OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, KING OF THE UNIVERSE
22 NOVEMBER 2020
In
the ancient world, rulers and kings were expected to tend the people of their
kingdoms with the same care and concern given by human shepherds to the sheep
of their flocks. The prophet Ezekiel
speaks some 600 years before the birth of Christ to his people who had suffered
from bad leadership. Because their
shepherds were more concerned for their own comfort than for the welfare of the
people they were supposed to serve, the people of Israel had been scattered by
the Babylonians when they destroyed Jerusalem and the temple. Ezekiel promises that God himself will seek
out the lost, bring back the strays, bind up the injured, and heal the
sick. Those who had abandoned them (the
sleek and the strong) would experience God’s justice.
Throughout
the course of this Liturgical Year, we have been hearing from the Gospel of
Matthew. Sunday after Sunday, we have
heard about the ways in which this prophecy has been fulfilled in Jesus
Christ. Jesus has been seeking the
lost. He has been bringing back those
who have strayed, even the religious leaders resisting his call to repent. He has healed the wounds of those who have
been injured by neglect. He has healed
the sick over and over again.
Today, we
hear the final words spoken by the Good Shepherd before he is betrayed and
crucified, laying down his life out of love for his sheep. In this final parable, he talks about final endings. Unlike sheep, we have the choice to respond
to his love or ignore it. He is honest
in telling us that there are consequences when we choose to ignore his love. He invites us to carry plenty of oil with us
(good works) like the five wise virgins in the parable two weeks ago. He insists that we invest our talents wisely
like the first two servants in last Sunday’s Gospel. Today, he warns us that we need to be among
the sheep at the end, avoiding the fate of the goats.
Today’s
parable speaks about how these endings are surprising. The first surprise is that all of those
judged by Christ are surprised in the Last Judgment. Both the sheep and the goats are surprised by
the criteria by which they are judged.
Both the sheep and the goats ask the same question: “When did we see you naked, or in prison, or
poor?’ The sheep are saved because they
responded to these needs, even when they did not recognize Christ in those they
served. The goats are damned because
they failed to respond to these needs.
The second
surprise is that small and concrete acts of kindness are used for the criteria
of judgment. We expect great rewards for
those who do great deeds, and severe punishment for those who commit horrendous
acts of cruelty. But the sheep are
rewarded their compassionate responses in small ways to the hungry or thirsty
or naked or strangers. The goats are
condemned for the hardness of their hearts in the face of small requests in the
name of human dignity.
The third
surprise is that the endings sound so negative to our ears. In each of the three parables, the faithful
are rewarded first. The five wise
virgins are welcomed to the wedding banquet.
The first two stewards are praised for the ways they invested their
talents. The sheep are welcomed into the
kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world. But the five foolish virgins are locked out
of the wedding feast. The third servant
is thrown out into the darkness. The
goats go off to eternal punishment.
We hear
these parables at the end of this Liturgical Year. Jesus tells them not to
cause us to be obsessed with the inevitability of the end or to live in fear
for the rest of our lives. We hear them
so that we will not be surprised when the Lord comes, either at the end of time
or at the end of our lives. The Good
Shepherd knows each of us by name. The
Good Shepherd loves us and has laid down his life for us. He wants us to respond and share in his
eternal kingdom. He does not want us to
be surprised.
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