Homily for the Week of November 20, 2011

THE SOLEMNITY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST THE KING, 2011 Ezekiel: 34: 11-7; Ps 23: 1-6; 1 Cor 15:20-28; Mt 25: 31-46

You may wonder how relevant is this feast of Christ the King to Americans. We in the United States have never been much for kings. Our nation began with a nasty war to free us from a king. Today most Americans find monarchies are curious and quaint. All this combines to make us all but shrug at the notion of celebrating today’s special Mass in honor of Christ the King. Yet, so very, very often our prayers use the image of king and kingdom. In the OUR FATHER we prayer your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. At funerals we pray that the person will enter the kingdom of God.

The gospel highlights the paradox of the Christian life. The reading gives us an image of a large crowd of people who gather in front of Jesus whom they call King. The scene is one of judgement where the blessed enter the kingdom prepared for them, and the accursed enter punishment prepared for them. Those of you who read and pray the Bible often will recognize that today’s passage is just like the Sermon on the Mountain where Jesus gives us the Beatitudes.

Perhaps it is difficult to reconcile the story of the Last Judgement with the mercy and love of God. The feast of Christ the King celebrates God's love and justice. In the first reading, God is presented as a shepherd who cares for each of his sheep. The shepherd seeks each out, knows each by name, strengthens, heals and bandages the wounded. Christ the Good Shepherd deepens this understanding in the story of the shepherd who seeks out the one lost sheep out of a hundred sheep in the pasture. He carries the sheep home on his shoulders.

I am sure that if any of you are spiritually honest with yourself you will notice that as you grew up and went from one age to another you found a different emphasis in your faith and religion. There may have been times when religion met very little to you, or you just did not care, or you did everything because someone else wanted you to do it.

And then there were times when you again renewed your faith, because you could find nothing to replace it, and it became YOURfaith. Don’t worry if there are times like this. The story of the lives of the saints are filled with such events. For example, Teresa of Avila, known as one of the great spiritual leaders of all times. had been a nun for 20 years when she experienced a true conversion to Jesus. After this she spent her life helping others as Jesus tells us, and bringing changes in the church of her day. It was then that one day she read the Bible passage of today and then wrote: Jesus has no body on earth but yours; no hands but yours; no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes by which he is to look out. Yours are the feet by which he is going about doing good. Yours are the hands with which he is to bless each day.

God shows tremendous concern for the sheep that have wandered away from the flock. They are in danger from predators. God proclaims that He will rescue them. We have seen God come as promised in the person of Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd. The most beloved of the psalms, Psalm 23, speaks of life at the coming of the Saviour. We shall not want for anything. Like sheep like a rich pasture with moist grass, we shall have our fill. Not only will our physical needs be answered, our soul will be refreshed. The ancients saw the soul as the force that animates the body, meaning that our entire being will be refreshed when our Shepherd comes for us.

It seems clear that if the needy, the poor, those who feel unloved, are to be taken care of as Jesus would have done, you and I must do it. Then it must be my eyes and your eyes that will see their needs, that will recognize Jesus in them, and help them with love and compassion.

In a sense Jesus is like a financial advisor to whom you go at the end of the year to get help with your taxes. But the audit in this case is the condition of my spiritual life at the end of my life. But is it not surprising that Jesus says nothing here of whether or not I have kept the commandments, gone to Church, received the sacraments, or prayed everyday. None of these are not mentioned, because they are presumed as the basis for being a good person. Without these religious acts it is impossible for us to do what Jesus asks of us today.

At the end of life we will not be judged on how many diplomas we have received or how we have ranked on the athletic teams or how much money we have made or how many great things we have done. We will be judged by: I was hungry and you gave me to eat, I had no clothes and you clothed me, I was homeless and you took me in. Very often it is easier for us to satisfy these physical needs than the deeper human needs like: Hungry, not only for bread, but hungry for love; naked, not only for clothing, but naked for human dignity and respect; homeless, not only for want of a room of wood or brick, but homeless because of rejection.

At the end of the Church's year and as we prepare for Advent, we are invited to take a look at our lives. Can I see the times of darkness or the times when God has healed me? Are their times when God's love, through love of those around me, rescued me from darkness and despair? Do I thank God for this love? Have we seen Jesus in others and in ourselves? Yes, I’ve see you many times, you can all say. And then Jesus will reply: Come with me to the place I have prepared for you from the beginning of the world. What a reunion that will be!