SCRIPTURE READINGS:
You Word, O Lord, is a lamp to our feet. A light to our path.
Matthew 25: 31-46
This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
REFLECTION:
I read that in the Middle East, sheep and goats often graze together but are separated at night because the goats are less hardy and need to be kept warm. Apparently, depending on colour, they can be hard to tell apart and a major difference is that the sheep’s tails hang down and the goat’s tails stick up. In Matthew’s apocalyptic vision of the coming of God’s kingdom, the King separates people like a shepherd separates sheep and goats. The shepherd King separates
the sheep: the righteous ones to his right, and to his left, the goats or those that are have done the wrong thing. The King has absolutely no trouble telling the goats and the sheep apart.
Today we celebrate the Reign of Christ and our reading from Matthew’s gospel is the last for the Church year. Next week is the first week of Advent and we move into the year of Mark.
Christ the King, judges all nations, all people, based not on their status or beliefs, but on what they did.
We are told that the righteous will be blessed for having fed the hungry, giving water to the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked and visiting the sick and the imprisoned. We are told they have done all these things to Jesus. The King then condemns the goats on his left side for having done none of these things for Jesus.
Both the sheep and the goats have no idea what it is going on. They are clueless about when they did or didn’t do any of these things to Jesus. Those on his right ask Lord when did I give you food and water, when did I welcome you as a stranger, visit you when you were sick or in prison, when did I clothe you when you were naked? The sinners ask when Lord, did we see you hungry, thirsty, naked, sick or in prison and not do these things?
The King tells them what you did to the least of my family, you did to me. What you did not do to one of the least of these, you did not do to me. When we fail to show compassion and love to the least of God’s people, we turn our backs on Jesus. When we see humanity in need and fail to act, we turn our backs on Jesus. We allow Jesus to hunger, thirst, be excluded, be naked and be left alone or rejected, when we fail to respond to the needs of those who are powerless, suffering or marginalised.
It is interesting to notice that both groups failed to understand what the King was saying. This is a reminder about what underpins our good deeds. Acts of mercy and justice need to happen because that is the natural response to a situation of suffering or injustice, not because it is the ‘right’ Christian response. We are called to do good deeds from the heart because that is what we do and who we are, and not to feel good about ourselves or to put us in the right place with God. Compassionate and loving acts come from a heart that is turned to Christ – they are an expression of love for Christ.
I remember somewhere reading that you can never be sure when you are encountering an angel. The face of Jesus can be found in the face of the poor. It can also be found in the face of the hungry, the thirsty, the sick and suffering and as I found out, the prisoner. I cannot tell you how many times I have encountered God in prison. People ask me how can you do that ministry? How can you talk to people like that with what they have done? People can do some horrific things to one another and they are punished by the law and they have to face God to sort out their souls. They also suffer. Prisoners are society’s rejects, they are judged by us,
often even after they have completed their time. Jesus was a prisoner. Jesus experienced hunger, thirst, rejection, nakedness, pain, suffering. Jesus lived into those experiences so he knows what it feels like to be the least of the least. Jesus felt compassion and showed love to all who suffer and struggle in this world, even those we may find it hard to love.
It is the small deeds that make a difference in making our world a more compassionate and loving place. Covid 19 has shown us the importance of the little acts of kindness in making a big difference in people’s lives. People in Aged Care, people living alone, people struggling with their mental health – what has been important to them? A phone call, words of encouragement, a visit if possible – small actions that can be done by anyone, these are what make a difference.
The Kingdom of Christ is not like our human concept of kingdoms. As always, Jesus turns our way of thinking and being, upside down. Our ideas of kingship involve wealth, power, victory and status. Jesus the King rejects hierarchical constructs. The King of peace came to reconcile all things, through service, self-sacrifice and subverting injustice. Justice is a profound human longing; it is hard to define and even harder to put into practice. To achieve justice is to put things back into balance. Christians and Jews both believe that God the King will bring justice to the world and this judgement will be fair. We have seen God’s justice manifested in the man Jesus, who he was, how he lived, what he did, and how he treated people. In Matthew today, we witness Jesus in his exalted position of honour exercising his just rule as King of the world.
Jesus asks us to start living into God’s Kingdom here and now by doing the little things, the compassionate and loving things for the least of our brothers and sisters. We are called to live with justice and in hope because Christ is King and is already ruling our world, and taking note of suffering and injustice.
To quote Dorothy Day: “Loving thy neighbour is not just good for the neighbour, it is essential to our souls. Amen