How will we be judged? What if someone is not baptized or born again, can they be saved? What about someone who is an atheist, can they be saved? In today’s Gospel Jesus teaches that the criterion of judgement is simple and challenging; “whatever you did for one of these least, you did for me.” When we saw Jesus hungry, did we feed him? When we saw him thirsty, naked or in prison did we attempt to care for him? While it is important to believe in God and to love God with our whole heart, soul, mind, and strength we cannot claim to love the God that we do not see if we do not love the neighbor that we do see:
“Those who say, ‘I love God,’ and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.” (1 John 4:20-21).
The two great commandments, love of God and love of neighbor, go together and cannot be separated. This is the same lesson that God teaches through Moses in today’s 1st reading: “Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am holy…You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.” Matthew’s translation of this verse is “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48). Luke’s translation is “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6.36). So, a truly holy and perfect person is one who is merciful and shows compassion to those in need. Jesus teaches in today’s Gospel that this is the holiness and perfection that God seeks from us.