Christ the King

 

"Come, you whom My Father has blessed"

Matthew 25:35

 

There was a long line of travelers waiting for immigration clearance at a Florida airport.  The immigration officers seemed to be exercising unusual care in inspecting baggage and credentials.  After waiting in line for almost two hours, one man finally said in a loud voice, "Entering the United States is harder than entering the Kingdom of Heaven."  Whereupon, one of the immigration officers shot back, "My friend, there's a lot more folks tryin'!"

 

Not so in today's Gospel Lesson in which everyone is trying to get into the Kingdom of Heaven!  All are lined up awaiting the King's final judgment.  It comes down to this, Jesus says:

 

Did you see your neighbor through God's eyes, and act accordingly.  If you did, you have God's blessing; you have inherited the Kingdom "prepared for you from the foundation of the world" (Mt. 25:34).

 

But if the judgment is that you did not live in this manner, then, in the language of the parable, you will inherit that which was "prepared for the devil and his angels" (Mt. 25:41).

 

Students applying for admission to a college psychology course were asked to fill out a questionnaire.  Among the questions asked were, "What is your hobby?"  and "What is your ambition?"  One student answered, "My hobby is taking apart my Jeep.  My ambition is to be able to put it back together."

 

Ambition!   Getting our lives together in order to achieve self-esteem and self-respect and peace of mind; in order to experience a sense of worthiness

and purpose; in order to experience an "I'm O.K." feeling. These are the ambitions of us all.  Sure, we want to get it all together, but oh how complicated the process seems to have become in our time.  In recent years there has been an explosion of popular books on how to take ourselves apart and put ourselves back together.  The "pop psychology" shelves are loaded with how-to-do-it books on "getting it all together."  

 

I am not making a blanket condemnation of such books.  Clearly, some of them have been very helpful to some people.  But so many books of this kind are being published, each with its own so-called "fresh" approach to the subject of who-we-are-and-what-we-ought-to-do, that they tend to be sources of confusion rather than clarification.  Ironically, when you sort out all this material and sift it all down, most of it seems to end up emphasizing that in order to achieve wholeness of life, we need to care for one another; we need to understand that one cannot "get it all together" in isolation.  In today's Gospel, Jesus is saying exactly that!

 

"Come," Jesus says.  "You whom My Father has blessed, take for your heritage the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."  Jesus is saying, in effect, "You have achieved 

wholeness of life; you have become the kind of unique, beautiful person the Father will receive in His Kingdom; you have discovered the simple secret of how to 'get it all together'."  Why?   Because, says Jesus,  "You are a caring person, sensitive to the needs of others -- where you see hunger, you give food ... thirst, you give drink ... nakedness, you give clothing ... illness, you give comfort ... loneliness, you give friendship."

 

Do you really believe that?  Do you really accept Jesus' vision of the coming Kingdom of God?  Are you a Christian visionary?  Do you accept Jesus' criteria for judging whether or not you are a whole, "together" person and, therefore, an authentic citizen of the Kingdom?  Jesus says that it is the kind deed, the act born of loving concern for another's need, on which the Father pronounces His blessing and for which the Father welcomes us into His Kingdom.

 

A middle-aged man decided to visit a clinic and undergo a complete health checkup.  He told the interviewing doctor that he had always taken good care of himself.  He said, "I always see to it that I have adequate rest.  I exercise regularly.  I don't smoke.  I don't drink.  I believe in good nutrition.  And I take vitamins C, E and B6 every day."  Later, after he had been looked over from head-to-toe by a team of specialists and was waiting for his post-examination interview, he accidentally saw the medical history which had been set down in the first interview.  In the column labeled, "Abnormalities," the doctor had written, "Health Nut!"

 

That is the sort of label Society usually pins on persons who accept, at the deepest level of their beings, Jesus' criteria for the really "together" person.  Full-fledged "fools for Christ" (as the Apostle Paul called them) are regarded in their own time as nuts; fanatics; social freaks; crazy visionaries.  It is not until later, after they are gone from this earth, that the label "Nut!" is removed and the label "Saint" is applied.  Yet, in today's Gospel Lesson, Jesus tells us in simple, direct, uncompromising terms that our life's fulfillment depends absolutely on our acceptance of the standards He has set for us: feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, visit the prisoners, clothe the naked, etc.  IT'S AS SIMPLE AS THAT!

