The King's Call

    

The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

26 November 2023

 

First Reading: Ez 34:11-12, 15-17

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 23:1-2, 2-3, 5-6

Second Reading: 1 Cor 15:20-26, 28

Gospel: Mt 25:31-46

 

Reflection

By: Carlo Alexis Malaluan

We have come to the “end” of the liturgical year. And what is more fitting but to celebrate it with a feast of a King whose kingdom does have no end. A very striking imagery of this Gospel passage is the act of separation - the distinction made between the “sheeps” and the “goats” - of those who have lived according to God’s commands and to those who have rejected it. This passage makes a distinction not only between those who have compassion and those who do not, but between those who are in a position to help, and those who are in need.

Christ has made a distinction. Not because He is a cruel judge but He will judge us according to the path we have chosen. Each one of us goes to the place we have chosen. Those whose lives were oriented to love and mercy come to the love and mercy of God. Those who excluded people in need from their lives have excluded themselves from God’s kingdom where there is only acceptance and love.

There are two kinds of people mentioned in the parable. First, the people who performed these deeds with no idea that they were actually serving Christ. Jesus says that whenever they gave food to the hungry, welcomed a stranger, clothed the naked, or visited the sick or imprisoned, they acted in kindness toward Jesus himself. Jesus can identify with the least of these because He has walked in their shoes. On the other hand, those who have failed to see the needs of the disadvantaged have acted as though they have never seen Jesus. They have not followed in Christ’s footsteps.  They have not heed to do the work that the Master has called them to do.

Jesus has only one “basic” criteria: our love for others. Can we see the true humanity, the image of God, in the needy people of this world?  The problem is we lump problems and people together: the homeless, the welfare class, welfare queens, the Third World, the mentally ill, the unemployed, illegal immigrants.  There is scarcely a human face to be seen in any of those broad categories. We summarily size up, categorize, characterize, and sometimes dismiss literally millions of people via a blanket label.  We reduce all the homeless or all the unemployed to one basic sub-heading.  We assume every person in a given category is more-or-less the same.  But can we put a name or a face with anyone who actually lives in one of those segments of life?

Once a priest told me: You will never find Christ in the church (he is referring to the building), if you cannot find Christ in His Church (he is referring to the people). “Lord, when did we see you?”  Jesus’ answer will quite probably be, “When not?”.

There was a beautiful anecdote about Mother Teresa. She would spend hours in prayer, her hands covering her face - she was talking to Jesus. But when someone would call her immediate attention, she would smile to that person unbothered and undistracted in her time of prayer and solitude. Her reason was, I was talking from Jesus to Jesus! The same Jesus of her prayers is the same Jesus she finds in other people.

Jesus is not suggesting that we innovate excessively creative programs, that we do the social equivalent of a circus high-wire act or that we perform miracles.  He simply asks us to see Him in the people around us. 

Prayer

Jesus, open not only our eyes but also our hearts to see You in every person we encounter, to lend our hands to those in need, and to do Your greatest command which is to love.