Christ the King Year A, 2023

 

(Ezekiel 34:11-12, 15-17; 1^st. Corinthians 15:20-26, 28; Matthew 25:31-46)

Following the Gospel of Matthew we have recently heard Jesus warning us in parables, first of all, to be faithful and responsible, after the example of the wise and faithful servant set over the household whilst his master was away; then -- in the parable of the 5 wise and the 5 foolish virgins -- to be prepared and alert at all times; and finally, last week, He admonished us -- in the parable of the talents – to put to good use the gifts we have received by bringing forth fruit for eternal life.

And now, just before the chief priests and elders of the people meet to plot Jesus’ death, Matthew puts before us this awesome scene of the Last Judgement pictured for us by the Lord Himself:

When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, He will sit upon His glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before Him. And He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

Jesus goes on to make clear the grounds on which the sheep are to be separated from the goats, and in doing so He fills in with greater detail the advice given us previously in His parables by showing us how to remain faithful and responsible, ever alert and prepared, and how to invest for the future by bringing forth fruit for eternal life:

I was hungry and you gave Me food, I was thirsty and you gave Me drink, a stranger and you welcomed Me, naked and you clothed Me, ill and you cared for Me, in prison and you visited Me

Those, on the left hand, who do not remain faithful, alert and prepared, who make little or no effort to gain profit for heaven, will be most severely judged and condemned, and the immediate continuation of our first reading from the prophet Ezekiel tells us why:

Then the King will say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

“As for you, O My flock,” thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, I shall judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and goats.  Is it too little for you to have eaten up the good pasture, that you must tread down with your feet the residue of your pasture -- and to have drunk of the clear waters, that you must foul the residue with your feet?"  

St. John Chrysostom, a Greek Doctor of the Church, when commenting on today’s parable of the Final Judgement, told his congregation at the imperial court in the city of Constantinople some 1600 years ago that God does not demand great things of us, for He is gracious enough to reward even little things:

And in return for what, do they receive such a great reward as a share in heavenly glory?  For offering the covering of a roof, for giving a garment, some bread to eat and cold water to drink, for visiting one languishing in the prison.   In every case it is for what is needed; and sometimes not even for that, for surely, as I have said, the sick, and he that is in bonds, seeks not only a visit, but the one to be loosed (from his chains), the other to be delivered from his infirmity. But the Lord, being gracious, requires only what is within our power.

At times this parable of the Last Judgment has been wrongly interpreted as though it  asserts that our salvation will ultimately depend exclusively on works of fraternal charity done or omitted by us.  However, when looked at in the whole context of St. Matthew’s presentation of the teaching of Jesus, works of fraternal charity are valid and valuable only in so far as they are true expressions of love for God.

A lawyer, asked Jesus a question, testing Him, and saying, "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?"  Jesus said to him, "'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.'  This is the first and great commandment.

The second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbour as yourself.'  On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." (22:35-40)

Love God with all your heart, soul and mind;  love your neighbour, as yourself.

St. Matthew elsewhere (19:16-21) quotes Jesus showing love of neighbour to be a necessary preparation for love of God when he tells how one day a rich young man, who, though having long kept the commandments and shown love toward his neighbour, came to Jesus because he still felt himself to be far from perfect:

"Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?" Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."

There Jesus obviously wanted to lead this promising young man on to the fulfilment of charity in personal love of God.

In our parable today, notice that those called to His right hand by Jesus had indeed shown love of neighbour, but they had not sufficiently recognized God, Jesus, in their neighbour:

Then the righteous will answer Him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink?  When did we see You a stranger and welcome You, or naked and clothe You?   When did we see You ill or in prison, and visit You?’

They still needed to learn much from Jesus in order to recognize and truly appreciate the pearl of great price.

The rich young man, however, by his life-long endeavours to find God, merited Jesus’ Personal invitation to “Come, follow Me”: only three short words but of surpassing significance.  “Come and learn from Me how to love both God and neighbour; come, learn to love My Father and your Father so much as to be able to embrace the Cross with Me for His glory and for the salvation of mankind”.  He speaks those same words to us this very day, for we should recognize that there is much for us to learn concerning which none but Jesus can teach us through His Spirit, recalling His words and actions and, in the Holy Eucharist refreshing our charity to respond ever better to His perennial truth and love .  Our world’s greatest need is for divine wisdom to understand God’s will in the signs of the times, especially today under the looming cloud of Sodality, where human beings are presuming to think that their ‘synodal’ thinking is more suitable for the spiritual well-being of modern humanity than the supposedly ‘time-aged’ or ‘not up to modern life-experience’ teaching and example of Jesus, handed down to us by the Apostolic Tradition and brought ‘refreshingly’ to our present-day minds by His most Holy Spirit.   And the Holy Spirit, being with Jesus a truly divine Person in the one godhead of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is the supreme leader and ruler in Jesus’ present-day Church, as He is also Personally active in our individual lives as Comforter and Strength – not some government-trained psychological tyro – but a divinely-gifted source of spiritual peace and sustenance for all the circumstances of our daily lives, no matter what the earthly  pressures, sorrows, difficulties or trials.  Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, we – ordinary faithful Catholics -- can now know more of Jesus’ words than did those ordinary disciples of old, because the Holy Spirit has brought, and is constantly bringing  to the Church’s mind for deeper understanding and love, ALL that Jesus said and did, ALL that Jesus intended to be for us and wants of us, and we must always be awake and ready to defend Jesus’ legacy in our lives, as did His Apostles who shed their blood for Jesus and in fulfilment of the mission of truth and grace He had given them, just as Jesus Himself had shed His blood for the salvation of all of us.

‘Do gooders’ always think their idea of goodness is best for the people of their day, but today, those synodal do-gooders apparently inside Mother Church have a far more seriously defective understanding, not only of ‘goodness’, but of the very word ‘God’ if they think Our Lord Jesus’ teaching out-of-date for today’s Church.

Once Jesus’ coming into our lives has freed us from the slavery of sin then, by the gift of His Spirit, those God-given gifts of understanding and love can begin to reform and renew our darkened minds and stony hearts for God’s glory and the blessing of all around us.

If, therefore, we aspire to be counted among the sheep at God’s right hand we must make a beginning by fulfilling, as St. John Chrysostom explained, the first and easiest demands of Him Who will, ultimately, be our Judge.  Only little words and actions capable of expressing both sincere love for God and neighbour are asked of us, for it is only as the ordinary, everyday, attitudes of individual men and women become spiritually healthy and strong through Christ living in them, that the Holy Spirit of Jesus will be able to gradually correct and efface the social and political evils which afflict our country and our world, until that time comes when Christ -- reigning supreme in hearts and minds of His disciples—will be publicly manifested as King of Glory ushering in the Kingdom of God.  Towards that end every disciple of Jesus is able and called to contribute, since all of us have a personal role to play in the development of that Kingdom and a necessary function for its fulfilment.