Ezekiel 34:11–12, 15–17
1 Corinthians 15:20–26, 28
Matthew 25:31–46
In Pope Francis’ encyclical Fratelli Tutti, there is a subtitle for several paragraphs that reads “beginning with the least.” At first it may not sound like much, but given the context of the parable we just heard, it is everything. Where the parable ends with recognition of the “least,” Francis says we must begin. The people behind the faces of the hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked, sick and imprisoned are the people that Jesus identifies with. You and I can easily extend that list today. If we are to begin to look for the face of Jesus, then we must begin with them.
Pope Francis often speaks of a ‘culture of encounter’ and how essential this is if humanity is to have a future worthy of it. And is that not what we find in the parable today? We hear of righteous men and women who engaged in an encounter with what we might not at first glance even call culture. But in fact, those who are hungry, thirsty, homeless, a foreigner and a prisoner are part even of our culture. And to leave them out, would mean that we have a lopsided view of our culture. The demand on us Christians to include them is high. Why? Because if we stand in the world of the parable, then we find that such folks are part of Christ’s Body as much as you and I. To refuse to recognize the poor and vulnerable would dehumanize them even more and leave us as the judge taking the place of the Son of Man. If we fail to engage in encounter with them as Christians, we are in fact refusing to gaze upon Christ himself. And the end result of that stance towards encounter is that we find ourselves cut off from belonging to Christ as much as the devil. But this would be our doing.
The scene today is a final encounter of the Shepherd King with his flock of sheep and herd of goats. In this encounter he is looking for those who belong to his Kingdom. Those who belong, it seems, are not those who cry out “Lord, Lord,” holding up placards at rallies to honor him. Jesus has made it clear that his honor guard does not lie with those chanting his name. Calling out, “Lord, Lord,” does not seem to be the entrance ticket into the Kingdom. We hear that in the Sermon on the Mount; we heard it a few weeks ago in another end time parable when five women were foolish enough not to bring oil. When they finally got some found themselves outside the wedding feast. What counts for this King is where you recognized him out there in his country. Did you and I recognize him among the broken, among the needy, among the neglected and down trodden? Did we recognize him in suffering humanity? It is among these that his royal image appears.
The crown on our King his is dignity and worth seen in the faces of those from humanity might just walk away. Those who recognize this face and take time to encounter it, meet with it and bring forth the dignity in these faces, these are the Kingdom people. They know who else belongs to the Kingdom and they are willing to encounter them and call forth their own royal dignity.
The surprise in today’s parable is that those who encountered the sick, the foreigner, the hungry and so forth and responded to them with dignity did not even know that their King was there. They engaged in an encounter with broken humanity and offered something of their own humanity in return. They were simply themselves. They were grounded in the culture of the Kingdom so well that acting as a citizen of the Kingdom flowed from their hearts without question. They were true children of the Father who makes the rain fall on good and bad alike. They were children of the Father for whom mercy is the first commandment. Their right hand did not know what their left hand was doing. They were simply children of their Father in heaven encountering other children of the same Father. So of course, they were also serving the Father’s Son, the Son of Man, The Son of humanity.
For doing what their humanity called for, namely, encountering the weak, suffering and forgotten, they were being true to humanity. They were engaging their own humanity in such a way that it was generating more humanity as it were. It is no real surprise then that they enter a kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world. They have been in touch with true humanity as it was from the foundation of the world. They did not reject part of humanity because it was experiencing a lack, because it was least. No, they embraced it as part of themselves and cared for it.
Christ is the King who has a face in all that is human, even the least of humanity. It is his resurrection that has allowed him to touch all humanity. He is the new Adam of which Paul speaks, the new humanity, risen from the grave. His risen self is universal; it is no longer limited or time bound. He is the first fruits of a new humanity working now to transform all that is human. All now belong to him; the least are his brothers and sisters, he says. He identifies not only with my personal brokenness, my isolation, my abuse. He identifies with all of humanity’s woundedness.
Our King’s kingdom includes all the nations, all the richness of cultures and diversity. He, the risen Lord, holds it together. We who believe in this Kingdom and are graced with living in it are graced also with the mission to encounter in his name all who live in it, the least and the great. To encounter the great may seem easy, but discipleship and the accountability of discipleship will always be based on seeing and meeting the least. Our task, while there is still time, is to take note of what we see….When Lord did we see you hungry….We can only encounter and engage with what we see.
This feast of Christ the King calls us to see with the same comprehensive vision that Christ now has, as vision that encompasses all of humanity. And seeing, to go forth and meet it not as other, as different, but as a part of myself, a part of ourselves. For this so-called stranger may need our care, our thoughtfulness, our kindness and our generosity. Christ was raised to restore a solidarity and communion within humanity. For that he was wounded and gave his life. When we begin to become part of the process of nurturing human dignity, community and freedom, then we are cultivating the fruits of the Kingdom culture that Jesus will one day come and hand over to God the Father who is all in all.
~Prior, Fr. Joel Macul, OSB
