Dear beloved sisters and brothers in Christ,

I would be a pitiful pastor if I did not tell you what Jesus will say as he separates the sheep from the goats. You might haunt me, rattling chains and moaning, “Father David, you never told us.” Well, I’m telling you. Jesus said, “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:31-46).

At the pearly gates, it is not enough to come forward before the Lord and say: “I have loved somebody.” Everybody loves somebody. As good as it is, loving our friends, our spouse, and our children is not the love that determines our final destination. The Lord of Lords, the divine Judge at the pearly gates, expects more from you and me. 

Barbara Brown Taylor notes that the goats are not condemned for doing bad things. They are condemned for doing no thing. Nothing for the Lazarus at the gate. Nothing for the robber’s victim half-dead in the ditch. Passing them by and stepping over them on their way. The Lord condemns the indifferent goats for the sins of omission, what they failed to do for “the least brothers and sisters of mine.”

So what to do about the hungry, thirsty, sick, imprisoned, stranger and immigrant? The answer follows from another question. What would you do for your brother and your sister in dire circumstances? Answer: you would move heaven and earth for them.

That’s what Jesus has done. He suffered, died, and rose again to make us sons and daughters of the Father, brothers and sisters to him. He established the Kingdom of God so that you and me and all his brothers and sisters can live free from violence and hatred, free for sacrifice and mercy. Jesus knows that that Kingdom will never be established if people simply love their own and only those who love them in return. Why should the world care as long as we love only those who are easy to love. That is why this Judge calls for disciples who are willing to love those who have no easy claim on our love. The norm to which Jesus will hold us accountable is to love the least of our brothers and sisters.

This is really hard to do. If it were easy, everyone would be doing it. But by the grace of God, some do.

Elizabeth of Hungary (1207-1231), for example, used her wealth in service of the “the least brothers and sisters of mine.” She lived in the 13^th century at the time of St. Francis of Assisi. She was a princess, the daughter of the King of Hungary, married at age fourteen to a German prince. She prayed, wore simple clothing, and took care of the sick. Elizabeth took bread to hundreds who came to her gate every day. She made one of her castles into a hospital. Six years into the marriage and three children later, her husband died in the Crusades. Her in-laws, not in favor of squandering the royal purse on the poor, threw her out of the palace. She continued her squandering ways. She personally cared for a paralytic boy who suffered frequent bowel leakage and kept him in her own chamber where she personally watched over him and assisted him night after night. She cared for a little girl with leprosy as if the girl were her own daughter. She cared for a child covered with scabies. In 1228, Elizabeth joined the Third Order of St. Francis. She sold her rich clothes and begged for alms door to door. She cared for the poor and sick in a hospital she founded. She died at age 24, worn by compassion. Like Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Elizabeth of Hungary served the poor, even though luxury and leisure were hers. She was canonized four years after death. She embodied the words from the Last Judgment, “Whatever you did for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.”

It is important not to limit the Last Judgment to personal morality. The text clearly tells us that those who will be gathered before the king are not a group of isolated individuals but “all the nations.” The judgment, then, is corporate. This scripture passage does not simply ask if I feed the hungry but if such mercy is practiced as a society. Questions follow: Does our nation welcome the stranger through just immigration policies that reunite families and protect immigrants with the law? Do the sick in our country have adequate access to health care? Does our prison system promote reform and rehabilitation or does it simply punish? It is not enough for us to be merciful as individuals. We also have a responsibility to influence our nation to adopt mercy. When we stand at the pearly gates before the Lord on the last day, we will not stand alone. We will be judged as part of the nation to which we belong. If we as a society have failed to care for the hungry, the stranger, the sick, or the imprisoned, if we have failed to establish structures to care for the least among us, we will have failed to serve Christ himself.

Our parish penance liturgy for Lent is Tuesday, April 1. We gather together to repent from our sins of omission, what we failed to do for the least brothers and sisters of Christ. Now is the time to beg the Lord that he change us. For the sake of our eternal souls and for the sake of our brothers and sisters, Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, pray for us!

Blessed Lent,

Father David