Christ the King (A) Cathedral, Portland Communion Breakfast Ez 34:11-12,15-17; 1Cor 15:20-26,28; Mt 25:31-46 Good morning. It is a pleasure to be with you this morning for this wonderful event. I understand that this gathering for Mass and breakfast with fathers, grandfathers, great-grandfathers and sons, grandsons and great-grandsons has been occurring on this Feast of Christ the King since 1948, some 66 years. It gives a singular opportunity for a celebration of faith and family on the occasion of a beautiful feast in which we remind ourselves that Jesus, Shepherd and King, Judge and Redeemer, is the center of our lives. The relationships we celebrate today in this gathering are really among the primary ones of our society. They are family relationships, and they remind us of our human dependency. As children we need parents to care for us, to form and guide us in life, to provide for us. Parents teach us love. But such dependence goes the other way as we mature. We trust that, as the need arises, those who have been formed in love, and in its duties, will themselves reach out and care for those who have taught them such love when the help of children is needed to care for parents and grandparents. We live, therefore, in a continuum of love and care. And, at the heart of it strengthening us and helping us at each stage of life is the One who is our Shepherd and King, Jesus Christ. Our feast today, and our Scriptures give us a chance to think about our lives in these terms, and help us to know what Jesus is calling us to be and to do. You will recall that way back in January we began the year by celebrating the Baptism of Jesus. We read from Matthew s Gospel just as we did today. All through the year we have been following that Gospel. In January, on that feast of the Baptism of Jesus, we heard in the reading of the Gospel that a voice was heard from heaven as Jesus came out of the water of the River Jordan after his baptism. The voice called him the beloved 1
Son. That is God s voice, telling us that this baptism is no ordinary event. God s voice reminds us that Jesus has a message for us, and, of course, we should listen. At that point in the Gospel Jesus was just about to begin his ministry. As the year went along we have listened to Jesus and observed him in all the different stories and events, parables and miracles of the Gospel. And we certainly observed his dealings with the people he encountered along his way. In all of those interactions we find him seeking to help, to strengthen, to forgive, to show mercy. Now today, at the end of the year, we encounter Jesus under the title of King. Whoa. We just went through an election cycle. We all survived, I hope. But, as far as I know, the position of king was not on the ballot. In fact, kings, and queens, are not really part of our political culture. Where they are present today they mostly play a ceremonial role. In the time of the Scripture, including the Gospel, kings were, however, leaders of their communities. They also set moral standards for their communities, and they acted as judges to determine how the community would live those moral standards. In today s Gospel account Jesus as King is acting in the capacity of Judge. It is the final passage in the Gospel and Jesus is summarizing the teaching he has spent some three years imparting to the disciples. If we count ourselves among his disciples, and our presence here today for this celebration is an indication that we do, we find the meaning of our lives in Jesus. His message to the disciples is a message for us as well. It summarizes for us the way we will be judged. Jesus way of judgment is found in his way of life. He asks nothing that he himself did not show to us throughout his life. Jesus is a different king. That is why the first reading and the Psalm speak of the Shepherd, the one caring for his sheep. Jesus cares for us. My friends, if we are going to understand the Gospel, we first have to know Jesus. We have to see the way in which he has entered into our lives, and is 2
present to us, and helps us. We like to think of ourselves as individuals, as capable, as independent. We do have to act and be decisive in the world in which we live. But we also have to recognize that we are not as independent as we might think. We need one another, and we need the Lord Jesus who gives us to each other. Our celebration today is one of family. We recognize that we need one another. There is no place like the family to learn about life, and to learn that life means more than taking care of myself. Early on we should learn that we share the world with others. That is what we learn in family. The Gospel today, however, takes that a step further. It asks us to see all the children of God as related to us. It asks us to see ourselves as part of the human family. Jesus speaks of us as brothers and sisters. And, in this powerful Gospel story he tells us that we will be judged according to the way we treat each other and care for the people in our world. Jesus speaks of the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the sick, the prisoner, the poor person without clothing. All of these are, like us, created with the dignity of the human person, and all are worthy of our care, love and attention. Pope Francis in a speech this very week: Attention to human life, especially that in greatest difficulty, that is, to the sick, the elderly, children, deeply involves the mission of the Church. In fact, in the light of faith and right reason, human life is always sacred and always "of quality". There is no human life that is more sacred than another - every human life is sacred. It is clear why this passage from the Gospel serves as the foundation of the efforts of our diocesan Catholic Charities office and organization. It gives a direction as it calls us as Catholics and Christians to see what God has done for us, and to live in the way that Jesus himself lived. We in the Catholic Church have a long history of welcoming 3
and aiding the poor, the outcast, the immigrant, and the disadvantaged. Each day, Catholic Charities here in Maine, along with the Catholic Church in the United States, in her social service agencies, hospitals, schools, and parishes, witnesses to what Jesus calls us to in this Gospel. We have to remember that the first people that Jesus was teaching were his disciples. They had the privilege of observing Jesus while he went about showing them how he wanted them to minister in his name, and how he wanted them to live. They passed this story on to us so that we, too, might hear its call to be attentive to the needs of those around us, including the stranger. This week we have been involved in a major discussion regarding the stranger in our midst but the fact is that many of the people involved have been in this country for years. I speak, of course, of the questions regarding immigration. This is a difficult reality but one we as a nation have been unwilling to face for years. At this point President Obama has taken an executive action regarding some of those who are here without documentation. He has tried to give them a sense of security. It is controversial. That is easily apparent from the discussion in the media. The legal ability to take the action taken by the President may be questionable, I do not offer an opinion on it. The question, however, needs to be joined. It should encourage us, in accord with what we hear in the Gospel today, to find a solution that is fair and equitable to people who have been told for years that we will resolve this situation. I make my own today the statement of the President of the USCCB, Archbishop Kurtz: There is an urgent pastoral need for a more humane view of immigrants and a legal process that respects each person s dignity, protects human rights, and upholds the rule of law. As our Holy Father, Pope Francis, said so eloquently: Every human being is a child of God! He or she bears the image of Christ! We ourselves need to see, and then to enable others to see, that migrants and refugees do not only represent a 4
problem to be solved, but are brothers and sisters to be welcomed, respected, and loved. Congress and the President should work together to enact permanent reforms to the nation s immigration system for the best interests of the nation and the migrants who seek refuge here. The passage from the Gospel of Matthew we heard today, my friends, is a concrete call to live out what Jesus taught as the Second Commandment. Love your neighbor as yourself. When we do, we renew our world, and help it to reflect better the love of God found in the way we extend ourselves for each other. In doing that, however, we cannot forget that there is also a First Commandment which calls us to love God. To do what we do today as we come together for this celebration of the Eucharist is an important part of living out that first commandment. We come together to praise and worship God. As is ever the case, however, when we do we find that God is helping us in and through Jesus to be able to live as he calls us to live. We find the strength and grace to love our neighbor in the many ways in which Jesus asks that of us when we know the love of God as we experience it here in the presence of Jesus, bearer and messenger of God s love, and our Good Shepherd. May God bless you all. 5