Who in His presence, by their talking, laughing, and disrespectful demeanor, show Him far less reverence than they would to a mortal man from whom they might have a favor to expect? Who think it would be degrading in them to accompany Him publicly in the Blessed Sacrament? It is but right, then, that Christ should one day appear on His throne of glory and honor before the whole world, and receive the homage due to Him from all creatures.
His lost honor shall be restored on the last day. Truly that must and shall be the case. “He,” says St. Augustine, “who has been unjustly judged shall one day judge the world in justice.”[1] For the same reason He has selected the valley of Josaphat as the scene of this judgment, as the holy Fathers and interpreters of Scripture infer from the words of the Prophet Joel: “I will gather together all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Josaphat: and I will plead with them there.”[2] For that place is in the neighborhood of the scene of Jesus sufferings for the salvation of the world. There men have seen Him in the extremity of torment and degradation; ami in the same place He must be seen in the height of honor and glory. To this the Prophet Elias alluded when saying in a mysterious sense to King Achab: “In this place, wherein the dogs have licked the blood of Naboth, they shall lick thy blood also;”[3] that is, as the Gloss says, in the place where the Jews and soldiers shed the blood of Christ, there the demons shall still their thirst with the blood of those who put Christ to death. “And then they shall see the Son of man coming in a cloud with great power and majesty,”[4] in order to take vengeance on His enemies for the injuries they inflicted on Him. Then shall all peoples and nations adore Him whom before they either did not know, or did not wish to know, or having known Him, did not honor as they should have done. “Every knee shall bow to Me,” in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, “and every tongue shall confess to God.”[5] There, my dear brethren, we have the first just reason why there should be a general judgment appointed for the whole world; namely, that restitution of His injured honor
- ↑ Ipse sane qui injuste judicatus est, judicabit orbem terræ in æquitate.
- ↑ Congregabo omnes gentes, et deducam eos in vallem Josaphat, et disceptabo cum eis ibi.—Joel iii. 2.
- ↑ In loco hoc, in quo linxerunt canes sanguinem Naboth, lambent quoque sanguinem tuum.—III. Kings xxi. 19.
- ↑ Et tunc videbunt Filium hominis venientem in nube cum potestate magna et majestate.—Luke xxi. 27.
- ↑ Mihi flectetur omne genu, et omnis lingua confitebitur Deo.—Rom. xiv. 11.
