Solemnity of Christ the King (God, Shephard and Judge)

Our readings today give us, what might seem to be, contrasting images of God. In the first reading, Ezekiel speaks of him as a shepherd. On the other hand, the Gospel speaks of God as a judge. These would seem to be very different ideas. Shepherding more likely causes us think of God as one who guides us and whose essence is kindness and mercy. But God as judge makes us think one whose primary objective is to expose us in truth (ouch!) or to issue justice to us—in other words, to give us what we deserve. A shepherd connotes a bond with the one who is being shepherded, but judgment feels impersonal and distant. Despite these apparent contrasts, these readings remind us that God is both merciful and just. [1]

In Jesus’ Parable of the Last Judgment, he pictures God as judging and separating sheep and goats, putting the sheep at his right and the goats on his left. To the sheep, he says, “Enter my Kingdom. I know you”. But to the goats he says, “Depart from me, I do not know you”. [2]

          What’s at stake for the sheep and the goats is salvation. Maybe it can be said that salvation depends not so much on what you know, but instead who you know. If you know God is your God and your Lord, and as your father and your friend, then it likely is because you are one of his sheep. If you do not, then you likely are not. To be clear, the difference between the sheep and the goats is not a difference of degree, of how many good works mark one’s life versus how many sins. Instead, it’s a difference of species: you know Him or you don’t.[3]

While God shepherds us throughout this life, we believe He will judge us at death. As for death itself, we might be inclined to think of it as the opposite of life. But our Christian understanding tells us that death is not so much the absence or cessation of life, but instead an expansion of one’s life. I’ve heard it said that you are the same person in life and in death, only more fully…YOU. Death can be understood as life brought to fullness, that if life as we know it is lived in 3-dimension, the next life, where all-time and eternity become known to us, life comes to be lived in something more like 4-dimensions or 5-dimensions. Death can be further understood as ultimate clarity, where God is unveiled to us in ways we could never experience Him in this lifetime.[4]

While we might be comforted by the image of God as shepherd, and conversely, a bit uneasy with the image of God as our judge, we should not fail to consider, as it’s declared in the First Letter of John, that God is love (1 John 4:8). John of the Cross once said that “In the evening of our lives we will be judged on our love”. John of the Cross, I believe, would say that to love is to desire and to will what God wills for us, which by the way, His will for us includes for us to be in heaven.[5]

          On the other hand, if what we have desired and willed is merely and only what we ourselves want—that is, worshiping ourselves—we will likely come to exist in what has been described as our lonely, self-made prison. To be clear, God sends no one to hell against their will; the damned go there by choice. In C.S. Lewis’ book The Great Divorce, in which he imagined the human experience beyond this life, he declared that “There are two kinds of people, in the end: those who say to God, ‘Thy will be done’, and those to whom God ultimately says, ‘Thy will be done.’”[6]

Maybe a question you would benefit asking is, How much do you desire to know your heavenly Father? Where there’s a genuine desire, it gives way to responding. I believe that the more we come to know Him, we come to know ourselves in truth. But also, the more we do, I believe we open up to how He is shepherding us. Finally, as Deacon Brian said in his homily last week, the more we do, the less we would fear the judgment that awaits us. Simply put, the more we come to know our heavenly Father in this life, the more we will come to be most fully alive, now and for eternity.

[1] Dr. Peter Kreeft, Food for the Soul: Reflections on the Mass Readings, Cycle A

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.