Bad or Good?

In a magazine cartoon, Santa Claus is pictured at his workbench, putting a new toy together. From his nearby TV set, he hears a reporter saying,

We continue our look at the real meaning of Christmas sales indicators. In the fourth quarter, consumers have dramatically cut back their spending, which could slow the economy, which might be a healthy development after their earlier borrowing, which boosted the economy but added to concerns of low savings and overstimulation, leading to sluggish sales as we enter into the all-important Christmas season.

Santa looks up and says to himself, “It used to be a lot easier to know if they’ve been bad or good.”

Jesus’ timeless “Parable of the Last Judgment” in today’s Gospel Lesson provides Santa with an easy answer to his problem. The parable is Jesus’ once-and-for-all, definitive, foolproof way of knowing “if they’ve been bad or good.”

Come, you whom My Father has blessed,” says the Lord, and “take for your heritage the Kingdom prepared…