Today’s readings teach us God’s will and the criterion on which we will be judged at the end of time. In the first reading from Leviticus God calls us to be his holy people: “Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy.” The reading then goes on to detail what it means to be holy: it means to treat one another justly, with compassion and respect: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord.”
In today’s Gospel Jesus focuses this call to justice and compassion even more. Jesus teaches that the sole criterion by which we will be judged is what we do to the least of God’s children:
“For I was hungry, and you gave me food…thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.”
This teaching does not exclude prayer and worship but challenges me and you to live out that holiness that we come to know and experience in our prayer and worship, to be holy and religious people. James teaches in his Epistle:
“Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” (James 1:27).
Jesus gives us the example of service and sacrifice throughout his earthly ministry and teaches that this is the true way of justice and holiness.
At each Sunday mass the children teach us this Gospel message as they joyfully and energetically bring up food for St. Francis House. When they do this, they are feeding Jesus as we hear in today’s Gospel: “For I was hungry and you gave me food.”
Jesus teaches the same message as the reading from Leviticus, that love of God is always to be conjoined with love of God’s children. John expresses this clearly in his letter:
“We love because he first loved us. Those who say, “I love God,” and hate their brothers or sisters, are liars; for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. The commandment we have from him is this: those who love God must love their brothers and sisters also.” (1 John 4:19-21).
Let us strive today to show our love for God by loving all of God’s children.
Image: “2011 Media Tour to Honduras” by US Mission to the United Nations Agencies in Rome is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.