Christ the King (A-2005): Charity is Eternal

Mt. 25:31-46

These past two Sundays, Jesus has told us in parables about the Last Judgment. This Sunday, the last Sunday of the Church’s year, he does not use metaphors but speaks of it in plain language.

In doing so, he actually explains the meaning of those parables. The “oil” of the wise virgins and the “talents” of the faithful servants are explained as being the God-given grace of charity which we must then put into action by our free will.

That charity is first of all practiced freely by Jesus Himself in dying for us, and he gives it to us by the outpouring into our hearts of his Holy Spirit.

Indeed, in St. Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus speaks of the Last Judgment just before his passion. In other words, in his passion, death and resurrection, Jesus himself practices what he preaches: practical charity for the least and last of his brethren.

Of all the needs he mentions in the Gospel our greatest need is not hunger or thirst, but freedom from sin and from its consequence, eternal death or damnation.

In charity he dies that by charity we might live forever.

What Jesus does for each of us in this way is precisely what he expects us to do for one another, indeed for him.

Notice that Jesus does not say, “whatever you did to the least of my brethren it is as if you did it to me.” There is no “as if.” He says, “you did it, or did not do it, to me.”

Jesus does not stand afar off and above us watching what we do. He stands in us. When I fail to love, I fail him present in myself and in my neighbor.

Jesus has been taken from our sight in the Ascension, not to some domain beyond the stars, but into the interior domain of every human heart. God’s dwelling place is with men.

No matter how hardened the sinner, no matter how faithless the soul, Jesus, by his own divine charity, has united himself with every person. Therefore, how we treat every human being, including ourselves, is how we treat Christ.

Christ has loved and become one with each of us so that we may not be deceived by physical appearances but may understand that he loves and is one with every human being.

If I am not mistaken, Jesus uses the word “I” some 14 times in today’s Gospel, and the word “you”, both singular and plural, a few times more.

The Last Judgment, in other words, is about “I-thou” relationships between people, concrete, individual people, because that is what life itself is about. At the heart of our inter-personal relationships can lie either the love known as charity or neglect, indifference and plain old selfishness.

As St. John of the Cross put it, “in the evening of life we will be judged on love.” The judgment of Jesus will not bring about anything new in our relationships: it will simply declare what is already there.

At the Last Judgment we will not be able to plead the Fifth Amendment –or the First- or make excuses or negotiate deals. The judgment of Jesus will be clearer than the day itself because it will reveal in total transparency the true content of every heart.

The time to come to terms with Jesus is now, not then. But those terms can only ever be his terms, the terms he set when he was raised up on the Cross and revealed the naked truth of God’s love for every human person.

Jesus’ throne of judgment is the Cross, a throne which accompanies us from the cradle to the grave.

There will be no surprises on judgment day. When we love as he has loved us, the Cross shines gloriously on our faces. When we hide in selfishness, it looms over us like a dark shadow and our countenance itself grows dim.

If the way we live cannot stand the gaze of the Crucified One, then we place ourselves with those who must depart eternally from that gaze into the darkness. If, on the other hand, our lives can abide the scrutiny of his Sacred Heart, then blessed and luminous indeed will we be.

Only our works of love will survive into eternity. But the love I mean is Christ’s love: divine charity, sincere self-giving, selfless desire and action to honor, revere and respect every “thou” as ensconced in the embrace of God.

Anything and everything done in such love will survive the end of the world and the coming of the new heavens and the new earth. Mere ambition, prestige and power, and the great accomplishments of men and civilizations, if not motivated by love and exercised in love, will come to nothing.

All so-called love that is nothing more than veiled selfishness or superficial affection and feelings, will not be able to withstand the pure gaze of the divine fire.

Concrete charity towards concrete people: there is the stuff of eternity. Our commitment to Christ, therefore, will come to nothing if we consider it merely in terms of knowledge.

Christianity is not an ideology, nor a convenient source of ideas for ideological movements of whatever kind. Christianity is not properly understood if it is seen as a thought system or a vision of the world.

In the end, Christianity is not even a message. Christianity is a Person and that Person’s love and life.

Of course people become Christians because they are attracted by the catechism. But how poor their Christianity will be unless they meet Christ himself and are, like the prophet Jeremiah, seduced and overwhelmed by his love!

The Last Judgment will not be a catechism exam; it will be, and it will only be, about how we have loved.

We Catholics, above all, must be men and women of such love. The sacraments and our membership of the visible Church are not our ticket into heaven. They are rather gifts of grace that give us the responsibility to love even more fully than others.

We have received these gifts, not for ourselves, but so that we can make the light of the love and life of Jesus shine forth ever more brilliantly in the world. Our light ought to be the source of light and inspiration to others.

Yet Jesus makes it clear that it will very often be those who did not know or recognize him who would in fact love him in the least of his brethren.

More worryingly, he suggests that the very ones who ought to have recognized him did not do so....

On that day, Christ the King will put an end to all the injustices and uncertainties of human history.

We will each receive a particular judgment after dying; and there will be a general judgment on human history at the end of time.

To love now is the only way to guarantee that we will then stand on his right. Jesus died that no-one might stand on his left, but the human being must accept responsibility if he refuses to love.

Jesus wants no hell for anyone, but his teaching makes it clear that this possibility exists. It is our task to make it an impossibility.

That we can only do by loving now, every now, until the hour of our death. Amen.

Msgr. Peter Magee

Sunday, November 20^th, 2005

Annunciation DC: 10.00 am