Deacon Brigid Waszczak
Sisters and brothers,
Has someone said you did something for them, but you have no memory of it?
Long after I gave a women’s retreat, an unsigned note arrived stating my talk prompted a long-delayed action. I didn’t remember my exact words, but recalled sharing that I’d confronted a long-hidden secret. I offered support to anyone suffering under the weight of keeping secrets. I’ll never know if that motivated her.
Matthew 25: 31-40 speaks about people who follow the teachings of Jesus and those who don’t.
“Sheep” are the winners because they treat others, especially the marginalized, with compassion. Jesus implies that in treating the vulnerable with love, we also show Him love. (“Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”)
Following Jesus isn’t about rule keeping, but about our heart, inner disposition, and core values.
Our acts aren’t separate from loving God, but love in practice whether we recognize it in the moment or not. Following Jesus calls us to radical hospitality, inclusion, and mercy for all.
Matthew challenges the idea of Kingdom as a reward. It presents love, justice, and generosity as criteria for entering the Kingdom.
In a community by a river, they discover a dead body on the bank. They lovingly tend to the body and bury it. Another body appears a week later. The community repeats the process.
When bodies wash up over many weeks, one member rushes past the body and starts running up the river bank in the direction from which the bodies float down. “What are you doing?” his neighbors ask. “Someone needs to find out why these bodies keep appearing,” he replies.
He isn’t disrespecting the dead but looking for the cause, for justice for those who die and wash ashore. Seeking justice is love in action.
This scripture passage presents that component of justice. When bad things continually happen to our brothers and sisters, we need to seek out the root cause, to love them enough to address a system that perpetrates the wrong. Whatever we do for the least of our neighbors, we do for Jesus.
We aren’t all equipped to be justice warriors, but, if we follow Jesus, our transformed hearts will be equipped to treat others with love, mercy, kindness, and compassion even if we don’t realize we’re doing so in that moment.
—Deacon Brigid
