The Feast of Christ the King is the last Sunday of our liturgical year. On that day we come to the end, our last week before Advent; and so, we read Jesus’ description of his second coming in the Gospel: "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, 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.” Those of us who have been Catholic a long time may be very familiar with this passage, but many may not know why Christ chose the words “Son of Man” to refer to Himself.
Going back to a time which was centuries before Christ came, we read these words in chapter seven from the book of the prophet Daniel:
9 As I watched, Thrones were set up and the Ancient One took his throne… 10…Thousands upon thousands were ministering to him, and myriads upon myriads attended him. The court was convened, and the books were opened… 13…I saw One like a son of man coming, on the clouds of heaven; When he reached the Ancient One and was presented before him, 14 He received dominion, glory, and kingship; nations and peoples of every language serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not be taken away, his kingship shall not be destroyed.Can there be any doubt that Christ was directing those who heard Him back to this prophecy? We see God the Father, the “Ancient One”, taking His throne. We see Christ who is fully God and fully man, and therefore “One like a son of man” receiving a kingdom from the Father. Today, Christ is saying that He will be the one to fulfill the words of Daniel. The everlasting kingdom is His to establish, and when He comes again, the court will be convened and the books opened. The sheep will be separated from the goats, the righteous from the unrighteous. As God told Isaiah, “I will judge between one sheep and another, between rams and goats.”
Judgment is often depicted in negative terms, and judges are usually something we want to avoid, but we must refrain from drawing a one-sided picture of judges and, by extension, of Jesus Christ, who is the Supreme Judge. Since He is God, we may be inclined to think of Christ as distant, uncompassionate, or even unsympathetic to our circumstances as human persons. Ignore that inclination and remember His title, Son of Man. As the book of Hebrews tells us, “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin.” Understand, though, this does not mean that Christ simply excuses us. Yes, His grace is given freely, but it is not forced upon us. In the next verse, Hebrews states that we must choose to “approach the throne of grace to receive mercy”. Such a statement presumes that we have a relationship with our high priest and judge, Jesus Christ. Which one of us only needs to approach Him once a year? How many of us can boast of only a few sins or weaknesses? Are they not evident to us every day? Then, we must approach the Son of Man every day.
Relationship, then, is an integral component to the judgment of Christ. He reveals this to us when He says “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did [or did not do] for these least brothers of mine, you did [or did not do] for me.” With those words, Christ, as the Son of Man, explicitly identifies Himself with every human being, but He names the poor, the sick, and the prisoners because all too often the world sees them as less human or less than human. The Lord utterly rejects such a notion and tells us exactly how much dignity they truly have by equating what we do to them with what we do to Him. He elevates them to their rightful place as men and women created in the image and likeness of God who deserve to be treated with a dignity equal to His own humanity. Even today, the inherent dignity of people is under attack. We, as followers of Christ, must continue to maintain the dignity of the less fortunate and condemn acts that are contrary to the dignity of all humanity: euthanasia, abortion, slavery, religious bigotry, classism, racism, unjust wages and working conditions, penalties that are disproportionate to the crime, and the like.
If we are indifferent toward these sins and we do not speak out, what does it say about the quality of our relationship with Christ? If we do not sympathize with Christ who sees His image in the lowliest among us are we truly His disciples? Speaking out and acts of sympathy, however, cannot stand on their own in the face of judgment. Our good deeds cannot be an end in themselves. They do not originate from our own good intentions and they do not serve to simply make us feel good about ourselves. All our good deeds are derived from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Yes, we accomplish them. Yes, we receive the merit that is due to us according to the promises of God; yet, we owe the glory for such deeds to God who not only inspired them, but gives us the grace to achieve them.
So what can endure the judgment of God if not good deeds? Love. The only reason our good deeds have any value is because they are conceived by love and are done in love. We know that God is love. As Father, Son and Holy Spirit, God is an eternal exchange of love. He did not need us or the rest of creation to make Himself complete; nonetheless, in an act of pure and gracious love He created us in His own image. His image makes us unique among all creation because it enables us to live in a loving relationship with God and one another. There is no greater reason for our existence and no more perfect way to become human.
Sadly, as you know, sin ruptured the love relationship we had with God. Our first parents were separated from His presence and would be unable to realize the ultimate communion He intended to share with them in the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world. Defiled, there was nothing man could do in and of himself to earn God’s favor; and so God, in the second person of the Blessed Trinity said, “I want to be human” (in a manner of speaking). As the Son of Man, Christ provided more than just the perfect example of what it means to be human, in another act of supreme love He became our salvation through His passion, death, and resurrection. As an extension of His loving act, Christ provided us with His Church and the Sacraments, which are our means of personally encountering that love in our own time and space. Through baptism we have become members of Christ’s body the Church and now we, too, are an integral part of the eternal act of His saving love offered to the whole world.
Ultimately, this gospel demonstrates that we must remain in love if we wish to be saved. When we act in love toward others, toward the poor, the sick, the prisoner, we are not only acting as Christ, we encounter Christ. The more we love, the more we become like Christ who is love. The more like Christ we are, the more authentically human we become.
So who wants to be human? I can’t think of anything else I would rather be.
