Dear Friends,
On this last Sunday of a waning Church year, we celebrate Christ as King and Lord. This feast compels us to look for God who comes to us in unexpected ways. God in Jesus bids us to be ready for anything and to look for God among the least, the broken, bruised and burned.
What Jesus asks of us is remarkably simple: to pay attention to our neighbor. Lazarus or the man born blind. The dead daughter of the synagogue official. We are to let the woman with the seemingly endless hemorrhage touch us. We are to dine with the outcasts of the world. Oh, and watch out for the barren fig tree in our neighbor’s yard!
One neighbor. More will find us if they know we are sincere. A stranger, perhaps, or a friend or family member – someone who asks something costly of us.
Across the way, Palestinians and Jews, Ukrainians and those who live in the terrorized parts of Africa ask us for what is costly to us. We’d rather not. We are quick to give away our castoffs, our extra money or the non-perishable food in our cupboards that is near its expiration date. But what we need – can we give that away?
Today’s Gospel is not so much judgment of those who refuse, who fail to give of what they really need, but a ratification – a confirmation of the depths of people’s actions. What we do matters. The very acts we may have forgotten, the seemingly inconsequential deeds, make us stand out in the world of "much-wants-more." We work out our destiny by accompanying others through their pain.
Whenever we give up our rights, our time, even our lives, using ourselves up for others, we enter the company of fools whose leader remains hidden and embedded among the unimportant ones of the world. Who is that leader?
Jesus – the king of fools – the one who was laughed at by the bystanders even as He was clothed by the soldiers in scarlet and had a crown of thorns pressed on His head. He could have avoided the whole thing if He had not been himself. But He had to be faithful to who He was. It is He we celebrate today. Not one on a lofty throne, but a God who became so human that we would hardly recognize Him in His surprising ordinariness.
Jesus, Servant king of fools at the bottom of the debris from buildings that have been bombed in Ukraine and Gaza. Jesus, Humble king of fools who shares His crust of stale bread and watered wine with the famished. Jesus, Just king of fools who will escort His beloved poor and suffering to life everlasting.
If we are not these very ones, by virtue or circumstance, we are their companions.
~ Sister Joan Sobala
