- Matthew 25:31-46
Today's well-known Gospel passage is from the last of the "great sermons" of Jesus in Matthew's Gospel. When the sermon ends, the very next paragraph is the beginning of the Passion narrative.
This passage isn't a parable. At the beginning of the passage, Jesus uses the image of a shepherd, but the rest is a straightforward statement telling us how we will be judged.
The most astounding truth here is that, whatever we door toward the poor, it's not as if we were doing it to the Lord. We are doing it to him. Jesus is present in the down-and-out, and what we do to them, we are doing to Him.
Through his Incarnation, Jesus has identified himself with all human beings. But he has a special concern for the poor, the weak, the lowly, those who get left out.
It has been said that the Gospel can be summarized on the five fingers of your hand: "You-did-it-to-me."
So what are you supposed to do - put more money in the poor box? Well, there's something that has to come first - something more basic. It's not simply a question of being nice to people who get left out. Rather, it's seeing the Lord in them.
How do you do that? Talk to the Lord about it.
- Little Black Book, Diocese of Saginaw