For Sunday, November 23, 2014 – Matthew 25:31-46
We live many lives during this one life. Some of my “lives” are remarkably open and generous; other “lives” anxiously urge me not to trust God’s providence but to store up against the threat of want and refuse to share, even with people whose needs are more immediate. Some of my lives, because they are firmly rooted in the soil of love, bear easily the tasks of love. They dwell in peace and have a felt sense of living the life that is really life. Others of my lives, fearful of the unfamiliar, blind to any hungers beyond their own, dwell in agony and sorrow. Hoarding their gifts, they cast themselves behind the locked doors of tiny cluttered hearts. All of these lives are mine. They live in each of us.
In the fullness of time, “when the Son of Man comes in his glory,” all will be gathered, and those that have found the way of blessing will be identified, along with the lives we have lived that are bound, languishing and lost. None of our lives have conscious awareness of what we have done or failed to do. These lives are not blatantly “good” and “evil.” Some have been sleep walking; others have experienced the awakening of love, that’s all, and can do no less now than to live by the rule of love. Is it right to judge acts of love when they are simply the natural fruit of awakening?
The characters in the story wonder the same thing. Do you see how they stand up to authority? “When did we see you [or fail to see you] hungry, thirsty, unwelcomed, naked? When did we respond [or not respond] to your need?” Often we are so nervous about the threat of our own judgment that we don’t notice Jesus saying these ordinary people talked back! The listeners of that era certainly would have recognized the danger in such an act. The ‘blessed’ do not blindly accept their commendation; the ‘accursed’ do not quietly back away. All of them dare to question, revealing themselves to be more united than they knew. It is hard to imagine any now remaining quiet if the rest are cast away. Maybe we are being challenged to become more daring, too. Maybe we are being called to see ourselves, not as separate, but as one body, easily divided no more.
