Mt 25:31-46

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Jesus concludes a set of parables with a direct revelation about the Last Judgement.

It is important to note that this separation takes place at the last judgement, after Jesus is revealed in his majesty. For until then, God forebears the evil in the world and does not cut it away, since "As I live says the Lord God, I swear I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked man, but rather in the wicked man's conversion, that he may live" (Ez 33:11). He patiently waits for us to turn back to Him and the way of life He proposes.

What does Christ mean when he says, "whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me"? Scholars disagree, but some say he indicates the missionaries who suffered on account of Christ. So our eternal salvation would depend on how we treat those who bring us God's message, on how we treat the Church, Christ's body. This makes sense, as they are the ones through whom Christ offers salvation, i.e. Himself as the Way to eternal life. We are to accept Christ's ministers, even when they ask us to change our ways or give up our own will. This can be accomplished in an effective way through spiritual direction, but it can also take place among a community of believers where each is a herald of Christ.

But we may also take Christ to be identifying with every poor and suffering man and woman. Mother Theresa said that on the streets she met "Christ in pitiable disguise." Others are less conscious that they are serving Christ directly, but they still do. The sheep of the passage were astonished that they had served Christ. This astonishment points to the fact that Christ is involved in our everyday actions, in the mundane, where we least expect him. He is especially in the personal. Let us look on our neighbor with the love with which Christ loves us, stretching out our arms to embrace all of humanity. Let us serve our neighbor humbly and diligently, for in serving him or her we serve Christ. We can be like the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, "servant of all."

Lord, convert our hearts before it is too late. Teach us to accept your ministers with the full strength of our mind and body. Lead us to find and embrace You in our neighbor who carries Your image, as Elizabeth embraced Mary who carried You. Keep us faithful to love.

Mary, gate of heaven, give us your heart to say yes to the plan of God as it is told us by God's herald. Watch over our priests and missionaries and give them the wisdom necessary for shepherding hearts. Be with us as we strive to live the works of mercy.

Mk 12:1-12

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Jesus tells a parable to the chief priests, scribes, and elders.

One thing we see in this parable is that God's mission for us may include persecution. When we are sent by God, when we live out our baptism as sharing in Christ's prophecy, when we stick up for the truth in a world of pluralism, we are liable to be persecuted. "Blessed are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of evil against you [falsely] because of me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven. Thus they persecuted the prophets who were before you" (Mt 5:11-12) and thus they persecuted Jesus.

Why are we persecuted? Because God respects all men's free will. He entrusts His plan to our freedom. He leaves free to accept or reject the messengers whom he sends. And we can reject them by persecuting them, or by forgetting them altogether. And he entrusts to us his very Son, in the Eucharist, in the Christians who bear his name, in all of reality, time and time again, begging for our heart. And by our actions we accept or reject Him.

But even though he was and is rejected by many, Christ has become the cornerstone for his Church. He is a cornerstone because it is a Church of all people, of former Jews and former Gentiles, of children and adults, of different movements and charisms. In all our experience of Church, Christ must be the living Rock; we must seek the personal relationship at the heart of our religious experience. "Who am I... and Who are You?" said St. Francis. Christ came for all humanity and gave his life for all of us, there is no distinction. He wants to draw out each personality into its fullest expression; he wants us to become fully ourselves, centered in He who knows us better than we know ourself.

Lord, keep sending us messengers of Your love, and dispose us to accept them! Do not let us be discouraged when we find we have rejected You out of weakness, but come again to our aid and win us back, be our Rock. Help us to live our acceptance of You in each moment. Give us strength to be the Christians we are called to be, especially in the face of persecution. Help us to discover our true selves in Your mercy.

Mary, mother of our Savior, keep us always in the Church, close to the Source and Summit of everything. Help us to surrender our freedom to Christ through faith and through our actions. Teach us to use our freedom as it was intended to be used.

Mt 7: 21-27

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At the end of the sermon on the mount Jesus highlights the difference between saying and doing, and between hearing and doing.

This injunction fits the situation: he has just finished a great moral speech. And Christ is the first one to do what he proclaims. For example, Christ lived the beatitudes - he was pure of heart, a peacemaker, meek, merciful, mournful (over Lazarus), upright, persecuted, and poor and spirit. And therefore he was blessed, that is, happy.

In this passage, though, Christ enjoins us to do the will of God, for it is only they who do the Father's will who will be admitted into heaven. The Father wills the same thing as Christ because they are one. Indeed, one Church father writes that Christ came to do:

the will of him that sent me, that every man that sees the Son and believes on Him should have eternal life. The word believe has reference both to confession and conduct. He then who does not confess Christ, or does not walk according to His word shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

So to do God's will is to believe in Christ (and act as if we believed in Christ). "This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent" (John 6:29). And this does not necessarily involve doing great things, for there were ones who did great things but not the will of God. Rather it is to do all things with great charity.

Then Christ likens the one who hears his word and acts on it to a wise man who built his house on rock. One father writes a beautiful interpretation of this part, interpreting Christ to be the wise man and the house to be the Church:

Christ is the wise man who has built His house, that is, the Church, upon a rock, that is, upon the strength of the faith. The foolish man is the Devil, who has built his house, that is, all the ungodly, upon the sand, that is, the insecurity of unbelief, or upon the carnal, who are called the sand on account of their barrenness; both because they do not cleave together, but are scattered through the diversity of their opinions, and because they are innumerable. The rain is the doctrine that waters a man, the clouds are those from which the rain falls. Some are raised by the Holy Spirit, as the Apostles and Prophets, and some by the spirit of the Devil, as are the heretics. The good winds are the spirits of the different virtues, or the Angels who work invisibly in the senses of men, and lead them to good. The bad winds are the unclean spirits. The good floods are the Evangelists amid teachers of the people; the evil floods are men full of an unclean spirit, and overflowing with many words; such are philosophers and the other professors of worldly wisdom, out of whose belly come rivers of dead water. The Church then which Christ has founded, neither the rain of false doctrine shall sap, nor the blast of the Devil overturn, nor the rush of mighty floods remove.Nor does it contradict this, that certain of the Church do fall; for not all that are called Christians,are Christ's, but, The Lord knows them that are his.

Let us then belong to Christ!

Lord, let us be blessed and at peace in doing the will of God, in believing in You. Send your Holy Spirit of love into our hearts and inspire us to live with great charity. And let us always be counted among those whom you have chosen.

Mary, mother of good counsel, lead us to the will of God for our lives and form us to do the truth in love. Do not let us be crushed by circumstances, but let all things work together for our good and God's glory.