Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
Thirty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time / Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe
A few months ago a newspaper columnist mentioned an Instagram suggestion inviting women to ask their unsuspecting male partners how often they thought about the Roman Empire. Have you heard about this? A harmless exercise. The Instagram post speculated that a shocking number of men do this but never revealed that actual shocking number. Suddenly random men from all walks of life began sharing online their thoughts about aqueducts and the Concilium Plebis and gladiators and public executions in the coliseum. It wasn’t a scientific study, so we can’t tell whether this experiment favored a specific segment of men. The columnist who was a woman then asked a male friend what he thought might be a similar fixation among women, some topic women might ponder to a degree that would surprise their male partners perhaps. After thinking about it for a minute, he suggested the British royal family. So she goes on social media and throws out the question to several hundred women. Already the format is different since in the original exercise it was the women who asked the men. Here the women were responding directly. And many of them thought the idea was ridiculous. They said they spent more time thinking instead about other things, like Laura Ingalls Wilder, and serial killers, and the Roman Empire. Again, there was nothing scientific about this exercise, so we shouldn’t really speculate about definitive conclusions involving people and their random thoughts.
I admit I have had some interest in many of the above ideas through the years. And whether you think about the Roman Empire or the British royal family or some other thing entirely more than you think is normal, it’s no big surprise there would be wide interest in broad ideas and oversize personalities and deeply emotional human interest stories which can include among other things, the Roman Empire and the British royal family and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East and the never-ending presidential election cycle.
Suffice it to say, we probably think often and deeply about things that touch our lives at any one moment. And sacred scripture each Sunday will touch upon themes the church considers to be of universal interest and relevance. This holiday weekend we are left to ponder and embrace and immerse ourselves in the same epic forces that often leave us painfully or happily overwhelmed and exhausted most of our waking hours, namely our families, our struggles, our blessings, our dysfunctions, and the awesome and tragic weaving and unraveling that inevitably happens when people are involved. I have spent the last few days collecting information and cleaning up my family tree on Ancestry.com. And every now and then we have come upon interesting and shocking tidbits that have resulted in bouts of boisterous laughter or stunned silence. Somebody suggested we stop digging. But how bad can it get? Have you seen Jesus’ family tree?
The story of Israel is the baseline of our relationship with God. Our faith teaches us that the eternal, all-powerful, ever-loving God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is very much interested and invested in our personal lives and in all of human history. And although the direction of our lives and history in general can sometimes seem random and totally without rhyme or reason, we cannot deny that is primarily because human beings are involved. From the book of Genesis all the way to Revelation, it is God who brings order out of chaos. It is God who shines light in darkness. It is God who restores the broken to wholeness. And like an ever-patient parent, God is willing to let go so we learn to stand and walk and succeed on our own. Every now and then God feels the need to intervene. But God will never make our minds up for us. God loves us. Whether we love God back is entirely up to us.
On this feast of Christ the King, the prophet Ezekiel reminds us of God’s care for his people as a shepherd cares for his sheep. Now the image is less about the sheep and more about the shepherd. So we shouldn’t fixate on the sheep being cluelessly passive and generally aimless and uncomplaining. Instead, the shepherd is genuinely attentive and mindful of those in his care, comforting the fearful, seeking the stray, binding the injured, healing the sick, shepherding his flock rightly. And in his first letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul argues how through his own triumph over sin and darkness Christ will also bring about our triumph over death. Again the image is less about frail and fallen humanity and more about the Son who redeems the children of Adam, who brings to life those who have died, who vanquishes every sovereignty and authority and power and establishes God’s kingdom over all creation.
And the passage from Matthew presents an image of the rule of Christ our King. The setting is the final judgment at the end of time and Jesus Christ who is King and shepherd still has the best interest of his flock at heart. He maintains his preference for the weak and vulnerable, the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the ill, the imprisoned. But now Christ our King holds his people to account for their actions. In life we have had the opportunity to consider our various options, who and what we favor, who and what we might serve, who and what is of greatest value to us. We have proclaimed in word and action who we are and whose we claim to be. Now the King stands in judgment. And our punishment or reward is determined by how we treated the weak and vulnerable. He does not concern himself with the hours we spent on our knees in prayer, or that we carefully observed the rules of purification and fasting. But he is concerned whether we have cared for our neighbor, whether we have gone out of our way to attend to their needs. And he does not command us to serve the weak and vulnerable for their sake. “I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me … what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.”
The Kingdom of Jesus Christ is not to be confused with any worldly society, where important people are given popular acclaim, prestige, and material wealth, and where they focus primarily on their own success and prosperity. In his Kingdom, Jesus Christ gives his life for the sheep of his flock, and those who serve the king serve their neighbor in greatest need. It is tempting to spend time lazily and harmlessly pondering the lives and times of famous people, from ancient Roman emperors, senators, and gladiators to the glamorous royals who trace their lineage to kings and queens of old. In the end, it’s all about the least among us. Perhaps we should give that some thought.
Rolo B Castillo © 2023