Many moons ago in the 1980’s, I
was the rector of Becket Hall, our diocesan discernment house for candidates to
the priesthood. There was a potential
candidate named John who was both spiritual and troubled. Regrettably, all of his energy needed to
focus on himself to keep him on track.
He had significant mental health issues that did not make him a good
candidate for the priesthood. In fact, to
this day, he has considerable difficulty with any kind of job responsibilities. Although for all the world, physically he
looks like he should be a capable person in the work force, he is trapped
within himself by some fears and anxieties.
I have prayed many times over the
way John and I have kept in touch with each other over these many years. Come judgment day for myself, the Lord is not
going to be overly impressed by my homilies, the fact that I am the pastor of
two parishes, or the credentials after my name,
the first question the Lord is going to ask me: “How is my friend, John?”
I invite you to consider that the
first question the Lord is going to ask you on judgment day. Who is the person or persons who are the
Lord’s friends that he is going to ask you about?
On this the last Sunday of the
liturgical year, the Feast of Christ the King, Jesus lets us know very clearly
what is going to be on the final exam for each one of us. We will be graded on how well we have
responded with compassion to those in need.
The Gospel describes the Last
Judgment scene. “The king will say to
those on his right. ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the
foundation of the world. For I was
hungry and you gave me food…The righteous will respond, ‘Lord when did we see
you hungry and feed you…And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to
you, whatever you did for one of the least brothers or sisters of mine, you did
for me.’”
There is nothing mysterious or
difficult to figure out about today’s Gospel.
Each of us will be judged upon our performance of the simple works of
mercy, we hear in the Gospel. For me, I
need to spend less time behind my desk as the pastor and more time being with
people in need. To show me that God has
a sense of humor, as I was preparing this homily at my desk this past Wednesday
evening, I received a call to go to the emergency department at Strong Hospital
to anoint and to provide pastoral care to a family that was grieving. The person died but the family and I with
much faith entrusted him to the fullness of God’s eternal life and the family
shared beautifully and with much faith prayed for her husband, their dad, their
grandfather. God’s presence was
experienced in this family gathering.
As we gather on Sunday to
celebrate the beauty of our liturgy Sunday after Sunday, the Gospel reminds us of
the liturgy of life without which all other liturgy in Church has no
meaning. Plain and simple, if we are not
focused in the liturgy of life in our service of one another, all other
liturgy, no matter how beautiful it is, is pointless.
Today we celebrate the Feast of
Christ the King. This is ironic because
Jesus never acted like a king. He
embraced poverty, not wealth. He taught humility, not arrogance. He emphasized service, not domination. He chose a cross, not a palace.
Kinship, instead of
kingship: This is what Jesus is truly
passionate about. Kinship with “the
least, the lost, and the last."
Jesus doesn’t even use big words
like justice or democracy to explain what is going to be on our final
exam. He simply talks about food,
clothes, water, shelter – the basics of life.
As we pray over today’s Gospel on
the last judgment scene, there are obviously two groups of people – the
righteous on the right hand side of the king and those on his left who will
suffer eternal punishment. It is obvious
which group we would like to be with – those on the right who were responsive
to people in need. We see ourselves as
helpers to the hungry, the thirsty, and the naked.
In our prayer, may we take a
second look at this Gospel to see if are missing a most important message. There are not just two groups of people in
the Gospel account. There are
three. There were the people who helped,
and there were the people who refused to help, and there were the people who
needed help. That last group can be
easily overlooked. And yet, these are
the people with whom Jesus chose to identify himself.
Jesus took his stand with the
needy people of this world and said in effect:
“This is where I live. These are
my people. I belong to them, and they
belong to me. Jesus not only cared about
the needy and sought to help the needy. He completely identified himself with
the needy. There was His hunger.
That’s where you and I
belong. It isn’t as if the needy are
people who need help, and we are the people who give help. We all belong to the fellowship of the needy.
None of us are
self-sufficient. I need your help, and
you need mine. This is not an exclusive
club. Everybody is a member. We need each other, whether we ever get
honest enough to admit or not.
Who are the needy? I am; you are; everyone is. Today I may help you, but tomorrow I may need
you to help me. We are members of the
same family, sharing our love, sharing our resources, sharing our needs.
Again going back to the Gospel,
in His last words to us in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is telling us in
advance that when we each stand before our God, we won’t be given a test that
will be confusing or difficult. It will
instead involve only the most practical questions: Did you feed the hungry? Did you shelter the homeless? Did you care for the sick?
And our answer will be….
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