Sunday, November 26, 2023

26 November 2023 - the last judgment


Jesus said to his disciples:
"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.

We believe that he will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. Today we see a preview of that judgment, when the righteous will be separated from the accursed. Those who have kept the flame of charity burning in their hearts will be recognized by Jesus, just as the five wise virgins were recognized by the light of the oil of their lamps. 

For 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.

We know that we cannot love God whom we cannot say if we fail to love our neighbor whom we can see (see First John 4:20). But the love with which we are called to love our neighbors is not a natural love. Jesus said, "as I have loved you, you also are to love one another" (see John 13:34). It is impossible to love as we are called to love until we first know that we ourselves are loved by God, that "God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us" (see Romans 5:5). Unless we know this we will exert ourselves trying to earn what we can never earn but also what we need not earn because it has been freely given as a gift. We will then feel frustrated and overwhelmed by the scope of the problem and our lack of ability to respond. It takes faith to trust that our mustard seed will amount to anything or that our small batch of leaven will make any difference. Saints were able to do great things in the first place because they were faithful in small things. And they were faithful in small things because their trust in God convinced them that small things mattered.

'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?'
And the king will say to them in reply,
'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did
for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.'

It isn't always going to be obvious to us that our charity is as valuable as it may turn out to be. Rather than give in to the temptation to do less or nothing because effort seems futile we should learn to recognize the presence of Jesus in everyone that he himself places in our path. Then we won't need to believe that we are solving all of the worlds problems by our actions. We won't be paralyzed and unable to do anything because we can't do everything. We will see the infinite value of one act of love to one person in need. This is true even if that act doesn't make an obvious and lasting difference. Nothing of love is ever truly lost, no matter how it appears to be.

Then they will answer and say,
'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty
or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison,
and not minister to your needs?'

The presence of Jesus may not be immediately obvious to us. It is even possible to go about our lives ignoring his presence in those around us, yet still imagining ourselves to be faithful to him. But this is not a way that truly faithful hearts can be content to live. Faithful ones will desire to see Jesus wherever he can be seen and to serve him wherever he can be served. It is not so much on the basis of fear that we avoid sins of omission, but rather on the basis of love. We need solid foundations in Christ in order to be able to love him well in the least brothers of his. This was the reason that Mother Teresa of Calcutta insisted on a holy hour each day for her sisters, so they could recognize Jesus in his "distressing disguise".

And these will go off to eternal punishment,
but the righteous to eternal life.

The choices we make here and now have eternal consequences. But we cannot save ourselves. If we could, there would have been no need for God himself to come and "look after and tend" his sheep. But he, the Good Shepherd, did come. He sought, not the sleek and the strong , but those who would entrust themselves to him and rely on him. This, ultimately, is the only way we will be able to respond to the call to love as we are meant to love, secure in the love of our shepherd, fearing no evil, even in the valley of the shadow of death.







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