Does This Gospel Passage Scare Anyone Other Than Me?

[tinytherese]

Matthew 25:31-46 RSV-CE


[[b]31[/b]] "When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne.
[[b]32[/b]] Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats,
[[b]33[/b]] and he will place the sheep at his right hand, but the goats at the left.
[[b]34[/b]] Then the King will say to those at his right hand, `Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world;
[[b]35[/b]] for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me,
[[b]36[/b]] I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.'
[[b]37[/b]] Then the righteous will answer him, `Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink?
[[b]38[/b]] And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee?
[[b]39[/b]] And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?'
[[b]40[/b]] And the King will answer them, `Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.'
[[b]41[/b]] Then he will say to those at his left hand, `Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels;
[[b]42[/b]] for I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink,
[[b]43[/b]] I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.'
[[b]44[/b]] Then they also will answer, `Lord, when did we see thee hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to thee?'
[[b]45[/b]] Then he will answer them, `Truly, I say to you, as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.'
[[b]46[/b]] And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."


Call it scrupuplosity, but I can't help but fear that if I don't spend time constantly serving the poor at every moment possible or donate to practically every single charity that I see (such as a little donation container at the dollar store asking for donations to help the illiterate) that my salvation is in jeopardy, but I know that this isn't true.

I fear that when I die that I'll be told that I missed so many opportunities to serve others and the Lord for that matter that I'll be sent to hell.

[BarbTherese]

The Lord does not seek to condemn us, rather is at great pains indeed to reveal His Love and Mercy of every last one of us, which we see from the outset at The Annunciation and Incarnation (Happy birthday, Mary! - feast of the Birthday of Our Lady today here in Australia). What a totally amazing fact, that The God of Heaven and Earth should become a human being like His creation and walk with them subject to cause and effect just as we are even, for Him, to a terrible death on the cross. I think it an act of truly Foolish Abandoned Love on the part of our Creator. It is something remotely rather like Queen Elizabeth or President Obhama while remaining the Queen and the President of their domains choosing to live and die as a homeless person because they are so concerned about their state of homelessness and love them deeply. It would be a foolish act, if a totally admirable one.

I think of of your New Testament passage as being the hungry, sick, thirsty and imprisoned that The Lord brings into our world or our own personal orbit - this is Divine Providence constantly at every moment willing our holiness and salvation. If one is a religious whose mission is to care for the sick, then much of their days will be given to the sick, caring for them. For a religious prison chaplain, it will be a mission of visiting those in prison and etc. etc. etc. For me, as a lay person in society, only now and then do hungry, sick, thirsty and imprisoned people come into my life and in your Gospel quote, The Lord makes it very clear what my response should be, in fact MUST be and without exemptions. Grace is always with us and it is a debt we owe to the Graces we are given, although we are weak and poor ourselves and often fail; hence, the Gratuitious Gift of The Sacrament of Penance always with us. I think also that some may be imprisoned by bars, others by their understanding. Quite often in these forums, I see posters at great pains to help others understand something they cannot understand. Such people too are hungry and thirsty for understanding. I have seen those labouring with some problem - a type of sickness, where members post to try to help them and alleviate their suffering.

In other words, those in need wear many faces in many places and it all boils down to having a compassionate loving heart for any person in need or suffering. "I will take your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh". "Jesus meek and humble of heart, please make my heart like yours"/

Not only this, but in the Doctrine of The Mystical Body of Christ, the merits of one are the merits of all, just as the failures of one are the failures of all. We are either building up or tearing down the Mystical Body into which we are baptized. Most of all, in our prayers for those suffering in any way at all, we are providing for them the very best available. In fact, in The Lord, we owe them both - i.e. whatever help we may be able to give, and the prayer of our hearts.

Finally, I think of it as being totally unable even if I were to become the greatest saint there ever was to deserve salvation. Salvation is a pure gift of God's Gratuitious Mercy, of His Abandonment to His Love for us - and holiness, becoming who one truly is, is a response to that Love lovingly.

"Fear of The Lord is the beginning of Wisdom" Scripture tells us. This is not being afraid of The Lord, rather it is to in a quite remote manner to glimpse as it were, though very darkly, The Holiness and Glory of God and to know, through self knowledge, the great abyss in between. Only one thing can bridge that abyss and that is The Loving Mercy of Our Lord reaching across to embrace and unite us to Himself, certainly no act or acts of ours can bridge it even if I give my entire life to, and then die for, The Faith, it will not bridge that abyss, rather at the moment of death, The Lord Lovingly in His Mercy reaches across it immediately.

