Christ the King -- A2002

Ez. 34: 11-12, 15-17; 1 Cor. 15: 20-26, 28; Mat. 25: 31-46

Deacon Lee Hunt (St. Monica)

Love Your Neighbor Like Everything Depends on It

A priest from India was assigned to an Edmond parish for three years. Many parishioners considered him to be a very holy man. For this reason, we were very surprised when he told us that when he dies he hopes it will be slowly from cancer. He reasoned that he would need a long time to prepare for his death.

All of us are going to meet Jesus, and we must prepare now. Some of us will meet Jesus instantaneously in something like a catastrophic car wreck and there will be no more time to get prepared. Others of us will die slowly from a debilitating disease and we will have lots of time to prepare. The rest of us will fall somewhere in between these two extremes.

Today's parable comes on the last Sunday of the Church's liturgical year when we celebrate the solemnity of Christ the King. Today's readings are about the end time, when Jesus the King will separate us into groups, which will have either eternal life or eternal punishment. This separation will be based on how well we treat the least of our brothers and sisters, for how we treat them is how we treat Christ our King.

How do we serve these least ones?

We give them food, drink, welcome and clothe them, and visit them while ill or in prison. We must be like Christ the King, who came to serve, not be served. As disciples of Christ, we must show his love to others, for they, like we, are created in his image. Christ is in our neighbor and it is there that we can experience our King on a daily basis. Christ reveals his person to us in the person of others, especially the poor.

Locally, who are these least of our brothers and sisters who we can serve?

- Some are the homebound who need us to bring them weekly Eucharist and/or a daily meal from Mobile Meals.

- Others are the financially poor whom volunteers serve through the St. Vincent de Paul Society.

- The hungry are served a free meal at Breakfast on Boulevard.

- Pregnant women in crisis are provided for by Birth Choice of Oklahoma and Project Gabriel.

- Our jails and prisons have people who need to hear about the love of God, a love some have never experienced from anyone.

- And the list goes on.

We are also called to serve the least of our sisters and brothers outside of our local area. Today, Jesus might also add, "Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of the least nations, you did or did not do it for me."

- I was hungry and you did not give me seeds to plant crops.

- Thirsty and your industries fouled my streams and rivers.

- A stranger and you sent me back to persecution in my native land.

- Naked and you had me work in sweatshops to produce your designer jeans.

- Ill and you refused to lower the price of your nation's drugs.

- In prison and you did not challenge my government's human rights abuses.

There are many opportunities waiting for each of us to serve the least of our brothers and sisters.

To be prepared to meet our maker, we must love our neighbors, especially the poorest of them. Sometimes we have neighbors, even family, that we don't like very much. However, being prepared to meet Christ our King requires that we love them by helping them in their need, for whatever we do for them, we do for our King.

Let us pray for grace to better love our neighbors so that Christ our King will send us off on judgment day to eternal life.