CHRIST THE KING
Matthew 25:31-46
We have now come to the
last Sunday of the liturgical calendar of the Church which is the solemnity of Christ the King. At the end of time, Christ
will come again as the King of heaven and earth. As King he is still the Good
Shepherd and being a shepherd, he will also be our judge.
David was a shepherd before he was made a king and was the greatest king of Israel. The other
kings were also bad because they were not good shepherds and so God promised that he himself would be their shepherd and King.
Jesus Christ who was the Good Shepherd (Jn. 10) was the fulfillment of
that promise.
The Second Coming of
Christ (Parousia) is judgment day!
According to the gospel, he will judge like a shepherd who separates the sheep from the goats. Although during the day both the sheep and
goats are pasturing together but in the evening the sheep prefer the open air
so the goats have to be brought inside.
Because most of the sheep are white they became a symbol for goodness
and are placed on the right; while the blackness of the goats symbolized
badness and are placed on the left. Just
as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goat at the end of the day, Christ
as a shepherd and king will also separate the good from the bad at the end of
time. The sheep are the good people who
gave food to the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, welcomed the stranger,
clothed the naked and visited the sick and the prisoner. On the other hand, the goats are those
people who have failed to do them. In surprise, Christ would reveal his presence in the
hungry, thirsty, stranger, naked, sick and prisoner.
How
will God judge us? Certainly not by the standard of the world. The way of the world is success which is
measured by wealth and power in the glorification of the
ego. We can call it the “way of the
goat”! On the other hand “the way of
the sheep” is going out of the self in serving the anawim of God who are the
unwanted, the marginalized, the oppressed and the poor. Jesus incarnates
himself again through them in the most unexpected ways. In fact, divinity is camouflaged by the most
unlikely persons whom we ignore and abhor. That is why oftentimes we missed
many precious moments of potential encounter with God.
At
the end we will be judged not by our faith but how we are able to translate
that faith into concrete acts of good works in fostering the dignity of those
who may not even look like Christ. Our
love of God should find its channel through practical acts of charity done to
the least, the last and the lowest. Then
we will hear God telling us “Come, you whom my Father has blessed, take as your
heritage the kingdom prepared for you…”
Just
like in the gospel, we will be judged
according to our failures or good works towards God who is present amongst the un-godly.
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