Tuesday of the Thirty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time
(Revelation 14:14-19;
Luke 21:5-11)
Today’s reading from
Revelation pictures a double judgment.
Good men and women are seen as wheat which the son of man – with whom
Jesus identifies – harvests with his sickle.
Evidently, they will be stored in a barn for safe-keeping. The evil are portrayed as grapevines which
an angel cuts down and throws into a wine press. There they will be trod down and discarded.
The passage indicates
the biblical point of view regarding God’s justice. He rewards good deeds and abhors evil ones so
much that their practitioners are condemned.
Scripture may not have the last word in explaining the ways of God, but
it does point out their direction.
Contemporary theology
sometimes argues that all people in the end will be saved. The Church has indicated that we may pray for
this end but should not proclaim it.
There is just too much biblical evidence against such a perspective.
