All of Jesus’ morals are summed up in charity and humility, that is, in the two virtues contrary to selfishness and pride. In all his teachings, he points to these two virtues as being the way to eternal happiness. Blessed are the poor in spirit, he said, meaning the humble, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven; blessed are the pure in heart; blessed are the meek and the peace-loving; blessed are the merciful; love your neighbor  as yourself; do unto others what you want them to do unto you; love your enemies; forgive offenses if you yourself want to be forgiven; practice the good without ostentation; judge yourselves before you judge others. Humility and charity are the things Jesus never ceased to recommend, and for which he himself gave the example. Pride and selfishness are the things he never ceased to combat. But he did more than recommend charity; he put it in clear and explicit terms as an absolute condition for future happiness.

In the picture that Jesus portrays of the Final Judgment, it is necessary – as in many other cases – to separate symbol from allegory. To people such as the ones to whom he spoke, who were still incapable of understanding purely spiritual matters, he had to present physical imagery that was striking and capable of impressing them. To be better accepted, he could not depart very far from the form of current established ideas, always reserving for the future the true interpretation of his words and the points that he could not explain clearly at the time. However, alongside the supplementary and figurative part of the picture, one idea predominates: the  happiness awaiting the  righteous and  the unhappiness reserved for the unrighteous.

In that final judgment, what will be taken into consideration in passing sentence? Upon what will the indictment be based? Will the Judge ask if one has fulfilled this or that formality, or observed such and such outward practice? No. He will ask about one thing only: the practice of charity. And in passing sentence he will say: You who assisted your brothers and sisters, go on the right; you who were harsh toward them, go on the left. Will he inquire as to the orthodoxy of their faith? Will he make a distinction between those who believe in one manner and those who believe in another? No, for Jesus places the Samaritan – regarded as a heretic, but who showed love toward his neighbor – above orthodoxy that lacks charity. Jesus thus did not make charity only one of the conditions for salvation, but the sole condition. If there were other conditions to fulfill, he would have mentioned them. If he places charity on the first plane of the virtues, it is because charity implicitly entails all the others: humility, kindness, benevolence, indulgence, justice, etc., and because it is the complete negation of pride and selfishness.