Edited September 8, 2012 by BarbaraTherese

[BarbTherese]

The Lord does not will that we be unhappy in this world, nor upset by His Words to us while He lived among us. He wills us, indeed with Great Ardour desires us, to be happy in His World which He created "and saw that it was good" - and delighted and joyful, light in heart, mind and soul, in His Service. He does not want us moralistic, afraid and timid, serving out of fear. He desires ardently that we serve with our poor, weak and feable love for His Unconditional Constant Love and through love of neighbour. We either have really Good News to communicate, or we don't. The problem is that original sin has also warped our understanding of wherein our lasting happiness lies. Jesus is setting us straight so our knowledge and understanding strengthened by Faith and moment to moment Grace can engage in the struggle with what original sin has brought about. Well He knows too that often in life, this struggle is not an easy one, at times a most obscure and confusing one and so, if we fail for we are probably all daily weak and unfaithful somewhere or other to some degree or other, He has Gifted us with The Sacrament of Penance which is a very clear indication of His Constant Loving Mercy. What will He not forgive in a good Confession - nothing whatsoever! That is foolish and abandoned, totally unconditional, Love indeed.

Rightly in the Hail Holy Queen do we pray "in this valley of tears". Here on earth at this point, if I do not have tears in my eyes for some reason, somewhere a brother or sister, brothers and sisters, does have tears to shed for some reason. "We wait in joyful hope for the coming of Our Saviour, Jesus Christ" when "every tear will be wiped away".

Hail Holy Queen! Happy Birthday!
TinyTherese, have you thought about seeking spiritual direction? Even if you are unable to do so on a regular basis which is highly recommended by the very best, including Pope Benedict and he recommends it to lay people, is there someone (priest or religious or even a lay person trained in spiritual direction) with whom you could speak about your difficuties. I wish I could reassure you, that I had the words, but it may take spiritual direction. I laboured long years with scruples and about fears for my salvation flowing from those scruples, although I do not mean to state that you are scrupulous, rather perhaps labouring with a message in New Testament and "struggling with an angel". You rather remind me of St Therese. She wanted to be ALL vocations - so she came to the conclusion, that Love was at the heart of The Church and all vocations, so she would be Love. She didn't stray away from her humble duties as a Carmelite nun in an obscure French monastery, rather she lived lovingly her humble duties and her fellow sisters in religion. She became a great saint and Doctor of The Church renewing the spirituality of The Universal Church.

Edited September 8, 2012 by BarbaraTherese

[beatitude]

Mother Teresa of Calcutta wrote perhaps the best commentary on these teachings:

[quote]
It is not enough for us to say: I love God, but I do not love my neighbour. St. John says you are a liar if you say you love God and you don’t love your neighbour. How can you love God whom you do not see, if you do not love your neighbour whom you see, whom you touch, with whom you live. And so this is very important for us to realise that love, to be true, has to hurt. It hurt Jesus to love us, it hurt him. And to make sure we remember his great love he made himself the bread of life to satisfy our hunger for his love. Our hunger for God, because we have been created for that love. We have been created in his image. We have been created to love and be loved, and then he has become man to make it possible for us to love as he loved us. He makes himself the hungry one - the naked one - the homeless one - the sick one - the one in prison - the lonely one - the unwanted one - and he says: You did it to me. Hungry for our love, and this is the hunger of our poor people. This is the hunger that you and I must find, [b]it may be in our own home[/b].
[/quote]

Emphasis mine. If we don't recognise Jesus in the poverty and need of all those around us, every last one (including ourselves), then how can we truly know him for who and what he is when we see him on the last day? But remember that this isn't something we have to do alone. It's not a difficult test set by God. It's a beautiful discovery. I will give a personal example. Lately I've been interacting with someone who is not just racist, but very vicious in his racism - he is completely callous and uncaring about victims of famine and war in Africa simply because they are Africans, and he thinks there are too many of them in the world already. When he hears about Iraqis or Afghans killed, his response has always been, "Shame it wasn't more." I was both disgusted and frightened by the sheer hatred, and in the end I prayed to God to show me the good in this person, something that would help me to love him. I was moved almost to tears when that prayer was answered, and I caught a glimpse of how afraid and uncertain and self-disgusted this person really feels in himself. Then it occurred to me that praying that prayer - "Show me the good in him" - is basically the same request that the visiting Greeks made to the apostle Philip, "Sir, we want to see Jesus."

