By Deacon Richard Hay
“Well done good and faithful servant…”
I was blessed to live in Italy for 18 of my 30 years in the U.S. Navy. The Italians have many traditions but one I found most unique happened on New Years Eve each year when some took the phrase “Out with the old and in with the new” very seriously.
Literally, people tossed out “the old” stuff from their windows into the street below to make room for “the new” that would replace it.
If the crazy number of fireworks were not enough to keep you off the streets that night, then the potential of something falling on your head would be a good catalyst to stay indoors.
I bring up the new year’s reference because here in the Church, we have also arrived at the end of our liturgical year with today’s Solemnity of Christ the King. We end our church year on a very high note about the kingship of Christ and next week we enter the season of Advent leading towards Christmas.
Pope Pius XI instituted the Feast of Christ the King in 1925 to respond to growing secularism and atheism. There were attempts even then to push Jesus Christ and his teachings out of public life. Today’s solemnity is intended as a reminder to all of us that while governments come and go, Christ reigns as King forever and His church is still here after over 2,000 years.
With today’s readings and gospel, we reach a crescendo that has been building up over the last few weeks through the weekday and Sunday readings.
Many of those readings have been about being prepared for Christ’s second coming at the end of time. Over the last two Sundays alone, we have heard the parable of the ten virgins who were waiting for the bridegroom which was about always being prepared because we know not the time or the hour that Christ will return. Last week we heard the parable of the talents about sharing the gifts and blessings Jesus gives us with others to multiply the fruit of those gifts.
Today on the Solemnity of Christ the King, we have reached the point where we are reminded that Christ is our King – always has been and always will be. It is no longer about being prepared – those cautionary parables have been told – we should all now know and understand what is expected of us so that we can be ready for Christ’s return – and that is love – first to “Love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind, and with all our strength” and then to “Love our neighbors as ourself”.
Today we hear in the gospel what to expect when Christ returns in His second coming for what is called “The Great Judgment”. The opportunity to fill our lamps or share the fruits of Christ’s love with others is gone forever – we now stand in front of the throne to be judged according to how we loved Christ and how we loved His presence in others.
Are we ready for that day? That can be a very difficult question to answer because I think, as humans, we tend to want to give ourselves the “benefit of the doubt”. However, if we are unable to be truthful with ourselves about this, that can lead us to a state of being “comfortable” with where we are in life and in faith – the status quo.
What we must do here is examine our lives, all aspects of our lives, and understand whether or not we are truly loving in the way in which God calls us to do.
Here is the blessing of being here today and hearing this very gospel – we can still go forth from here and choose to love as Christ has loved us. By listening to what Christ says in judgement to the sheep, those are the righteous ones, and to the goats, those who are condemned, we can understand some of the expectations that Christ has for all of us as we live our earthly lives.
He is talking about what we know today as the seven Corporal Works of Mercy:
- Feeding the hungry
- Giving drink to the thirsty
- Sheltering the homeless
- Visiting the sick and prisoners
- Burying the dead
- Giving alms to the poor
Notice he doesn’t say to the sheep and the goats – “you all tried to do these things” so come on into your eternal reward with me in heaven. No, he tells the righteous that they did do all these things for him when they did it “for the least of His brothers” and He welcomes them into heaven. For the condemned, it is the exact opposite – when they failed to do these things for those in need – they failed to do it for Christ who is present in every human being – those choices – those omissions in their lives result in eternal punishment.
Like I said earlier, making an examination of actions in our own lives against these expectations can be challenging and one of the toughest things we can ever do but it can also be life changing. It can make an eternal impact on our souls and is something we should do – sooner rather than later – because we are not guaranteed another day or our next breath.
In the Book of James, in Chapter 4, we are reminded of this in scripture where it is written – “…you have no idea what your life will be like tomorrow. You are a puff of smoke that appears briefly and then disappears. Instead, you should say, “If the Lord wills it, we shall live to do this or that.”
The “this or that” James is referring to is that we love the Lord and our neighbor. Out of that love, we will be drawn to perform these works of mercy because we would be doing them for Christ the King who dwells in each and every one of us.
The judgement we will all face is real. Just as described in the gospel, each one of us will stand before the throne of Christ the King at the end of this world’s existence. We will be told to stand with either the sheep or with the goats. In that moment, what we did in our lives on this earth will be judged by the only one who can judge us – Jesus Christ the King of the Universe.
I ask all of us again – “Are we ready for that day?”
It may seem overwhelming to think about, but it is important to consider where we are in this life and whether or not we will be told we did all those works of mercy for Christ in others or whether nor not we failed to do so.
There are consequences for these decisions. However, in His great love for us, Christ brings us something through His Church to help us reach that day and be counted among the righteous – the sacraments and the graces we receive from them.
Imagine this mighty King of the Universe who humbled himself to take on our human nature and be born into this world as an infant in a manger, fleeing persecutions, and depending upon the care of His mother and father just like all of us did in our lives.
Imagine the humbleness of how Christ the King comes to us in the Most Blessed Sacrament – the Eucharist – right here at this and every mass that is celebrated around the world. The simple substances of bread and wine are offered for His glory and through the power of the Holy Spirit, in the words of Jesus, spoken in the person of Christ our King by the priest, become the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ our Lord and King.
Then, as we receive the Eucharist, we each become a tabernacle, just like the tabernacle here in the church, because Jesus our King is now physically present inside of us through our reception of Holy Communion.
It is His presence we carry out of the church with us to go out into the world to love Him and our neighbors so that we can have works with our faith.
If we keep this in our minds and hearts as we carry Christ out into the world as His blessed tabernacles, then one day we will stand in front of His throne and hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”
