‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left. Then the king will say to those at his right hand, “Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty and gave you something to drink? And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” And 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.” Then he will say to those at his left hand, “You that are accursed, depart from me into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.” Then they also will answer, “Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not take care of you?” Then he will answer them, “Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.” And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.’ The Word of the Lord.
We are starting our spiritual journey towards Easter Sunday. In the first day of the first week in Lent the first reading the Liturgy reminds us that God told Moses to tell his people: “Be holy, for I, the LORD, your God, am holy”. We might ask: “Why should we be holy? Only because God is holy?” No! There is something we frequently forget; that God created humans in his image and likeness (Gen 1, 26). I feel that the way Jesus answered Philip, when this apostle asked him: ‘Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied”, can be applied to us all. Jesus told Philip: “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father”. If we really believe that we are made in the image and likeness of God, then “He who sees us should be able to see the Father”. We can object that we are sinners and God is holy. That’s true, but it is Christ’s challenge for us to start or to continue our journey from sinfulness to holiness. Christ’s challenge is: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5, 48). Is this possible? No, it is not; not here on earth. However if we journey along Christ’s path to perfection, stumbling along the way, when we fall into God’s embrace on leaving this life on earth, He shall make us sharers of His perfection, as much as it is possible for humans to be, then we shall be totally holy, for He, our Father, is holy.
In the first reading from the Leviticus (Lv 19, 1-2.11-18) four times God tells Moses: “I am the Lord”. I don’t think that here God is bossing around, giving orders because he is almighty. I prefer to see him painting an image of his likeness, things that we can do to be, sort of, ‘like father, like son, like daughter’. He is encouraging us forward. He is telling us, His family: “Yes, you can do it; try it! You have my blood running in your veins! Do not be afraid!” How many times do we hear these words of encouragement in the Bible: “Do not be afraid!”?
This brings us to today’s Gospel
selection.
When we read about the Last
Judgement, we normally are afraid. We often may ask ourselves, on which side shall I be?
How shall I be judged? With love, surely! Perhaps we do not pay too much
attention to the first phrase in today’s gospel. Jesus says: “When the Son of
Man comes in his glory”. Christ’s glory is not his power, but His love and
humility. St. Paul tells us: “For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus
Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by
his poverty you might become rich” (2 Cor 8, 9). I feel I can repeat Christ’s
words, frequently repeated in the Bible: “Do not be afraid!”.
He tells us that it is the Son of
Man, [He himself] who will be pronouncing judgement, the One who freely
accepted to be crucified to pay for our ransom, and who rose from the dead in
order to make us sharers in His glory. “Come” he tells those on His right hand,
“you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from
the foundation of the world”. He does not only forgive our sins; He gave us a
sure hope of real Glory.
Immediately before the gospel, Jesus
tells two parables that show us what we should do, how to behave, if we want to
be on His right hand. The first parable is that of the ten virgins waiting for
the bridegroom. We know the story. “Five of them were foolish, and five were
wise. When the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them; but the
wise took flasks of oil with their lamps”. The bridegroom was late, and they
all became drowsy and slept. When the bridegroom arrived at midnight, the five
who “took their flasks of oil with them … were ready [and] went with him
into the wedding banquet”. The lesson is: “be prepared”, do not sleep during
the day. There are times when you can rest, take a nap, perhaps, but be
prepared with the good deeds that Jesus mentions in the gospel.
The second parable is that of the
talents. “For it is as if a man, going on a journey, summoned his slaves and
entrusted his property to them; to one he gave five talents, to another two, to
another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away”. We know the
story. The two slaves who used their ability, doubled the talents entrusted to
them and the Master told each of them: “Well done, good and trustworthy slave;
you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many
things; enter into the joy of your master.” The one who received one talent, [and
that’s a lot of money], told his Master: “I was afraid, and I went and hid your
talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours”. The Master answered him: “You
wicked and lazy slave! … you ought to have invested my money with the bankers,
and on my return I would have received what was my own with interest”. The
lesson is: “Do not be afraid”, do not hide your talent, even if it is ‘only one
talent’. When after the Transfiguration, the disciples asked Jesus: “Why could
we not cure the sick boy who suffered terribly”, He said to them: “Because of
your little faith. For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a
mustard seed, … nothing will be impossible for you”. It is not the size of our
faith that matters, but that we use it. So, do not hide your talent, big or
small. Use it! Join others. That is why Jesus wanted his disciples to be family,
a community that knows how to share, how to help one another, who knows what
solidarity is.
So, let us not be afraid. Let us sow
our seed, God will make it grow and produce fruit.
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