Hail! Christ The King!

Today is Cristo Rey or the Solemnity of Christ the King; the gospel talks about The Judgment of the Nations. Call it an End of Times story that you can find in the Bible on Matt. 25:31-46.

 [Jesus said to his disciples,] 31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, 32 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.

 33He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34 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. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.

 37 Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 When did we see you ill or in prison, and visited you? 40 And the King will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.

 41 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. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43 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 did not minister to your needs?’ 45 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.’ 46 And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

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 Today as we already pointed out is Solemnity of Christ the King or Cristo Rey in Spanish. Remember the saying that many of us often use? “In the end, China will win!” Well, that talk is nothing but hogwash and a downright fallacy simply because we know in our hearts that, in the end, our Lord Jesus Christ will win! And that’s exactly what today’s gospel talks about. Mind you, it is not meant to scare you. Rather this teaches you one clear truth that when the end of the world would come, our Lord Jesus Christ will reign as King.

 Of course, those of us who cannot wait anymore and would leave the earth soon, would still end up having to be judged for his actions when he was still on earth. When I talk to people, I always tell them that the difference between man and animal is that, a man has a soul. Hence he is destined to have a temporary life here on earth because his final destination is still with God in eternal bliss. That’s because God loves each and every one of us so much … he sent his only begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, to die on the cross to save us from our sins.

 Why was Jesus, the Second Person in the Trinity sent to earth to suffer and be tortured, sacrificed and nailed on the cross? I can only reckon that, no person on earth was unblemished like Jesus and therefore no one here on earth was worthy of being an unblemished sacrificial lamb wholly and pleasing to God. Sending our Lord Jesus Christ to be human and be one amongst us, except in sin, made him a worthy candidate to be sacrificed. He is the unblemished lamb whose blood cleanses our sins … whose death on the cross conquers death.

 Hence he rose again to take the Kingdom of God in Heaven, with his Immaculate Mother beside him on the throne as the Queen of Heaven. Then on Judgment Day as the gospel today teaches us, the Son of Man will come in his glory with a multitude of Angels surrounding him and all nations will be judged. First he will separate the goats from the sheep. The sheep of course are those animals that obeyed the Shepherd in God’s sheepfold. Of course the goats are those who where invited to join the sheepfold of God, but refused. Hence they have incurred the wrath of God and they will be punished during Judgment Day.

 Please don’t get me wrong. The sheep are not only Catholics, they are also our separated brethren, Hindus, Muslims and men of other faiths, and the same is true with the goats. Just because you’re already a Catholic, it doesn’t entitle you a one-way ticket to heaven. You must earn that ticket to heaven by helping the poor, clothing the naked, comforting the sick and giving food to the hungry. If you’ve done all this, then your reward awaits you in heaven, where our Lord Jesus Christ reigns as our Heavenly King.

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