 

No stranger King than our King of Kings has ever ruled.  In fact, He is so strange that most people do not really believe He does rule.  Whoever heard of a King who erased the distance between Himself and the beggar?  Who ever heard of a Ruler whose commitment was to serve, and to die, in obedience to the need of the least of His subjects?  Christ the King, the King who rules not from a throne but from a Cross.  Christ the King, who told His friend Peter to put away his one pitiful little sword, for He would rule by the power of love alone.

 

There are many who admire Him.  What a refreshing change from the brutal realities of everyday life!  What a marvelous integrity He shows, what magnificent idealism!  But this King is not interested in such praise.  He does not call us to admire Him in this way.  Such admiration only elevates Him to a level safely above our everyday world, so that we can then go on with business as usual, pausing only now and then to acknowledge His beautiful but hopelessly unrealistic example.  The only admiration He calls for is the admiration of imitation.  To worship Him is to serve Him.  All other worship is false.  To serve Him is to serve the needs of our human brothers and sisters.  All other service is a delusion.

 

Fr. Nony

27th Sunday yearA

27^th Sunday Year A

 

"The stone which the builders rejected has become the keystone of the structure"

Matthew 21:42

 

A small boy was visiting his grandmother for the first time. She lived in a small Wyoming town--cowboy country. On arrival, the boy's initial reaction was to cry out, "Grandma, look at those bowlegged cowboys." The grandmother was shocked and embarrassed, fearful that someone might have heard the outburst. Consequently, she immediately took her grandson to her home and there devoted much of the day trying to refine his vocabulary. The next morning, as they were walking through town, the lad again commented on the local gentry, this time trying his best not to embarrass his grandmother. He said, "Grandma,

 

Hark! What manner of men are these?

Who wear their legs in parentheses!"

 

The story illustrates, among other things, that there can be many different ways of saying the same thing, making the same point. Jesus employed many different ways of communicating the Good News of God's love to his disciples. He instructed them through prayer. He instructed them through miracles. He instructed them through the Scriptures. He instructed them through ordinary conversation. And, He instructed them through parables, as in today's Gospel. The "Parable of the Tenants." 

 

Jesus' reason for speaking this parable in the final weeks of His ministry is clear. Throughout His public life, Jesus, Son of God, had claimed the right to exercise His Father's authority over His people. Instead of respecting this claim the Scribes and Pharisees saw it as a threat to their own dominion over God's people. They adopted a "He's got to go!" attitude and Jesus knew they would soon make their move to dispose of Him. It was in this context then, that Jesus spoke the Parable of the Tenants. Through it, He is saying to the Scribes and the Pharisees, "You may think that getting rid of Me will resolve the matter in your favor. But remember, that is precisely what those wicked tenants imagined. Killing Me will not result in My defeat but in your own ruin. You will never be able to successfully resist My Father's claim to absolute dominion over His people--even if you should kill His Son! Even death has no dominion over God's people. He will never abandon them."

 

 

There was a woman of advanced age began to have hearing problems. Reluctantly she gave in to suggestions from family members that she consult an ear specialist. After the doctor had made a thorough examination of the woman's ears, he said to her, "You have a condition which can be corrected by minor surgery. I suggest we do it as soon as possible." To which she replied, "There will be no operation, thank you. I'm eighty-nine years old and I've heard enough!"

 

That "I've heard enough" feeling is no stranger to many of us. Many of us endure it daily at Six O'clock or Eleven O'clock News Time: reports of murder and other violent crimes--we've heard enough; reports of political corruption in high places--we've heard enough; reports of armed conflict between nations and peoples--we've heard enough; reports of unfair and dishonest business practices--we've heard enough!

 

It is precisely when the bad news of the wicked tenants in our midst seems dominant that we desperately need to let the Good News break through: God is with us and will never abandon us. Hear His voice:

 

Do not limit your search for Me to the sanctuaries, or to the precise words of theologians, or to the calm of the countryside. Look for Me in the places where men are struggling to become more fully human. See Me in this house of worship, but see Me as well in the many faces of mankind. The presence of the wicked tenants to the contrary notwithstanding, I will never abandon you.

 

We need to have that assurance from God. We need to hear this Good News report unceasingly. It is the one news report concerning which we may never say, "We've heard enough!"

FR. Nony.crm