A reflection on the daily readings, for Monday of the First Week of Lent, by Father Perry.
+ Ah! Matthew 25. Does it get any clearer than this — that is, the intentions of Jesus?
Here, Jesus creates a “judgment scene” in which he, the Son of man, will sit upon a royal and eternal throne to give a royal and eternal judgment over the actions of each and every person; and you can only end up on the left or the right.
And, of course, those on the right are there because they lived the right; the right actions and the right attitudes, and the right values and morals.
And the left, of course — well hell, that’s kind of where they end up.
Hell right! I mean, Hell left!
Is it that simple? Is it possible that Jesus is giving the sergeant-in-the-Marines speech to beef up and develop these new cadets into a fighting army, with teeth like nails and a strength that would help them not only to fight like bulldogs but win every battle?
But can you imagine the breed of these people when he has to tell them not to “put a stumbling block in front of the blind”?
Who does that? Tripping blind people?! Then what?
Sitting and laughing at them sprawled out on the ground and bleeding.
Who does that?
And so God, through Moses and Jesus himself, seems to have set out to almost bark the moral commands to make a people filled with the very spirit of God, living lives of love, and grace and goodness.
Jesus, telling all that they have to choose to be sheep or goats.
What will it be? And just what kind of people do they want to become?
A judgment scene that makes the point eternally clear.
+ My question, however, is: Is that really how God means to treat us? Does he eternally judge us, or is he the merciful God that Jesus said he is and that the psalms sing out again and again?
Are the words of the Lord “spirit and life”? And do they really give life to us?
What could be spoken, and we would get it, and live it, and let all of that transform us.
But, in truth, the power of sin is great and can infect us and affect us any time, any where, and in any and so many ways.
And so, if the sarge barks and warriors are formed and the battle is won, well, at least on one level that makes sense.
If that’s what it takes, that’s what it takes!
But in the end, is it not important, for our spiritual integrity, that we eventually learn to do all of this stuff because of love?
Will it not, and does it not, behoove us to become the good and Godlike people that God and Jesus are inviting us to become?
Father Perry D. Leiker is the 13th pastor of St. Bernard Catholic Church. Reach him at (323) 255-6142. Email Father Perry at pleiker@stbernard-church.com. Follow Father Perry on Twitter: @MrDeano76.
