Message of Abbot Paul - Sunday 26th November 2023

Today we keep the feast of Christ the King, not an ancient feast but one instituted by Pope Pius XI in 1925, at a time when the royal families of Europe were losing their importance or disappearing altogether. It immediately became very popular in the Catholic Church, but like all modern feasts it celebrates an idea, a concept, rather than a historical event in the life of Our Lord or Our Lady or in the history of the Church. The Pope quite rightly wished to emphasise the fact that for Christians, Jesus Christ, who is the Resurrection and the Life, the Lord of Creation and Messiah, the Anointed One of the Father, who saved mankind from sin and death and opened for us the gate of God’s eternal kingdom, is indeed our only king, whose kingdom is justice, peace and love. Originally kept on the last Sunday of October, when the Calendar was revised under Pope St Paul VI in 1969, the feast was transferred to the last Sunday in the Liturgical Year as perhaps more appropriate at a time when we contemplate the end of the age and the Second Coming of Jesus as Lord of Creation and Judge of mankind.

 

Today’s Gospel from Matthew (Mt 25: 31-46) continues the apocalyptic theme of the Last Judgement from last Sunday, an essential aspect of the Second Coming of Jesus that we celebrate in Advent. The teaching of Jesus is quite straightforward, although it has certain elements that come from the parables, such as a shepherd separating his sheep from his goats and the reference to Jesus as a King who judges and rewards his servants. It begins like this: “Jesus said to his disciples: ‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, escorted by all the angels, then he will take his seat on his throne of glory. All the nations will be assembled before him and he will separate men one from another as the shepherd separates sheep from goats. He will place the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left.” Goats are such adorable creatures, although they can eat everything in sight, that I always feel that their choice as symbols for the ‘bad guys’ in Scripture is a bit unfair. Our lives should be a perpetual vigil in preparation for the return of Jesus at the end of time. We should live each day as if it were our last, but we shouldn’t fear judgement, our final examination for entering the university of eternal life. We already know the questions: all we need do is answer them in our daily lives. They’re not even difficult questions, but will we be among those to hear the words of the King? “Come, you whom my Father has blessed, take for your heritage the kingdom prepared for you since the foundation of the world.” Will we be among the virtuous who go to eternal life?

 

​Here’s the examination paper. “’I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you made me welcome; naked and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, in prison and you came to see me.’ Then the virtuous will say to him in reply, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you; or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and make you welcome; naked and clothe you; sick or in prison and go to see you?’ And the King will answer, ‘I tell you solemnly, in so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me.’” Let us pray for the grace to practise charity, particularly with those most in need, in every possible way all the days of our life. Amen.