Feast of Christ the King (Cycle A)

November 23, 2008

by Reverend Deacon Lawrence A. St. Onge

This Sunday is the last Sunday of the Church year; and we celebrate the feast of Christ the King; the celebration of Christ’s Lordship and Kingship over heaven and earth. It appropriately closes the Church year, because it comes at the close of Jesus’ public ministry and we hear His final parable dealing with the Final Judgment. In it, and in the 1^st reading, we hear about the separation of the sheep from the goats. Like all parables, the story draws a comparison. Sheep and goats graze together during the daytime, but have to be separated at night, because goats are less docile and more troublesome than sheep. Thus goats have come to symbolize evil, and the term “scapegoat’ has become a common expression for someone bearing the blame for another.

The scriptures today present us with a choice between two kingdoms – the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness. The choice is ours.

All of us – the good and the bad – live together during the “daytime” of our lives, but, when we die, the symbolic “night-time” of our life, we will be separated, the good from the bad. Jesus said, “Whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven. Only those who do the will of the Father will enter the Kingdom of God. Those who merely cry out, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will not enter.” “I will declare to them, I never knew you. Out of my sight, you evildoers!"

It is important to bear in mind that the kind of life we choose to live now and the moral choices we make will have consequences that determine our ultimate future – for better or for worse. Separation is an inevitable consequence of judgment. The Day of Judgment will reveal who showed true compassion and mercy toward their neighbor. Jesus teaches us a very important lesson about loving our neighbor and taking responsibility for others. God will judge us not only for the wrong we have done in life, but also, for what we have failed to do.

In the small town of Lake Jackson, Texas, the three main streets are named: “This Way,” “That Way,” and “Any Way.” But there is also a road that runs past a local church which is called “His Way.” It is the road which is less traveled. But “His Way” is the only sure way to go, if we want to travel on the correct road of life that will eventually take us to where we ultimately want to go. And, “His Way” is the way of loving service. “His Way” is the way of caring and sharing and empathizing. “His Way” is the way of compassion and understanding.”

C.S. Lewis the great Anglican scholar once offered a reflection on death and heaven. The reflection was that if we were to go to heaven, we would experience a triple surprise, or even more, a triple shock. First, he wrote, we would be surprised at the people in heaven. We would be shocked to find people there that we would never have thought would be there. The second surprise would be the shock at realizing there were people we expected to be in heaven who were not there. The third surprise would be that we would be astonished that we were there.

It is important for us to realize that because we bear the name of Catholic and Christian, it does not mean that we automatically have a “lock” on heaven. It is those who reach out to others in charity; the ones who reach out to the very presence of Christ that exists in each and every person, even if, like the sheep in today’s gospel, they do not recognize Christ. Those who will be saved by Christ are the ones who, although they did not actually know him by name, were, nonetheless, the ones who reached out to Him in others. In truth, we will find many in heaven that we would not expect to be there.

Lewis’ second conjecture is that there will be people missing from heaven that we expected to be there. But the presence of those in heaven will be determined, not by our need or our desire for them to be there, but by how well they reached out to Christ in others throughout their lives. Their presence in heaven will be determined by the Just Judge who recognizes those who loved him throughout their lives.

It can be said, that those who are not in heaven, is due to the fact that they had not developed a tolerance for God’s love. They are not yet ready for the full fire of the Love of God. The tolerance for God’s love can only be developed by exposing ourselves to Christ. We heard the question in today’s gospel: “But when did we see you hungry or naked, or ill or imprisoned, Lord?” asked by the souls of those who did not expect to be in heaven.  And Jesus responded: “I was present in those who reached out to you for help.” It was their exposure to Christ’s presence in others that gave them the capacity for receiving his presence in themselves.

There will be some who through the prayers of those on earth, who will eventually be able to tolerate the vision of God. We call those waiting for this spiritual gift to be fully developed within them – the souls in purgatory.

There will also be some who have excluded God from their lives to such a degree that they have in effect, made war on God’s Presence in their lives. They will not be capable of tolerating God’s Love, because they have not developed to even the smallest degree, a place for His Love within them.

Those in today’s gospel parable, who helped others, did so in an uncalculating manner. They didn’t realize they were helping Christ. They helped, not for some hope of reward, but because they cared, and did it out of charity and love. Those who failed on the other hand didn’t know they were failing Christ. They did not offer or give any help because the need was by someone they thought to be unimportant.

Today’s gospel story is a perfect description of what Jesus means by the term: the Mystical Body of Christ. Jesus is part of us, and we are part of him. This “unity” is not just a figure of speech, it is a reality. Whatever we do for or against our brother or sister, we do for or against Christ.

As we approach the Advent season beginning next Sunday, today’s gospel is a timely one. It encourages us to take a bit more seriously our obligations to the hungry, the alienated, and the under-privileged of society. If we do, then some day Jesus will say to us: “By the way, all you did for these unloved ones, these lowly ones, also healed my wounds, comforted my heart, and nourished me in my hunger. Come right this way, I’d like to introduce you to my Father.