The usual path for the intrepid preacher for today is to encourage the patient listener to reach out and care for those who are less fortunate and at this point in history there are plenty of them.
In the gospel reading these are the stranger, those in prison, the hungry and the thirsty. And the punch line for this very fine homily is when The Master points to that reality which we lose sight of so very easily.
Whatever you do for the least of these you do it for me. So the challenge is to see Our Lord in the down and out, the rough and tumble, the squashed and the bruised, the angry and the sullen, the hardened criminal in prison and the beggar on the streets. These are in fact Our Lord, thinly disguised.
The other half of this homily is a solemn warning that when we fail to care for the destitute we fail Him. Nothing more nothing less. So to neglect the less fortunate through sloth or indifference or condescending attitude is sin. It is to miss an opportunity to minister to the Masters wounds. With so many that are needy it’s a gargantuan gig.
However, Mother Theresa of Calcutta who spent a lifetime caring for the most vulnerable and neediest of the world would remind us that
“If you can’t feed a hundred people, then feed just one”.
This is a really good track for the preacher to walk down and to offer to those who would listen, so I’ll save it for another day.
When you scratch the surface of this gospel reading you can’t help but see that everyone is surprised. Those who have ministered to the underlings of society have no idea that they are in for a gold star and elephant stamp.
“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? 38 And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, or naked and gave you clothing? 39 And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” You see… not a clue. Fr. David at his shiny naive best.
Similarly, those who have been neglectful had no idea that they were shirking their responsibilities.
“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?”
So what are we to make of this. How can we be expected to do the right thing and see with the clarity that is required of us? How can we glimpse who it is that is really before us, especially at this time when we only see the screen or at best a mask?
Perhaps the answer is that every encounter is an opportunity to minister to the divine.
The other dimension of this, is that we have no idea of how potent or lovely someone else's ministry is. And the more hidden it seems, the more powerful and splendid is that ministry.
Scratch around a little deeper. Just as we don’t often realise our hidden sins and our missed opportunities, so too, and I actually think this is more the case, we often do not realise the good that we do. We have no idea just how powerful our ministry is and what effect we have on people. Often I think that if one person, just one soul is nudged just one millimetre closer towards heaven then it will all have been worthwhile and there is no copyright on that if you find it helpful.
Something to reflect on. Usually when we read this gospel we think of everyone else as those who need ministry. It’s everyone else that we should be reaching out to. But I put it to you friends that there is a flip side to this.
What if we had the humility and the integrity to fess up, raise our hand and say ‘Yes please I too need pastoral care. I am hungry for nurture and companionship and someone to just to sit quietly and listen. I am thirsty for love of the gospel. I too am in-prisoned by my sins and especially the ones that I see only from time to time out the corner of my eye’.
We need ministry from others And We need HIM.
Today is the feast of Christ the King and we come to realise again, that our King, like us, is the one who is also bruised and broken, vulnerable and little, pierced and yet princely because He is lovely in his lowliness. And here with the sacrament of the broken bread, all we can do is make a throne for him with the palm of our hand and take Him deep into ourselves. Our King really is all powerful for His vulnerability, His brokenness and most of all His love.