We can't see him unless we have help to find him. But he is always waiting to show us where to look. We just have to ask. And again, Mother Teresa: "God doesn't require us to succeed; he only requires that you try."

[TheUbiquitous]

[quote name='tinytherese' timestamp='1347080742' post='2480188']Call it scrupuplosity, but I can't help but fear that if I don't spend time constantly serving the poor at every moment possible or donate to practically every single charity that I see (such as a little donation container at the dollar store asking for donations to help the illiterate) that my salvation is in jeopardy, but I know that this isn't true.[/quote]

[url="http://jimmyakin.com/2012/08/do-you-have-to-donate-every-spare-penny.html"]http://jimmyakin.com/2012/08/do-you-have-to-donate-every-spare-penny.html[/url]

[quote name='tinytherese' timestamp='1347080742' post='2480188']I fear that when I die that I'll be told that I missed so many opportunities to serve others and the Lord for that matter that I'll be sent to hell.
[/quote]

So don't miss opportunities.

[tinytherese]

[quote name='TheUbiquitous' timestamp='1347122922' post='2480275']
[url="http://jimmyakin.com/2012/08/do-you-have-to-donate-every-spare-penny.html"]http://jimmyakin.com...pare-penny.html[/url]

[/quote]

Thanks, that was a super article and I've been reading the companion article to it "What Is the Best Way to Help the Poor."

[tinytherese]

[quote name='BarbaraTherese' timestamp='1347089996' post='2480213']

TinyTherese, have you thought about seeking spiritual direction?
[/quote]

Yes, I have. The difficulty though is finding a spiritual director. I've tried the website of my archdiocese and didn't find anything on spiritual directors. There's one religious community in my hometown, but they're a filled with retired sisters who worked in either education or hospitals.

[BarbTherese]

Jimmy Akin is an excellent (and simply written) apologist and a wealth of sound Catholic information. Thank you for posting the link, I just joined his 'secret information' club and also for his blog entries to go straight into my inbox. Both possibilities are on the link you gave.

[BarbTherese]

[quote name='tinytherese' timestamp='1347148128' post='2480380']
Yes, I have. The difficulty though is finding a spiritual director. I've tried the website of my archdiocese and didn't find anything on spiritual directors. There's one religious community in my hometown, but they're a filled with retired sisters who worked in either education or hospitals.
[/quote]

Hi TT! Have you tried phoning your diocese and asking how you can locate a spiritual director. Sometimes diocesan offices can help. This is how I found mine after years of being unable to find a suitable director. Actually, my spiritual director is a retired religious sister and an ex novice mistress in her Order and has proved for over 7 years now to be truly excellent for me. At first, I was reluctant as my previous director had been a priest. Thankfully, I decided to give it a try anyway and she decided the same for me, since she knew nothing about mental illness. I suffer Bipolar Disorder. With our shortage of priests, their rather appalling list of duties both in their parish and in the diocese, sometimes priests just do not have available time to give to spiritual direction.
If your diocese can't help you, I would ask the religious order in your area if they can help, or perhaps give you contact points of those who might.
My humble analysis for what it is worth is that if we are refusing direction by either religious or lay people fully trained in spiritual direction, chances are that we are going to have a very hard time finding a priest to do so especially if shortage of priests applies in one's diocese.
With your current difficulty and "struggling with an angel" (Jacob struggled with an angel sent by The Lord when he was trying to escape from his path ordained by The Lord) and your New Testament passage, you could always approach your parish priest and ask for an appointment - also, run the possibility past him of perhaps undertaking regular spiritual direction. They can't always help, but we cannot be sure of this unless we ask, but our parish priests are most often always available for an appointment.

Do read the link given by [color=#272727]Ubiquitous [url="http://jimmyakin.com/2012/08/do-you-have-to-donate-every-spare-penny.html"][color=#888888]http://jimmyakin.com...pare-penny.html[/color][/url] linking to a blog by Jimmy Akin, an excellent Catholic Apologist. Re your passage from the NT, Akin explains to us the difference between a command and a counsel of The Lord. He also explains very simply about "giving the last penny" - my comments: and not only in dollars, but in our mental, emotional and spiritual energy. We are limited and faulted creatures and if I try to escape from my nature, I am going to be trying to escape from the person beloved by The Lord, our selfhood, and the path and way The Lord has ordained for us - which is the very thing that Jacob did. Our prophets are almost notorious for desperately trying to escape from their path, that particular way along which The Lord desires to draw us to Unity with Himself. We are not called to live the precise life Jesus did, but to live our own unique life, our path or way, and everything in it, just as Jesus would live it.[/color]

[color=#272727]Edit: After posting, I noted your post that you had read the link to Akin - it was a super article, huh![/color]

Edited September 9, 2012 by BarbaraTherese

[mantellata]

I'm at a retreat center presently.... and the following is on the wall above me -- I think it is apt:

Only one...

