Who rules your heart?
This weekend we celebrate the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus
Christ, King of the Universe, a title often telescoped into Christ the
King. But what defines this King, exactly?
In our reading from Matthew’s Gospel this week, Jesus
describes the end times when, seated on his throne, the Son of Man will come in his glory, promising the kingdom of
heaven to those whose hearts are open, who long to be with God. What kind of king is he? Well, the King we hear about in our reading from
Ezekiel -- one who prefigures Jesus himself -- is shepherd
first of all, a loving caregiver who tends
his flock, rescuing them, pasturing them, and giving them rest. With such
a Lord as our shepherd, we shall not want
(Psalm 23). This king does not simply sit, detached, on his throne: he expects our participation with him in the
covenant, active engagement with the work around us, spreading God’s loving
kindness to all.
The sheep in Matthew
are thus those blessed by the Father, those who have accepted Jesus as King of the
Universe. How? By meeting the needs of those around
them: feeding the hungry, clothing the
naked, caring for the ill – not just in a superficial, perfunctory way, but
out of a profound understanding of the nature of their relationship to God and
other. If Ezekiel’s God as Shepherd healed the sick and sought out the lost, that mantle passes, too, to
the sheep-become-shepherds of this world:
whatever you did for the least of the
brothers, you did for me.
True sheep respond to their relationship with God by
accepting the transformation God calls them to daily, embracing the cross as
well as Jesus’s death and resurrection as signs of the deep compassion of God
for those God loves, and sharing that compassion with the world – the sick, the hungry, the lost. We are all called to constant and ongoing metanoia, a spiritual conversion in the
very depths of our being, subjecting ourselves
to Jesus, as Paul tells the Corinthians, so that we might participate fully in
the kingdom of heaven, so that God may be
all in all, ruling the hearts of all so that all might one day be in
perfect union with him. We are sheep; we are shepherd.
Who rules your heart?
So much depends on your answer to that question!
This post is based on Fr. Pat's Scripture class.
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