Christ the King, Nov 22, 2020; Ez 34:11-12, 15-17; 1 Cor 15:20-26, 28; Mt 25:31-46
I just started reading “The Lord of the Rings” again, which, by the way, was written by J.R.R. Tolkien, a Catholic. Reading it brought to my mind all of the “Lord of the Rings” movies and, in particular, the last of the movies entitled: “The Return of the King”. In one of the final scenes of that movie, evil has finally been vanquished and the main character, named Aragorn, is crowned King.
All of the many peoples of the world have representatives there to honor Aragorn and to acknowledge him as king. As the king passes each group they all show reverence by bowing before him.
At one point Aragorn, the king, comes to the littlest, and the lowliest, of all the people there – the Hobbits. A simple people, that are only the size of children, yet they have proved to be the most heroic of all and have sacrificed as much or more than any others to defeat the evil.
Still, the hobbits begin to bow before King Aragorn but Aragorn stops them and the king says, “No my friends, you bow to no man”. And then, King Aragorn goes down on one knee before the Hobbits and all the people gathered there follow his example. It is a very touching and powerful scene.
The people demonstrated the same respect for the lowly hobbits that the people had shown for their king. How do we treat those considered the lowliest in our society?
How do we treat the poor and the hungry? How do we treat the thirsty, who don’t have access to clean water? How do we treat those who are strangers, strange to us due to language, color, homeland, social status, or disability? How do we treat the homeless who lack the basics that we take for granted like clean clothing? How do we treat those who are sick? How do we treat those in prison?
The way we treat the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the poor and needy, the sick, and those in prison, is the way we treat Jesus. That’s what Jesus is talking about in today’s Gospel story.
Jesus, our King, would do anything for us, even die for us, even lower himself and become one of us in the greatest act of love and humility there has ever been. Jesus didn’t care that we all look so different from one another, that we speak so many different languages, that we come in all shapes and sizes, that we are poor, middle class, and rich, that we run the gamut of intellectual and physical abilities, or that we are all sinners. Jesus loved us anyway or maybe, Jesus loved us because we needed Jesus to love us.
Through Jesus, our King, God reached down in order to lift us up out of our sins and draw us to him to be healed. God showed us compassion, mercy, forgiveness, respect, and love, despite our lowliness, despite our sinfulness, and despite our human weakness.
If Jesus Christ, the King of the Universe, was willing to do that for us. Isn’t it time we followed his example to help the world, to help our brothers and sisters, and to help ourselves?