My Child... I've often heard your question... and this message is My answer... hear Me well: You're concerned about the hungry world, the millions who are starving... and you ask, "What can only one do?"

FEED ONE

You grieve for all the unborn children, murdered every day... and you ask, "what can only one do?"

SAVE ONE

You're haunted by the homeless souls who wander city streets... and you ask, "What can only one do?"

SHELTER ONE

You weep for those who suffer pain, disease and hopelessness... and you ask, "What can only one do?"

COMFORT ONE

Your heart aches for the lonely, the imprisoned, the abused... and you ask, "What can only one do?"

LOVE ONE

Remember this, My Child... two thousand years ago, the world was filled, just as it is today, with those in need... and when the helpless and the hopeless cried out to Me for mercy, I sent a Savior...

HOPE BEGAN... WITH ONLY ONE.
(B.J. Hoff)

-----

Honestly, your post does sound a bit on the overly fearful side. I always think, what would I expect of a little child who came to me with a similar worry? Would I load on him the burden of the pharisee... asking him to accomplish something that is beyond his capability? Or would I try to strengthen his heart, and ask him rather to focus on giving from a generous heart in his normal dealings with his neighbor, kindness, compassion, forgiveness and maybe choose [b]one[/b] project that his small frame could handle whereby he could save his pennies for some God inspired good? If I would choose the latter for a little one, how much more would my good Father God deal as such with me? He is far more generous than I, and far more caring... and my infinite smallness in comparison with His infinite immensity must make me a very small child to Him indeed!

Take heart.... Jesus wants me to tell you that He loves you!

Edited September 15, 2012 by mantellata

[BarbTherese]

Jesus does indeed love every last one of us with a Totally Faithful and Everlasting Love and Mercy.

A priest once told me that The Lord ALWAYS grants the necessary Grace to deal with what is on our plate, right now - at that moment or time; however, He does not always grant the Grace to deal with our imagination and fears for or of the future. For example - supposing I reflect: "It would be terrible to live in the final days. I would be so afraid and don't know if I would be strong enough." That is all in my imagination and fear for an imaginary future and The Lord may not grant The Grace to deal with those fears, rather in Hope, the Grace to live in Him in my now and leave the future quite trustfully and confidently to Him and His Grace. And I am going thru a rough patch just now - a struggle patch to leave the future to The Lord, and try to leave my fears and imagination out of it as much as I can, and thus not reflecting from a book as it were.

For "The Church's Ultimate Trial" in the Catholic Catechism, go to #675 - 677, which does make [u][i]at this point[/i][/u] fearful reading perhaps. Doubtless it might be fearful too at the time. But at the time, Grace will be with us and remember to pray for those who are to live through these times.

We continually experience the death (suffering) and resurrection (joy and joys) of Jesus in our life now. And this is to continue to The Church's Ultimate Trial and the final passover at the end of time when Jesus will be victorious in all things. Paragraph 677 of the CCC " but only by God's victory over the final unleashing of evil, which will cause his Bride to come down from heaven.[sup][size=2]580[/size][/sup] God's triumph over the revolt of evil will take the form of the Last Judgment after the final cosmic upheaval of this passing world.[sup][size=2]581[/size][/sup] "

Even today Catholics can find the Cross of Jesus and suffering in life a stumbling block, rather than the victory and sign of victory that it is and embracing its expression in life as victory and joy - and of course, this latter is a great Grace. The Cross and suffering (contrary to the world) is for us victory and joy and a sharing in the Sufferings and Death of Jesus and thus our sufferings redemptive united to His. This is no pious platitude but great difficulty for us - yet something we strive towards, short of a great Grace. "Take up your cross daily and come follow Me". Jesus' path was not to human victory, but to a terrible death and suffering - and a type of death in His time reserved for criminals - a Person disgraced in and by the manner of His death. After His cruel death, comes The Resurrection. But no resurrection without death.

