December 4, 2024 at 10:10 a.m.
Serve the kingdom
Editor’s note: Deacon Walter Ayres delivered this homily on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1 at Historic St. Mary’s on Capitol Hill in Albany.
Last week, we ended our liturgical year with the Solemnity of Christ the King, when Jesus tells Pilate, “You say I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world ...”
Today, at the beginning of Advent, our reading focuses on Christ’s return, when he will come to judge His kingdom. It is a good reminder for us as we begin Advent, despite what the world tells us about a “holiday season” filled with shopping and stress.
Advent is more than a remembrance of what happened 2,000 years ago; it is our annual opportunity to consider the future, a second Advent, when Jesus returns to judge His kingdom on earth.
As today’s Gospel tells us, at that second Advent, “People will die of fright in anticipation of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.”
Not exactly the sentiment that we find on our Christmas cards.
Yet Jesus tells us, “... stand erect and raise your heads because your redemption is at hand.”
As Christians, we have the benefit of knowing how Jesus will judge the world; he tells us in the Gospel of Matthew, in the story of the judgment of the nations at the end of time, when the King separates the sheep from the goats, telling those who are saved:
“Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.”
And when the righteous ask when they did these things, he replies, “Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.”
It sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? Sharing what we have with those in need.
And yet there is more.
Throughout the New Testament, the future and present dimensions of God’s kingdom stand in tension. In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus says, “the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.” (Luke 17:21) And yet, when the disciples ask Jesus how to pray, he prays to God, “thy kingdom come.”
The kingdom is here, but it is not fully realized. We do not yet live in the kingdom, yet we can serve the kingdom.
One way, which I already mentioned, is to serve the least among us — the hungry, the stranger, the prisoner — through our individual acts of charity.
Another way is to build a just society.
Today’s First Reading tells us that God will raise up for King David “a just shoot; he will do what is right and just in the land.”
However, today, we no longer have a king to rule us, to do what is “right and just in the land.” Today we have elected leaders who, in theory at least, do what we ask of them.
Therefore, it is up to us to guarantee that our government does what is right for the least among us, making sure that they are clothed and fed and taken care of. We can disagree on the best ways to reach those goals; however, we cannot deny that we need to accomplish them.
The Church is called to be a servant of the kingdom by doing all it can to narrow the gap between the kingdom as now only partly begun and the full flowering of the kingdom that is to come.
The kingdom is God’s gift to us, yet it does not come about without human cooperation. It is enabled to break more fully into our lives through the Church’s efforts to build a better world.
And so, the essence of Advent is not just expectancy — waiting calmly for Jesus; it is also readiness for action, looking for every opportunity on a personal and political basis, to serve the kingdom through charity and advocacy.
As Pope Francis has said, “Sometimes we hear: a good Catholic is not interested in politics. This is not true,” he says, adding, “good Catholics immerse themselves in politics by offering the best of themselves so that the leader can govern.”
And so, as a new legislative year begins in 2025, we are called to respect life and promote legislation involving peace, justice and human reconciliation.
We can heed the call of Pope Francis to deal with climate change. We can heed the call of our bishops to fight racism and support immigrants. We can heed the call of the poor and marginalized for lives of dignity and respect.
By demonstrating this love of our neighbors, we will be able, at the final judgment, to do as Jesus instructs, to “stand erect and raise (our) heads because (our) redemption (will be) at hand.”
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