Gospel: Matthew 25: 31-46
The final exam is not a catechism quiz. It is not a membership qualification check, nor is it based on attendance at or adherence to particular liturgical expressions. In fact, it is not even based on belief in God or not. The final exam is based solely on on whether we have or have not loved our neighbor in specific, concrete ways: feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, visiting the sick and imprisoned, welcoming the stranger.
What is more, this love is to be directed to every human being, for all our brothers and sisters, for all are children of God made in his image and likeness. To attempt a distinction in order to exclude another from love is to fail this final examination. There are no worthy and unworthy, friend or enemy, citizen or alien. There are just people whom God loves and whom God requires us to love.
The fact that Christian life is concentrated so little on these elements of the final exam and so much on other things tells us all we need to know about the decline of faith in the world. We may look for bogeymen and scapegoats, but it is we who are the goats, and not in the good way. Lent is our time to refocus on what really matters and put aside that which is peripheral.
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