Christ the King, Nov.20, 2011 (Ezekiel 34:11-12, 15-17; 1 Corinthians 15:20-26, 28; Mt.

25:31-46) I always wondered about the lost sheep imagery and its power of persuasion until one day, many years ago, a parishioner came into the sacristy early on a Sunday morning. He had spent all the previous day looking for a stray heifer that was missing. Now I know a heifer is not a sheep but the same principle applies. When I began to sympathize he continued on with his woeful tale. Yeah, he said, I found him this morning deadcaught itself on a barbed wire fence. And then he delivered the punch line, just when I was ready to commiserate over his lost animal. Yep, thats gonna cost me about $800! It was as if scales fell from my eyes. Now I understood. Sheep, like heifers, are raised for the sole purpose of taking them to market. From then on I have never been too comfortable with sheep imagery. But a fine leg of lamb, medium rarebut thats another story. Ezekiel speaks of the Lord God looking after and tending my sheep because the shepherds who were supposed to, did not. The sheep were scattered because the kings and princes and leaders of the people had been taken into exile. Because of their dealings with foreigners, instead of remaining faithful to the Lord, the sheep of Israel were scattered all over the place and now the Lord intends to shepherd them myself. Once the Lord pastures the sheep I will seek out the lost, the strayed I will bring back, the injured I will bind up, the sick I will heal, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. Obviously the scattering of the sheep referred to the Babylonian exile. Here the Lord promises to bring them back from exile, and to personally care for the weak or injured among them. The sleek and the strong (Israels woeful leaders) I will destroy. The Gospel from Matthew is called the Last Judgment Scene and is found only in Matthew. Even though we generally regard Jesus as the sole mediator between us and God, in this scene Jesus as the Son of Man is named the judge. He is also named king and as king he pronounces judgment. Because the Father is also mentioned there seems to be a lot of confusion about who is actually represented in the story. There is also a debate about whether the story came from Jesus, from Matthew, from the early church or from somewhere else. Note that all parties are judged on the basis of how they fulfilled the works of mercy. Everything involves how they responded to the needs of the hungry and the thirsty, how they received the stranger, clothed the naked, and visited the ill and imprisoned. The righteous never knew they were doing it for Christ himself when

they did it until the king said, whatever you did for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me. The accursed are condemned for ignoring those same people. They protest, in vain, that they always responded as they were supposed to when they saw him. But the king answered what you did not do for one these least ones, you did not do for me. These will go off into eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. We are reminded yet again of our need to live the Gospel, especially in the love of neighbor. It is the best way to end one Church year and to begin another. Doing these acts of mercy is not an option for us if we expect to be called blessed by my Father.

Fr. Lawrence Hummer