CHRIST THE KING - Ezek 34:11-12, 15-17; 1 Cor 15:20-26, 28; Mt 25:31-46

Quas Primas - which is Latin for “In the first” and so called because these are the words that begin it - was an encyclical of Pope Pius XI. It was promulgated on December 11, 1925, and introduced the Feast of Christ the King. World War I (1914-1918) had ended, and had not brought real peace, but more hatred, anger and violence. Coming as it did after the end of the War, the encyclical sought to give the world as a whole a new idea of kingship by asking it to look at Christ the Universal King and how he lived out his kingship. Christ is a King who totally identifies with his subjects and of these, with the marginalized, the downtrodden, the scum of society, and the poorest of the poor.

This identification is made explicit not only in the Gospel text that is chosen for the feast but also in the first reading of today.

In it, Ezekiel talks about God as the shepherd of Israel. The kings of Israel were regarded as God's visible representatives and were given the divine title of shepherd. But many of them did not live up to this responsibility. Their leadership style differed from that of God's. God's style was that of giving priority of attention to the needs of the disadvantaged, especially their need for justice and empowerment. First God raised up prophets, like Ezekiel, to warn the kings. When they failed to listen, God decided to get rid of the ungodly kings and their beneficiaries, and promised that he would shepherd the flock himself. The defeat of Israel by her enemies, in which the big people, the royalty and the nobility, were banished into exile, was seen as God's way of getting rid of the bad leadership.

The Gospel text of today which continues the theme of the first reading is not so much about the kingship of Jesus. Rather, it is a passage, instead, about the "kingdom" of God, about all those who are kin to God, and, therefore, and therefore, who are kin to each other. We are each of us kin to one another. We are all indeed one. The deepest expression of this truth on this side of life is a spirituality in which there is no split as well between our devotion and our deed and no split between mystery and commandment and no split between piety and ethics and no split between being and doing. Like mystery and commandment, interwoven as they are, Jesus is one with the hungry and the thirsty, is one with the stranger and the prisoner, and is one with the naked and the sick. To care for these is to care for Jesus. To care for them is to reach back into the very essence of life and to touch the God who takes shape in the hungry, in the thirsty, in the naked, in the sick, in the stranger, in the prisoner. "And then the king will answer them, 'Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these, who are members of my family, you did it to me.'" The text thus is not so much about the condemnation of God as it really is about the universal vision of the love of God, about the very scope of God's love in Jesus for the whole world. Jesus remains the model of unconditional and eternal love. This was shown in the most powerful of ways by Jesus himself when in total obedience to the Father he dared to spread his arms on the Cross in total surrender of self. Therefore, God raised him.

This understanding is important to avoid any kind of misunderstanding that might arise due to a person thinking that it his/her deeds that earn merit and reward. The righteous who did what they did by reaching out to the least of their brothers and sisters, DID NOT KNOW. They simply did. They did what they did because of the necessity to help, love, serve, visit and feed. They dared to listen to the promptings of the spirit and responded to these promptings. They did not do what they did for reward. It was not the condition of their good deeds, but its consequence. They did not earn the kingdom but inherited it. Inheritance is determined by the giver not the receiver. The kingdom remains a free gift of God.

Though the unrighteousness also address Jesus as Lord – a title used in Matthew’s Gospel only by those who have at least some faith- it is not enough. Their address remains at the theoretical level and is not translated into action. They did not act because they did not believe that god could hide himself in the poorest of the poor. They did not believe that God could be present in the scum of society and in those who live on the margins. They believed that God could be present only in a beautiful sunset or in the stimulating fragrance of a rose or in the silence of one’s heart. They did not realize that our God had been made visible in Jesus who taught all who were willing to listen that God was primarily a God of the poor and that though he was king, he came only to serve.

The sufferings borne by the least of our brothers and sisters continue to summon and challenge us as Church today. They continue to ask us to dare to be credible and authentic witnesses of the Gospel. They invite us not merely to preach acts of loving kindness but to do them. However, what we need is not merely more action, more doing for the sake of doing. No! What we need is a universal unity of love and togetherness. It is a togetherness that transcends all of our frontiers, the frontiers of our mind and of our heart, the frontiers of our creeds and doctrines, the frontiers of our ideas and concepts. This is a radical call to transcend all of those externals that keep us apart, that keep us separated and split.

Thus the good news we celebrate today is that we have a King who, unlike the kings of this world, pays attention to us and helps us not only when we are needy and disadvantaged, but especially when we are needy and disadvantaged. The challenge for us today is to forget our own needs for love and happiness and to reach out in love to make someone happy who may be in greater need. For whatever we do to the least of these needy children of God, theses brothers and sisters of Jesus, we do to Jesus Himself.