holy angels in his Father's glory"
  
• (Lk 926 cf. also Mk 838).

13

• We learn from the Gospel this truth
• which is one of the fundamental truths of faith
• that God is judge of all humanity in a universal
  and definitive way,
• and that this power has been assigned by the
  Father to the Son
• (cf. Jn 522)
• in close relationship with his mission of
  salvation. Jesus attested this during his
  nighttime conversation with Nicodemus
• "God did not send his Son into the world to
  condemn the world, but that the world might be
  saved through him"
• (Jn 317).

14

• If it is true, as we learn especially from the
  Synoptics, that Christ is judge in the
  eschatological sense, it is also true that the
  divine power to judge is linked to God's salvific
  will, which is manifested in the whole messianic
  mission of Christ.

15

• This is especially underlined by John,
• "For judgment I came into this world, that those
  who do not see may see, and that those who see
  may become blind"
• (Jn 939).
• "If anyone hears my words and does not keep them,
  I am not the one to condemn him, for I did not
  come to condemn the world but to save it"
• (Jn 1247).

16

• Without doubt, Christ is and presents himself
  especially as Savior.
• He does not regard it as his mission to condemn
  people according to merely human principles
• (cf. Jn 815).
• He is, first of all, the one who teaches the way
  of salvation, and not the accuser of the guilty.
• "Do not imagine that I will be your accuser
  before the Father
• the one to accuse you is Moses...
• for it was about me that he wrote"
• (Jn 545-46).

17

• In what then does the judgment consist?
• Jesus replied,
• "The judgment of condemnation is this
• the light came into the world,
• but men loved darkness rather than light,
• because their deeds were wicked"
• (Jn 319).

18

• It must therefore be said that, in the presence
  of this light which is God revealed in Christ,
• in the presence of this truth,
• each one is judged by one's own deeds.
• The will to save humanity on God's part is
  definitively manifested in Christ's word and
  work, in the entire Gospel up to the paschal
  mystery of the cross and resurrection.

19

• It becomes at the same time the deepest
  foundation, so to say, the central criterion of
  the judgment of human works and consciences.
• Especially in this sense
• "the Father...has assigned all judgment to the
  Son"
• (Jn 522),
• offering in him to everyone the possibility of
  salvation.

20

• In this same sense man is already condemned,
• when he rejects the possibility offered him.
• "Whoever believes in him avoids condemnation, but
  whoever does not believe is already condemned"
• (Jn 318).
• Not to believe means precisely to reject the
  salvation offered to man in Christ
• ("He did not believe in the name of God's only
  Son,"
• Jn 318).

21

• It is the same truth foreshadowed in the prophecy
  of the ancient Simeon reported in Luke's Gospel
  when he announced of Christ
• "He is destined to be
• "the downfall and the rise of many in Israel"
• (Lk 234).
• The same can be said of the reference to the
• "stone rejected by the builders"
• (cf. Lk 2017-18).

22

• It is a certitude of faith that
• "the Father...has assigned all judgment to the
  Son"
• (Jn 522).
• Now then, if the divine power to judge belongs to
  Christ, it is a sign that he
• the Son of Man
• is true God,
• because judgment belongs to God alone.

23

• Since this power of judgment is deeply united to
  the will to save,
• as is seen from the Gospel,
• it is a new revelation of the God of the
  covenant,
• who comes to mankind as Emmanuel,
• to liberate people from the slavery of evil.
• It is the Christian revelation of the God
• who is Love.

24

• This corrects the too human way of viewing God's
  judgment as a cold act of justice or some kind of
  revenge.
• In actual fact, this term, judgment, which is
  clearly of biblical derivation, is the last link
  in the chain of God's love for all of us.
• God judges
• because he loves and in view of love.
• The judgment which the Father entrusts to Christ
  is according to the measure of the Father's love
  and of our liberty.