What You Do

In one week, 250 million Orthodox Christians throughout the world will commence their journey together into a time of preparation known as Lent. In his work, The Lenten Spring, Fr. Thomas Hopko writes, this period of forty days is to be "welcomed by Christians in the Church not as the time for self-inflicted agony or self-improving therapy." Rather, this "tithe of the year," is to be greeted as "the sanctified season consecrated to the correction, purification and enlightenment of the total person through the fulfillment of the commandments of the crucified God." Moreover, the hymnography of the Church beckons us to "enter the Fast with joy" and "not be sad." But on this second Sunday before Great Lent, a Sunday designated by the Church as the Sunday of the Last Judgment, the Church presents us with an image that can elicit holy terror and invoke repentance within our hearts through the Gospel reading commonly referred to as Parable of the Sheep and the Goats.

When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, "Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me." Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, "Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?" And the King will answer and say to them, "Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me."

As a student of theology at Bible college, I distinctly remember one particular professor's interpretation of this passage: Undoubtedly, he told us, Christ had a message concerning the poor, but these particular words were not to be taken literally by us today. Oh no, Christ was not invoking some sort of social program; this passage was not teaching the follower of Christ what his or her obligations were to the man and woman suffering from hunger, cold, thirst, or loneliness. Read in the proper context (and, I would add, through a distinct pair of theological glasses), one would understand that Jesus was talking about a future dispensation - the time of the "Tribulation" - and that the "least of these" were not all those around us but rather a specific remnant of 144,000 people that God would deliver during this period.

What a relief! Unless I happened to live during the tribulation, I could dismiss Christ's words. I could continue to cling to my belief that my actions had absolutely nothing to do with my ultimate salvation. Gradually over time I realized I could not dismiss the disquieting "what if?" lingering in the back of mind. What if Christ actually meant what He said? What if my eternal salvation was connected to how I acted during my earthly life? And if so, how terrifying.

How totally revolutionary it was to my very being when, through my reading of people like Dorothy Day and Mother Teresa, I began to wholeheartedly embrace the notion that I was meeting Christ in "His distressing disguise" each time I reached out to those in need; that yes, indeed, I would be judged on the last day not on the basis of my correct doctrine, or how well I fasted, or how many Bible verses I had memorized, or how many prostrations I had made throughout my life, but on what I did or did not do for the "least of these." My friend Kris recently commented that her priest in Chicago simply stated that if you choose not to help your brothers in need, you would go to hell. It seems harsh but that is essentially Christ's message in this parable. As St. James states, "faith without works is dead." And in the words of St. John, if we cannot love our brother or sister who are visibly present with us, how dare we claim to love a God whom we cannot see. Indeed, the love of the Father is not in us.

Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy. Lord have mercy.

Then He will say to those on the left had, "Depart from Me, you cursed, into everlasting 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; I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me." Then they also will answer Him, saying, "Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?" Then He will answer them, saying, "Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me." And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."