Christ the King

In this homily, Fr Richard Healey reflects on their understanding of a gospel passage and the concept of salvation through grace versus works-based righteousness. They discuss the challenge of extending love and care beyond personal boundaries, especially to marginalised individuals. The speaker emphasises the importance of recognising and responding to others’ physical and emotional needs. They conclude by encouraging listeners to reflect on how they can respond to God’s love and grace. 

(00:00:00) – I’ve had a bit of a strange relationship with this gospel over the years. You know, when I first came to faith as a late teenager and started reading the Gospels and the scriptures more seriously, and coming across this, this passage, you know, I really couldn’t understand how it sort of fitted in within Christian life because I was like, well, if you know the story, if you’ve seen the painting, the famous painting in the Sistine Chapel, you know, if you know this image of the Last Judgement, then how are we going to get caught out? Because surely if we know this reality, if we know this truth, that the Lord is present in every single person around us, then naturally we would just respond to that. And so I kind of figured that, well, clearly this isn’t about judging us as Christians. This is judging people who don’t know the Lord, people who aren’t surprised to know that reality that the Lord is found in the least. But as I’ve grown on, I’ve kind of also had other struggles.

(00:01:13) – I’ve also kind of wondered, well, surely salvation comes through grace. It’s simply the merit of God. It’s nothing to do with what we do. And I didn’t like this gospel because it kind of seemed to hint towards that direction of a workspace righteousness. You know that we do the things, we do certain good works, and that the Lord will earn a favour as a result of those works that we do when I believe in the church teaches that no, it’s about grace. It’s simply about what God is so generously pouring out upon us. But I think the reality is that most of us do live in a fairly small world. We do live just in a very self contained way, and we’re very concerned about us, perhaps our families and our friends. But often that’s the limit of where our concern will go. We might look after one another in terms of just the people that we actually know. But the challenge of the gospel is for the stranger, for those that are the outsiders, those who are beyond whatever boundary we might set, and some of us that’ll be smaller, some will be slightly larger.

(00:02:33) – But the boundary is is always set somewhere, and it’s the ones beyond that edge, the ones who are on that edge that this gospel is really challenging us to consider. And not just the physically sick or naked or thirsty or those who are in prison. But if anything of the events of the last few years with the pandemic and all of the experiences of isolation, all of the effects and consequences that that has had in the way that we educate our children and the way that we care for the sick. All of those things have had a deep impact on the way that we understand the reality of mental illness, the way that we realise the isolation that so many people in our society experience and suffer from. And so we also realise that we can strip someone naked by our attitude towards them. We can strip them naked by exposing them through gossip. We can strip them naked by tearing them down and criticising somebody else. Somebody can be thirsty or hungry for affection and for that sense of connection with one another.

(00:03:49) – People can be locked in their prisons of shame, or people can be locked in a prison of addiction. There are all kinds of ways that this gospel challenges us to be present radically with that love that we’ve received first from the mercy of God, and to share that and to to recognize that importance. So the physical manifestations of these things are also crucial. But there’s no place in this gospel where any of us, I think, can kind of score 100 points and say, yes, you know, we’ve perfectly fulfilled all of the requirements that this gospel requires of us. This is a deeply challenging way to conclude a liturgical year, to call us back into the reality that it’s in love, that we will be judged. It’s in the way that we’ve responded to others around us, the way that we’ve had our eyes open to see the needs of those around us. And that’s where this gospel so radically strikes to the very centre of who we are. So let’s just take a moment to really. Ponder the different ways the Lord might be challenging us to respond to Him in His love and in his grace.