Solemnity of Christ the King (Cycle A)

Ezek 34:11-12, 15-17                1Cor 15:20-26, 28                Mt 25:31-46

A woman who was working in a factory and whose job was to inspect the meat products stored in the factory’s industrial meat freezer, ended her work shift with a final visit to the sub-zero temperature room before calling it a night when catastrophe struck! As she entered the frigid zone, the door, which only opened from the outside, accidentally closed, leaving her locked inside with slabs of frozen meat products, and not a soul in sight to witness the incident. The woman screamed and pounded on the several inches thick metal door, but no sound was heard as all the other workers had gone home for the night, and the sound-proof room effectively muffled her calls for help. As time passed, the woman felt the cold starting to seep into her bones, and she began to experience the early symptoms of hypothermia. After five hours spent trapped in frigid temperatures, she finally resigned herself to the inevitability of death, as all of her extremities started going numb, and a deep cold sleep slowly invaded her consciousness. To her great surprise, the freezer’s vault door suddenly opened, revealing the night security guard’s image. The woman was saved! When she was back to normal, she asked the security guard why he had opened the meat freezer, something that wasn’t within the normal scope of his routine during his night rounds. His answer was totally unexpected and moved the lady to tears of gratitude. The guard said, “I have been working in this factory for 35 years, hundreds of workers come in and out everyday, but you are one of the few who greet me in the morning and say good bye to me every night when leaving after work. Many treat me as if I am invisible. Today, as you reported for work, like all other days, you greeted me in our simple manner ‘Hello’. But this evening after working hours, I curiously observed that I had not heard your ‘Bye, see you tomorrow’. Hence, I decided to check around the factory. I expect to your ‘hello’ and ‘bye’ everyday because they remind me that I am someone. By not hearing your farewell today, I knew something had happened. That’s why I was searching every where for you.”

How often does this happen in real life? Do we treat people we see everyday at home or at work like invisible entities, taking them for granted like pieces of furniture? In our foregone indifferent gesture of treating others as invisibles, we fail to see the visibility of Jesus Christ in them. In such a context, the following words of Jesus in today’s gospel become appropriate: Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me’ (Mt 25:45).

A simple question that emerge from this insight is –
- Whom do we favour much?
- What kind of people form our closer circle?
- About whom we say things that are positive?
- Whom do we consider as influential?
- What kind of personalities we feel proud about? 

Certainly, for majority of us, the least, the needy, the vulnerable, the marginalized, those on the periphery will not fit into the answer to the above questions.

What category of people are found in the close circles of those who rule and command the people. Not the simple and the least! Rather the powerful, the wealthy, the reputed, the strong, the influential are the kind of people who form the nearer circle of those who govern the people, for the simple reason, both the dominant class receive their mutual benefit at the cost of the dominated. But Christ, the king whose solemnity we celebrate today centralizes the least and the burdened as the primary citizens of His kingdom. And those who care of these primary citizens are in the advantageous position to receive God’s favour and inherit the kingdom that was prepared from the foundation of the world.

Our mother Church portrays our Lord Jesus Christ, as the king of a different kind and unique nature. He is a king who favours mostly the unnoticed. Today’s gospel presents the criteria of how a king should be. It presents,
- What should be the king’s primary concern?
- What should be his priorities to give a good governance?
- What should be the criterion of justice to assess his subjects and people?

The Old Testament portrays God as the king of justice all through. The same portrayal is seen in today’s gospel. However, the criterion of justice is based on the merciful acts expected of each one. We see the application of the Golden Rule: In everything do to others as you would have them do to you (Mt 7:12).

God is always wanting of radiating His mercifulness and so expects the same mercifulness returned to Him by we, being merciful towards His creatures. When that is done, he rewards us with the inheritance of the kingdom that was prepared from the foundation of the world. When He does not see the mercifulness returned, He punishes by departing us into the eternal fire. This is the criterion of justice that emerges in today’s gospel. Jesus Christ in all his teachings resemble this attitude of the heavenly Father through various parables like the Pharisee and the tax collector, the parable of the vineyard workers, the parable of the lost sheep, the parable of the lost coin, the parable of the prodigal son and others. In His approach with people, Jesus manifests the merciful face of God which surpasses justice.

It is surprising to note in today’s gospel that on the final judgement, the criterion of justice would be through the assessment of one’s merciful acts. Though God’s mercy surpasses His own justice, God would never spare anyone during the final judgement if merciful acts would be missing in a person’s life.

As we are the loving subjects of the kingship of our Lord Jesus Christ, we are called to radiate the same attitude of Jesus Christ with our fellow human beings. As subjects of His kingship, we enjoy a different kind of citizenship unlike the one we experience as a national citizen. Our Christian citizenship is not confined to any boundaries but it travels beyond borders. Our Christian citizenship is not a submissiveness to some authority but a surrender to the surpassing love of God. Our Christian citizenship is not targeted on seeking positions, but aims at human concerns.

A good king is one who puts his feet into the shoes of the other and really feels what it is like. Unlike the others who govern and rule, Jesus Christ the King, was not the one who sympathized with the suffers but empathized with them. If we acknowledge ourselves to be the loving subjects of Christ the King, are we ready to empathize with the needy?