History is really Christ's story. Everything preceding him was leading up to him, and everything after him flows from him, unfolding before us, and you and I are beneficiaries his story, we become actors in his story in a real and tangible way. Every civilization sought its own king, or deity, but earthly kings come and go, yet Jesus Christ the king is God, and so has a kingship that will not pass away and endures for eternity. If we look at the entire year as a liturgical procession starting with Advent, it would make sense that Christ would be celebrated last. It highlights something important about the christian faith, that Jesus is really the lord of our lives, of creation and the universe. He is the king and the totality, of your life and my life. Every christian is baptized, priest prophet and king, priest meaning every christian that shares in the baptismal priesthood just as Jesus was, and we are called to live our lives as an appeasing aroma, which ascends to God, pleasing his nostrils and in hi sight. And as prophets, we are all called to teach and spread the gospel of Christ, teaching the difference between good and evil, practicing faith, hope, and charity, studying and following the commandments lastly, loving others as Christ did. Imagine civilizations over the millennia and their monarchies as you learned in school, possibly from your studies in high school or college, a kingship might be a strange way of looking at Christ, but we seek to bring the whole world under Christ rule so that we all may share something and bring something unique. The gospel of Matthew in chapter 25 presents us with the last judgement, where we will meet Christ face to face. So we all ask ourselves, what will I be judged on? The last teaching of our lord here in chapter 25 is the most important. Its equivalent to what someone says days before they die or on there deathbed as a “last will and testament,” or something a person thinks is very important and needs to tell before they pass on. This is our lords last will and testament, chapter 25 is a message we all need to hear, in the context of God’s love and mercy.
In Ezekiel chapter 34, the Lord comes to him and tells him to prophesy unto the shepherds of Israel. This entire chapter is important to our "achieving salvation", but I want to emphasize verses 11-12 as they are the most important for us to always remember. “For thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. As a shepherd skeet out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will deliver them out of all the places they have been in the cloudy and dark day."
These above many passages may scare us, especially when we hear of the king coming, separating the sheep on his right and the goats to his left, meaning those who will inherit eternal life (sheep) and those who receive eternal destruction and damnation (goats). It should scare us, to be honest. BUT, again, it should be read in the context of God's love and mercy. It is Jesus reaching out to us as the good shepherd that he is, telling us what is expected so we may know in order to get closer to him. Today, the whole world has been affected by a microscopic virus, one that we cannot see but continues to affect everyone on the face of the earth. Think about how many times you have heard the acronym COVID-19 uttered or written, that's a lot of breath, a lot of ink. I am not to denigrating the reality of the virus or its seriousness, but it has began to consume and govern our lives, and that's a serious problem. Imagine that if we said the holy name of Jesus besides the acronym COVID-19. Jesus' name brings with it salvation. I challenge to you to “sandwich” or incorporate/include, whenever you hear that acronym, the holy and glorious name of Jesus Christ, king of the universe. He is the ruler of all, he governs all,and he has authority and kingship over all, not a microscopic virus, again, I am not making light of a global pandemic that has killed over 1 million people worldwide and even if we have not had the virus, we all have experienced the affects of the virus, seen on our faces. The affects of this unseen virus have left their mark, faith is now even more unseen because of the virus, however faith can be seen only by the eyes of those who believe, not by the lens of a microscope. Yet, faith is greater and more powerful than any virus, and its effects greater. Faith animated by charity have affects which are far greater and outstanding than this virus, they are like a tidal wave in this world, that’s what the gospel of Matthew teaches us in chapter 25. He gives us an outline of faith animated by charity. You were a stranger and you welcomed me, in prison and you visited me. In the times we are living in, don’t you think we need the words of Jesus, now more than ever? If you reading this I’m sure you think so, and the words of this gospel continue to have more and more relevance as times goes on.
We also may feel like we are imprisoned in our homes. By now, we were all hoping that COVID-19 would have become a footnote in history, alas it is still with us. As Christians and Catholics, let us find the way forward with, and through COVID rather than live in fear of, and putting life on hold for it. Amidst the distress and uncertainty, we need to rediscover the value of being together with the Lord or the sure hope, and like the early Christians we say, "we cannot live without the Lords day.” When so many Catholics no longer appreciate the real presence of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist, it is not good for man to be alone, we are made for community, we are made to be together in communion with one another. Our communities should be united in worship of God. Those who are forgotten, the isolated, the sick, how can we help our parish during these times and not simply show our shadow when we receive confession or on Sunday just for communion. This doesn’t mean separating ourselves from one another, we are all the living body of Christ and he needs to become the center of our lives which we flow and live from. Just as we get closer to Christ, as spokes gradually get closer to each other in the center of a wheel, and the further away we get from Christ, the further outward the spokes on the wheel go, the later is where we are heading and we need to re-dedicate ourselves to Christ's kingship. Lets all remember St. Teresea’s 5 finger gospel, YOU-DID-IT-FOR-ME. Let your eyes become becomes like Christ's eyes, your heart like his heart, your feet like his feet and your shoulders like his to bear the sufferings. He identifies the mystical body of the church with himself, and said unto us that whatever we do to the least, you do to me, and whatever you do not do unto them you haven’t done to me. Christ is very present in this world, in sacrament, in heard when he is proclaimed , in grace, in his people and the church. This is the throne which he desires to reign from, he is the innocent and immaculate lamb offered on the cross, the perfect sacrifice, Christ desires to reign in us, that's where he wants to be, for he was once human just like us. We always have the choice to be for, or against god. He gives us the choice and he wants us to choose, him.