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Sunday, November 23, 2008

Feast of Christ the King


The Feast of Christ the King was moved to the Sunday before Advent as it is fitting to close the Liturgical year contemplating the Kingship of Christ.
We have been looking at the end time and today's Gospel reminds us that when Christ will come in glory we shall also be judged. Our judgment is not on what we have accomplished but on love - how we have kept the corporal works of mercy. Jesus tells us that what we have done for the least of these - the lonely, the sick, the prisoner, the needy one, the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, - we have done for him. Will I be the sheep that he invites into his Kingdom or the goat who is thrown out?
Sometimes an opportunity to help someone passes and we have not done what was needed; it makes us feel sad. Instead, we must be on the lookout for where we can help anyone in need. It is often the person next to us so we do not have far to go to find the needy.
I love the first reading from Ezechiel: Thus says the Lord God: I myself will look after and tend my sheep. As a shepherd tends his flock when he finds himself among his scattered sheep, so will I tend my sheep. I will rescue them from every place where they were scattered when it was cloudy and dark. I myself will pasture my sheep; I myself will give them rest, says the Lord God. The lost I will seek out, the strayed I will bring back, the injured I will bind up, the sick I will heal, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy, shepherding them rightly.

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