SURPRISES

Solemnity of Christ the King

Mt 25:31-46

Jesus is fond of surprises. The circumstances of His personal life were full of surprises. He was conceived and delivered into the world by a virgin. A star in the east and a host of angels announced His birth, bringing to His otherwise infantile presence both shepherds and wise men. His parents lost Him for three days when He was twelve years old; to be found later discussing with the scholars of the law and answering their questions. He mingled with public sinners and gathered a band of twelve men who were mostly illiterate. He claimed divine mandate to redeem the world yet He waited until He was thirty before He began His public ministry that was to last for only three years as it ended with His horrifying death on the cross. Three days after His death, the news of resurrection spread like wild fire.

Not only were the circumstances of Jesus’ life surprising, His teachings, too, were full of surprises. He preached a kingdom where the first will be last and the last will be first. He used parables that often shook or shock His listeners, like the Parable of the Good Samaritan, the Parable of the Prodigal Son, and many others. He taught that the person who has more will be given more while the person who has none even the little he has will be taken away from him. He considered the least to be the greatest in the eyes of God and took aside a child to illustrate His point. He said that the secret of gaining life is losing it. Surprises…surprises…surprises.

Today, as we end another liturgical year, Jesus springs His last and probably greatest surprise. The scene is Judgment Day, when all peoples – both living and dead – will be gathered and separated between the blessed and the condemned. When Jesus comes again at the end of time, clothed in His glory as King of the universe and Judge of all humankind, there will be three more surprises.

The first surprise will be that Jesus will not give particular attention to what we consider to be shining moments in human history. There will be no special mentioning of the grand achievements of humankind that are normally found in the annals of world history. No extraordinary interest on His part in man’s conquering the outer space, developing medical science and information technology, toppling dictators and political regimes, coming together for war against terrorism, and alike. There will be no special mention of the genius of Galileo Galilei, Copernicus, Albert Eistein, Isaac Newton, and alike. Rather, the focus will be on what seems to be ordinary deeds for most of us: feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, attending to the sick, visiting the inmate, welcoming strangers.

The second surprise will be that in the end, both the blessed and the accursed will grapple with the same problem: “Lord, when did we see You?” He will have only one answer as well: “Whatever you did to the least of my brethren, you did it for Me. Whatever you did not do to the least of my brethren , you did not do for Me.” The surprise is a matter of Jesus revealing Himself in the distressing disguise of the poor. This means that if an alien from outer space were to come to earth and inquire from us where Jesus lives, we would have to take it to some strange sanctuaries and not to basilicas, shrines, cathedrals, and churches only. We would have to take that alien to the slums, to refugee camps, to hospitals, to orphanages, to homes for the aged, to prisons, to back alleys and tell it that Jesus is to be found somewhere in these places. Then we might as well inform that alien, too, that the blessed of God are likewise to be found there, feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, nursing the sick, visiting the inmate, welcoming the stranger, and attending to those who are in anyway in need. While in many of our churches we see engraved in stone the words, Domus Dei et Porta Caeli (“House of God and Gate of Heaven”), we meet Jesus everyday, every moment, and everywhere, in people, most especially the least, the last, and the lost. Jesus’ favorite dwelling places are not the churches we build, no matter how beautiful they are. His address is the human person; and “To love another person,” as the song says, “is to see the face of God.”

The third surprise will come as something rather disturbing for many of us. The weight of guilt that will make the accursed deserving of eternal punishment will not be measured by the evil they have done but by the good they have failed to do. Those who were condemned in the Parable of the Last Judgment must have done something evil for them to be thrown into the everlasting flames, but notice that the Lord did not mention the evil they did but the good they failed to do: “When I was hungry, you did not feed me; when I was thirsty, you did not give me drink; when I was naked, you did not clothe me; when I was sick and imprison, you did not visit me; when I was a stranger, you did not welcome me.” It was on the basis of the good they failed to do that the accursed were condemned to hell. Surely, both the blessed and the accursed were guilty of doing something bad, but it was those who did not do the good they were supposed to do in the face of any human need who were punished in hell.

Now that these three surprises are out in the open, they should not surprise us anymore. We must be ready, as we have been warned about the things that really matter in the end. When Jesus, whom we acclaim today as King, comes as Judge on the Last Day, may the only surprise to catch us be said in these words, “Come, blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you even before the foundation of the world.”