Episode Transcript
A reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew
Jesus said to his disciples: "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.
He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
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.'
Then the righteous will answer him and say, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?' And the king will say to them in reply, 'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.'
Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.' Then they will answer and say, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?'
He will answer them, 'Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.' And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life."
The Gospel of the Lord
This gospel is only proclaimed on Sundays, once every three years. And when it is, it is challenging to preach about because it is so powerful, so direct, so clear... mere words can get in the way. These are the words of Jesus and they speak eloquently for themselves.
But there is more. To add to their power, Matthew places these words at the very end of his 25th chapter, which is the end of the Lord's teachings. Immediately after the words of this passage, there begins the passion and death of Jesus. Matthew wanted these to be recognized as the last instructions of Jesus to his disciples. That makes them even more powerful.
I am sure you recognize there are many kinds of hunger, thirst, imprisonment, and so forth. Sometimes people are hungry for attention, or for understanding, or for love. There are many ways of being a stranger. There are many ways to feel awkward … there are many ways of being naked.
And often we do little to help.
People whose faults are well-known for one reason or another find themselves exposed to our curiosity or our exploitation. There are people in this church right now who experience different kinds of hunger, thirst, the feeling of being away from home or out of place, nakedness, illness, imprisonment. All of us experience those things in one form or another. There are people in our families who experience them. There are people with whom we work who experience them. There are people in our neighborhood who experience them. We don't have to look halfway around the globe to think of ways in which we might respond to these needs -- or fail to respond to them.
I want to say a special word to young people here. By young people I mean those who are still preparing for life -- whether in college, or in high school, or in grade school. It is your nature to look to the future and it has always been so. When you think about these words, I don't want you to think ahead to ways in which you or your generation will deal with the problems of hunger or thirst or imprisonment. I want you to think about it right now. I want you to think about the people around you -- at school, the people you associate with -- who experience hunger, or thirst, or awkwardness, or nakedness, or illness, or imprisonment.
We all should think about this. Let these words of Jesus touch our own lives.
