Tag: Judgement

The Least of These

· Fr. Michael Gillis 2 Leave a Comment on %s
One of the problems with reading the story of the Last Judgement as recorded in Matthew 25 is that it’s almost impossible to do so without missing the deeper meaning of the story.  The story of the Last Judgement is more commonly known as the “parable” of the sheep and the goats.  Interestingly, this story is not actually a parable.  Throughout the Gospels, most of what Jesus says about the Kingdom of Heaven,…

Concern Over God’s Judgement: What Does It Look Like?

· Fr. Michael Gillis 10 Leave a Comment on %s
In homily 51, St. Isaac begins a paragraph by quoting St. Gregory (I don’t know which one): “He is a temple of grace who is united with God, and is constant in his concern over His judgement.”  St. Isaac then asks, “what is concern over God’s judgement?”  His answer is quite surprising, a non sequitur really.  He doesn’t actually deal with God’s judgement at all, at least not in the way that…

Your Kingdom Come: The Sorting Parables

· Fr. Michael Gillis 4 Leave a Comment on %s
What is the Kingdom that we are to pray come?  In one sense, you can say that the Kingdom of God, or the Kingdom of Heaven in Matthew’s gospel, is the government of God: the fact that God is ruler over all, and the Kingdom of heaven is how God rules all.  When we think of the Kingdom of Heaven as the government of God, then one wonders, “What’s to come?  Doesn’t God…

The Rapture

· Fr. Michael Gillis
In 1 Thessalonians Chapter 4, St. Paul talks about the end of time, when Christ will come again to the earth.  First those who have died, St. Paul says, will be physically raised from the dead; and then those who remain, who have not yet physically died, will be physically caught up into the clouds with Christ to remain with Him forever.  This being caught up is often referred to as the…