Feast of Christ the King

The other day I was watching one of my favourite programmes called 30Rock. It is a comedy about film studio. In this episode they had decided to make a charity programme to raise money for a disaster that had not happened yet:  So that their channel could be the first to get on the band wagon when the news of the disaster comes into their rolling news channel.

These run on charity programmes raising money for all different causes are part of our national conscience from the recent poppy appeal to Children in Need to Red Nose day. They are all very important and it is good to give money to charity and it helps millions of people not only in this country but in other countries too and it makes us feel good a warm feeling in our hearts that we have done some good.

I remember a few years ago listening to this Gospel and feeling quite good about myself because of the charities that I had given to throughout the year. So we had gone into Lunch with the parish priest and tucking into our Chicken and roast potatoes when a knock came on the front door. It was a group of Refugees that had found themselves in Leigh on Sea five of them in a single room.

Suddenly this gospel became real. For here was the stranger, here was the person in real need and they were standing at our door step. Often when we throw money at things we don’t actually face the reality of people’s lives. It makes us feel better, but does it really change another person’s life.

I would like to propose another way. Jesus challenges us to see the face of Christ in our brother and sister .for I was hungry so it is Christ himself who stands before us in the poor in those in need. And what do we do? We cross the street avoid the person. Surely it’s easier to throw a bit of money to a charity than to spend time them. Here in the person that we find most difficult that we would not share a cab with is our brother and sister and here in front of us is Christ himself and would we turn him away.

So what does this Gospel teach us about the feast that we are celebrating today? It teaches us something about the Kingdom. The listeners would have been shocked that Jesus said that the Kingdom was for all nations Jews as well as Gentiles that there needed to be help for everyone they would have recognized the fact that the things asked of them were part of the Jewish arms giving the good works of mercy.

What it also teaches us is that the best thing that we can give is not necessarily money but our time. Time to be with those on the fringes of society. To go out of our way in helping to poor. This is the greatest gift that we can give and the greatest way of helping bring the Kingdom of God here on earth.