Matthew 25:31-46
Have you heard this gospel before? Of course you have. I bet some of us could recite it from memory. And certainly the top message is crystal clear. Whatever we do for the least of our brothers, that we do for Jesus -- and that has eternal consequences. But you know me, I can’t leave things alone. When I read this passage from Matthew, I was struck by three things. First, this takes place at the last judgment when the Son of Man will judge the nations. It doesn’t say, “judge each person”. Jesus is judging the nations.
The second thing is that I’m not sure why Jesus has it in for goats. In his time, shepherds generally kept sheep and goats. Sheep for their wool; but sheep are not very smart and need a lot of looking after. Goats are smarter, more aggressive, and generally can be of great service to the shepherd. And they reproduce faster. And they give more milk. In fact, since they have more babies, the male baby goats are a source of food for the shepherd. You remember the older brother in the story of the prodigal son? He told his father, “you have not given me even a kid so that i could have a party with my friends”. A kid is a baby goat. So why the sheep on one side, the good side, and the goats on the other? I don’t know the answer to that question, but people have tried. Goats being smarter have more responsibility. Maybe Jesus is criticizing the leaders of the people. Or, since we started with nations, rather than people, maybe the goats are the nations that have everything and the sheep are the ones that have nothing. The first world countries, as anyone with eyes can see, are first world at least in part because they have taken advantage of third world countries. Are the goats the first world countries? YOu might get the impression that Pope Francis thinks so when you read his encyclicals and letters. But I don’t really know if that’s what the Lord had in mind. Jesus never seemed terribly political. But maybe we can take away the idea that we Christians bear responsibility for what our nation does. We can’t isolate ourselves, we have to be politically active at least in the matter of informing ourselves and voting. As Catholics we have a responsibility to promote our church’s social teachings when we vote, or maybe participate more deeply in our political system.
The third thing is that the righteous as well as the unrighteous had no idea that their actions on behalf of the hungry, thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick and the imprisoned had anything to do with Christ. And yet, every saint on the calendar and all who are not, as well, acted because they saw what they were doing as flowing from Christ’s teachings. I don’t think Mother Theresa would have said the words, “When did I see you hungry and I fed you?” That’s exactly why she lived her life the way she did. She saw Jesus in the people she served. So who are these people Jesus is talking about?
One very interesting idea is that Jesus uses the words “least of my brothers”. We know that elsewhere he says that his brothers and sisters and mother are those who hear the word of God and keep it. Jesus identifies his family by their response to his teaching. But if you are imitating Jesus, you risk being hungry, thirsty, seen as a stranger; we probably don’t have to worry too much about being naked, at least not in this country. But being ill or imprisoned because we follow Jesus, those are real possibilities as well. Not so much here in the United States in the twenty-first century, but our Christian brothers and sisters are suffering throughout much of the world. And in Jesus’ time it was much worse. If you were a Christian in the Roman empire of the first century, you might very well be thrown in prison, deprived of food and drink. If you weren’t you might be prevented from getting a decent job because you wouldn't worship the emperor. And if things were really bad, you could be paraded naked through the streets like the terrorists did with the hostages they captured in Israel. It’s a great way to insult someone, to make them go naked in public.
There is a story about Cardinal Van Thuan who was imprisoned by the Vietnamese communists for thirteen years. He made friends with one of the guards. The guard offered to pray to Our Lady of La Vang, on behalf of the Cardinal, since he walked past the shrine on his way home every day. He would pray, “Dear Lady, I am not a Christian, but please give Cardinal Van Thuan what he needs today.”
Maybe Jesus is making a promise that he won’t forget even the slightest bit of kindness rendered to one of his followers, even by non-believers. In another place in scripture he says, “If anyone gives one of these little ones who is my disciple a cup of water, he will not go unrewarded.”
On this feast of Christ the King let us remember again that Jesus desires the salvation of all human beings, and he will achieve that through his people, you and I. And while we are so fortunate because we belong to the Church he founded, he makes possible his salvation to everyone, if they do nothing more than to come to the aid of one of his brothers or sisters -- you and I.
