The King Comes In All of His Glory!

Today is the Feast of Christ the King and it marks the last Sunday of the Church Year.  Next week we begin anew with Advent as we begin our wait for Christmas when we celebrate the birth of a baby. But today we study the end of things. Much has been written about the end times and this blog entry is not going to prophesy when the end shall come, that I leave to God who alone knows the day and the hour.  I do, however, make use of the scriptures to show just what will happen on that day. 

Jesus, Himself, tells us exactly what will happen.  He will come in all of His glory and He will gather the nations together.  We will be separated, the sheep from the goats, and he will address each of the groups separately. 

To the sheep:

'Come, you who are blessed by my Father.
Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 

For I was hungry and you gave me food,
I was thirsty and you gave me drink,
a stranger and you welcomed me,
naked and you clothed me,
ill and you cared for me,
in prison and you visited me.'

The sheep will be amazed, they could not remember when they had done all of these things.  To them the King will say:

'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did
for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.'

To the Goats:

'Depart from me, you accursed,
into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
For 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.'

The goats will be puzzled and will wrack their brains trying to remember when they had seen Jesus in need. To them the King will say:

'Amen, I say to you,
what you did not do for one of these least ones,
you did not do for me.'

The sheep will go to heaven and the goats will go to hell. 

There are those in this world that believe that just believing in Jesus and saying the sinner's prayer will forever protect them from losing their salvation. The scriptures, specifically the reading from Matthew that we have above tears down this comforting but dangerously erroneous belief.  To believe in Jesus and to make Him your personal Lord and Savior is absolutely required and is a wonderful first step.  But to believe in Jesus is just not enough.  The devil believes in Jesus as do all of the devil's demons. We have to believe in Jesus and do the work that needs to be done.  The work is described in Matthew as helping those that need help.  To believe and not do will not get us anywhere.

Each of us needs to develop a sensitivity to the state of the people around us, those that live in our cities and towns that are in need and we need to address those needs as if we were doing them for Jesus Himself.  Can you imagine what the world would be like today if all of God's people did the work of Christ?  It boggles my mind why Christianity has not had more of an impact on the problems that have plagued us over the years. As this church year ends with this sobering Gospel reading, let us begin today to look for ways to improve the lives of those who have less than us.  Let us remember that the face of Jesus is in the face of the person that is in need. 

The month of November is the month we remember those that have gone before us.  Some of those who have died recently have ended up in purgatory and they need our help.  Please, pray for the poor souls.  They will remember your efforts on their behalf for all eternity.  

One Plus One Is One

And I have given them the glory you gave me,

so that they may be one, as we are one,

Here is a stumper for you, explain the Trinity.  Is our God actually three Gods?  Those of you of ancient times might remember the Baltimore Catechism's definition of who are God actually is.  Do you remember?  Well, the answer is that The Trinity is Three Divine Persons in one Divine Being. There, we got that figured out now don't we?  Or do we?   St. Patrick used to arrive at a village and the first thing (the story goes) he would do would be to find the meanest, strongest, bad boy living there and beat the tar out of him.  This got the citizens attention and then he took out a shamrock and used it to explain the Trinity, one plant, three leaves, all united.  Is that a true story? I don't know, but it sure is a good tale.  It makes one good point, that the Trinity is united, they are one even though they are separate and distinct.   The idea of three Divine Persons in One Divine Being is hard, no, impossible to get your hands around.  It is one of those things that we may never, in all eternity understand.  

The most important thing about the Trinity, as I said is that they are united, they are one.  Jesus prayed that all of His followers be of one mind but when we came to the fifteen-hundreds, we kind of messed that up now didn't we?  I am not going to get into a finger pointing session here because there was enough blame to go around.  Luther was too prideful and the Church didn't listen as well as she should have. 

Unity in our religions is something that we need to work towards.  The Catholic Church cannot move any closer to our separated Protestant brothers and sisters by changing doctrine that has remained unchanged since the Church was founded.  She can and should to try to attract her lost children back to her. We do not do that by pointing out the error of our brothers' ways and shaking our fingers at them. To do this would make us no better than old Jack Chick and his poison tracts. We must attract them by showing them what a real Christian community is like.  This is something that we have not been too good at since Luther banged a few nails into a church door.  

How do we do this?  We make the light of Christ brighter and brighter in our church communities that they cannot fail to see that we are different and that difference is the life of Christ in us shining out. We must open doors and windows.  We must be ready to be friendly and loving to those who might not really trust us because we bear the label Catholic.   The new evangelization is not new at all. It is something that we should have been doing all along.  You don't need to become a street preacher, you need not say even a word. You may let your actions do your talking for you.  What I suggest is that we take some time and look around and find a need and fill it.  Listen for the Lord to speak to you.  He is looking for men, women, and children to build his Church.  Enthusiasm will generate enthusiasm!   Love will generate love in return.  The hardest part is to start.  

That is all for today.  I hope I have given you something to think about.  God bless and don't be afraid to leave a comment.