Whatsoever You Do

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/021918.cfm
Leviticus 19:1-2, 11-18
Matthew 25:31-46

I didn’t become Catholic until I was a young adult.  It wasn’t a stated condition of getting married, but since my father-in-law-to-be was often referred to as “the Pope’s right-hand man”, I figured it would be a good thing to convert before the wedding.  The process of conversion is to take the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA) course, which gradually introduces aspects of Catholic beliefs and practices. I kinda figured that I would learn everything I needed to know to be “complete” and would have all the knowledge and understanding I would ever need to be acceptable in God’s eyes.

Not that I was completely lacking in the ways of Christianity and the Bible.  I had grown up being dropped off at a Methodist church. Most of my learning there was from the Sunday school and vacation bible school classes. I had the usual “Jesus as shepherd and friend to the little children” stories, with a variety of crafts, coloring pages, and puzzles to help drive home the point.

When our family travelled to my grandparent’s house in the town I was born in, I would often go with my grandmother to her Baptist church.  They had a wonderful pipe organ there.  I truly believe that God spoke through that pipe organ!  You could feel Him shaking your soul with the vibrations from the largest pipes.  It was there that I first experienced, or more accurately, paid attention to, the gospel readings.  I marveled at the ability of Jesus to get a bunch of fishermen to leave their boats and nets and follow him.  “I will make you fishers of men” was all the Lord had to say to convince them to go.

I thought I had a pretty good understanding of everything important.  Jesus was born on Christmas.  He died just before Easter.  Good Friday seemed like it should have been called Bad Friday.  Jonah was swallowed by a whale.  Jesus did lots of really good things, the hard ones we call “miracles”.  If we were good, we went to heaven – you know, sitting on a cloud, playing a harp, not having a care in the world.  If we were bad, we would go to a place called hell.  Cartoons often showed the devil as a guy with horns on his head, a long tail with an arrow point on it, and a suit not unlike a red ski outfit.  

As you can tell, quite sophisticated! I did, in fact, memorize the Ten Commandments while I was in the 5th grade.  Not as part of church or Sunday school, but as a practical demonstration of the memory self-improvement course my dad taught for a period of time.  Most of the commandments are in the form of “thou shall not”, and it became my understanding that this is the all-inclusive list of things to not do in order to get to heaven.

Somewhere along the line, I was introduced to the concept of heaven, with its “pearly gates” and St. Peter waiting inside with a logbook of all your misdeeds and failings.  The book would surely chronicle things like sneaking a cookie, blaming one’s brother for leaving toys out, or making annoying sounds to irritate my sister.  If the list wasn’t TOO long and didn’t include too many line items from the Ten Commandments, you’d probably be OK.

The idea of such a logbook is powerful one, that can grow to include more of a “deed ledger”, that would record both good deeds and misdeeds.  That way, if you do enough good, you just might be able to cancel out the bad.  Do you have a positive balance?  Great, come on in!

As a Catholic, I have the ability to confess my sins and have the negative entries removed from my permanent record.  Forgiveness is great, and I’ve pretty well gamed the system on getting into heaven.  But when you start thinking like that, you are probably driving straight down the highway to hell.  I’m thinking there must be more to getting into heaven than just having a bunch of good deeds that I did just for the purpose of getting past St. Peter.

Today’s gospel reading (Matthew 25:31-46) might help sort out this situation. Jesus is finishing up a series of parables with his disciples, just days before his death on the cross.  It’s crunch time, and it’s time to make those final points to remember.  Among these points:

• The day and the hour that the Lord will come is unknown, so stay awake
• Be a faithful servant, or there will be dire consequences when the master returns
• Be prepared and use your resources wisely
• Be faithful in small matters and you will be given greater responsibilities

This leads to “The Judgement of the Nations”, which is a description of the last judgement when the Son of Man comes in his glory.

All the nations are gathered, and then the King (Jesus) will separate everyone as a shepherd would separate the goats and sheep. This would be an understandable analogy, as it was common for sheep and goats to graze together during the day, but at night be separated into groups of only sheep and only goats. The sheep are directed to the right hand of the king, the goats to the left.  

The king blesses those on the right, saying “Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the word.” He explains to the sheep, the “righteous ones”, that they provided comfort to the king in form of six works of mercy: Food, drink, hospitality, clothing, nursing care, and visitation.  The sheep are surprised, and don’t remember serving the lord this way.  That’s when we hear the king (Jesus) say “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.”

While extending mercies to “the least of these” they had no idea that they would be rewarded for their kindness. There was no calculation in their generosity. They gave because they were moved by human need—not by the potential for reward.

The goats don’t fare so well. “Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his angels.”  The reasons given sound strikingly familiar. “When I was hungry, you gave me no food, when I was thirsty, you gave me no drink”, and so on.  The goats are maybe even more surprised for the things they are accused of.  When did we see you in need and not take care of you? Of course, the answer is “Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of the least ones, you did not for me.” The judgment of the wicked is pronounced, not for what they have done, but for what they neglected to do.

These are sins of omission rather than sins of commission. The Son of Man is not condemning them for the sins that come immediately to mind when we hear the word “sin” (such as breaches of the Ten Commandments), but rather for failing to do the acts of kindness that they could have done. The prayer of the penitential rite asks forgiveness “for what we have done and what we have failed to do.”

We show our love for Jesus by loving and serving other people.

Jesus didn’t invent the idea of service to the needy. Torah law required landowners to leave the edges of their fields unharvested so that widows and orphans might obtain food by gleaning (Leviticus 19:9-10). It required employers to pay workers daily, because workers depend on daily wages for daily bread (Deuteronomy 24:15). It says, “You shall not take advantage of any widow or fatherless child” (Exodus 22:22).

So where did the goats go wrong?

Earlier, one of the Scribes tested Jesus by asking which of the commandments was the greatest.

Jesus answered, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew 22:37-39)

You shall love your neighbor as yourself -- A very Old Testament law, from Leviticus 19:18

When you love your neighbor as yourself, you will inherently be doing for the least of the people as you would do for Jesus. Your efforts will be focused on what is right, not what recognition or “ledger points” you will be gaining.

Whatsoever you do to the least of my people, that you do unto me.

The goats didn’t get it and will be paying for that mistake for eternity.