Monday in the First Week of Lent, February 27, 2023

Matthew 25, 31-46

Jesus said to his disciples: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was 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.’ Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’ And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’ Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’ Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’ He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’ And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

It is useful to compare the readings selected in the Lectionary for a given day with the readings found in the traditional Latin Missal because we can gain insight from the choices as to what is emphasized in the Mass for that day or feast.  Here, we see the Gospel Reading for the traditional Mass for the Monday after the First Sunday in Lent and that from the current Lectionary are the same, namely, Matthew 25, 31-46.  This helps us to see what the Church wants us to understand: the necessity of almsgiving in the Christian life,  in this section of the Gospel of St. Matthew, the Lord has entered Jerusalem for the last time and he is teaching the people about both the coming destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the world, with the judgment to follow.  While the Prophets had spoken of a judgment at the end and the apocryphal Jewish works popular at the time so so as well, only Jesus provides details as to what it would entail, and what would make up the criteria by which God would judge the human race.  Jesus tells the people that this is not about the Gentiles being condemned and the children of Abraham being glorified, but about an individual’s life: the practice of  commandments anyone could carry out, for, as St. James would summarize, “James 1:27 (D-R): “Religion pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation and to keep one’s self unspotted from this world.”  

The Lord carefully enumerates the behavior that would be rewarded: feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, greeting the stranger, clothing the naked , visiting prisoners.  He himself did this when he fed those hungry for his teaching and even those physically hungry for being with him for days at a time; when he gave drink to the thirsty, as he showed the woman at the well: “The water that I will give him shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into life everlasting” (John 4, 14); when he welcomed tax collectors, prostitutes, and sinners and ate with them, and healed even the Gentiles; when he clothed with the robe of salvation the naked thief who hung on the cross beside him on Golgotha and confessed his belief in him; and when he visited the prisoners in limbo after he died on the Cross and led the righteous among them into heaven.  And, no less, the Lord looks upon us and sees that we are hungry, thirsty, strangers, naked, and locked in prisons of our own making, and he gives his alms to us in his great mercy.

We in turn ought to look upon our family members, relatives, friends, neighbors, and colleagues as those in need of alms and helping them.  We give them alms first of all through prayer, for whatever else any of us needs, we all stand in need of grace.  Then we seek through prudence to understand the true needs a person has and doing something about it.  In this way we continue the work of the Lord Jesus, or, he continues his work through us.