I was reading a sermon by St Bernard I think it was a few days ago and he writes that Our Lady was not drawn by her senses or her own will, but by The Will of God and in all things. Mary always was perfectly united and in her senses and will with the Will of God. This does not mean Mary did not suffer, for she did and to the very core a true spiritual martyrdom, but stronger than her suffering was her recognition and loving acceptance of God's Permissive Will in her life, as appalling and difficult, horrendous, as her humanity experienced it. It struck me with that kind of 'strike' that is immediate internalization that our senses can express one thing and very often our will leans towards that 'one thing' or things, group of things, or emotion, feeling or sensation (courtesty of original sin) such as absolute revulsion in suffering and often primarily more the sufferings of others than our own, but that we are called and Graced to go against our wayward senses and our own will which often wants to run after those sensations when rebellion can masquerade as compassion, care and concern. We are Graced to follow and unite to God's Will despite ourselves and our senses and will and as difficult as original sin has made it for us - short of a great Grace indeed.

God is Ultimate Mystery and understanding suffering for me anyway has to go into the 'mystery basket' and The Permissive Will of God. See CCC 324, 412 and 311. The Permissive Will of God does not mean passivity, for we are called to struggle against evil - and suffering is an evil. We are called to struggle against suffering with available means. And, Grace with us, in Peace and quiet Joy not in the suffering but in the good we believe quite confidently that God will bring about due to the suffering, even as humanly we suffer under it. We may never see this good here on earth. This is The Cross and indeed The Resurrection - and it is impossible to our human nature without Grace- it is a great challenge to us (and probably lifelong) - again short of a great Grace totally victorious indeed. It is the place where great Faith, blind and absolute trust in The Lord, meets a mystery of our daily life: suffering. And this is to continue until the Final Passover and the last days.

[sixpence]

I think that the basis of the passage is to treat each other with the same love and generosity as we would treat Christ. When God makes it apparent to us that someone in our lives is in need and that we can help, we should. I do not think this calls for seeking out every person in need on the earth, this is not possible. I think Mantellata has the right idea. You should not live your life in constant fear; instead, trust that because your heart is willing to serve, God will let you know when, where, and how you are called to do so.
I do not think it is necessary to give to every charity you see. It might be better to pick a few (or one) that you particularly like and trust.

[BarbTherese]

I agree.
We can trust Divine Providence (providing always for our salvation and sanctification) to bring into our orbit, our particular world or environment, all that is necessary. And in this orbit, personal world or environment we are called to be people of The Gospel following Jesus, not to live precisely as He lived, but to live out our own particular circumstances, our life and vocation and state in life, as He would live it.
As for charitable donations. We certainly cannot give to them all, but we can select a few to whom we give regularly. I also like to put money aside wherever possible for any world crisis that comes along.

Our vocation and state in life is that vocation and state in life in which Divine Providence will work to achieve our salvation and sanctification. Its quite ordinary and everyday duties and calls.

The theology of St Therese of Lisieux speaks very much to this. She did not step out of her own restricted world and vocation of a Carmelite nun in a Carmelite monastery. Rather she lived that life, not doing anything remarkable or outstanding to appearances, but what she did do (the ordinary duties of a Carmelite nun) she did extraordinary well in an interior sense and hidden, thus, from outward appearances. She lived a quite ordinary life in an extra-ordinary manner. This particular aspect of her theology takes up the words of Jesus Matthew Ch6 "And when you fast, be not as the hypocrites, sad. For they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Amen I say to you, they have received their reward." Although Jesus in this instance is speaking of fasting, the underlying theme can apply to many things in life and not doing things for the sake of appearances, rather to Glorify of God. Although in her own life, St Therese, to outward appearances did the ordinary duties of Carmel to glorify God, the reality is that her interior spiritual life after her death was revealed and brought great glory to God and her reward was saved for her in Heaven. Not that I think St Therese's motivation was ever for any sort of reward - it was for love.

The autobiography of St Therese "The Story of a Soul" is readily available, not expensive and also available online at CCEL. [url="http://www.ccel.org/ccel/therese/autobio.toc.html"]http://www.ccel.org/ccel/therese/autobio.toc.html[/url] Also, researching on Google can bring up some great articles often written by Carmelites on the theology of St Therese. Here is one of them: "Spirituality of Imperfection" written by a Carmelite OCD : [url="http://showcase.netins.net/web/solitude/vilma5.html"]http://showcase.netins.net/web/solitude/vilma5.html[/url]

Edited September 20, 2012 by BarbaraTherese

[Tab'le De'Bah-Rye]

Sometimes a smile is enough to gladden a saddened heart, and a G'day has it leap for joy.