CHRIST THE KING (A)

When the Son of Man comes in his glory,and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne.

Mt 25:31-46

EXPLANATION OF THE GOSPEL

When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne.

The second coming of Christ is called the Parousia. At his second coming, he will come as King. This is in contrast to his first coming. Then he came as a baby of poor parents.

And all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

The second coming is presented as a judgment scene.

About the sheep and goats. One author says that in Palestine sheep and goats share the same pasture because grass was not abundant. But in the evening they had to be separated because goats needed protection from the elements. Moreover the goats were too unruly for comfort on the part of the sheep.

The left has always been associated with evil. In Latin left is translated as ‘sinister’. In English, the word sinister has a dark and evil connotation. In Pilipino, an unfaithful spouse is said to be ‘nangangaliwa’. Its root is ‘kaliwa’ which is translated in English as ‘left’.

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 church’s catechism enumerates seven corporal works of mercy. Six are enumerated here. The seventh which is to bury the dead comes from the book of Tobit.

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

Least brothers refer to fellow Christians who were still weak in the faith, per-haps they were new converts. But here least brothers probably refers to any fellow human being who is in need.
Here we find another criterion for judgment: “What did you do for you fellowmen who was in need?” In last Sunday’s gospel, the criterion presented for going to heaven or to hell was: “What did you do with your life?”

DOING SOMETHING FOR ONE OF THE LEAST BROTHERS OF JESUS

The Catholic Church in the Philippines has explicitly made a preferential op-tion for the poor. She does not reject the rich and those who have much in life. But she does make the poor her priority. And in fact, invites them (the rich and those who have much in life) to open their hearts to the poor. By making this preferen-tial Filipino Catholics are in line with today’s gospel.

Go to this blog to find out what a mountaineer in Cebu did for one of his least brothers.

http://pinoyapache.blogspot.com/2008/11/manwel-roble-boy-guide.html

Here’s another true-to-life story of a cyclist (again in Cebu) in the face of not one but three least brothers of Jesus (actually two brothers and a sister).

http://tahimikatboring.wordpress.com/2008/03/27/the-basureros/
http://www.istorya.net/forums/1040071-post1.html