Word to the Wise
Monday, February 27, 2012 - 1st Week of Lent - Mon
[Lev 19:1-2, 11-18 and Matt 25:31-46,]Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.
These words of Jesus, spoken in the scene of the Last Judgment in Matthew 25, sum up most of Jesus' teaching about love of God and neighbor. The two loves cannot be separated in such a way that we can go to church on Sunday and then act terribly toward our neighbors the rest of the week. This is the kind of behavior that I heard about from college students for many years. They stopped going to church because they could not understand the gap between worship and everyday life that they saw in the lives of so many Christians.
In the famous fresco by Michaelangelo on the back wall of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican, there is a figure in the middle with a horrible expression on his face. He has just realized that his failures in love of neighbor have condemned him to eternal punishment. The list in the gospel is clear: food, drink, clothing, compassion. When we provide these for another human being, we are providing them to Christ. When we ignore these same persons in their need, we are ignoring Christ.
Although the season of Lent offers us an opportunity to get this gospel lesson clear in our minds and hearts, what Jesus is telling us is supposed to be in effect 365 days of the year! What good is it to deprive ourselves of something for 40 days if we deprive those in need by ignoring them? Maybe it's a good thing that this gospel appears at the beginning of Lent! AMEN
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