Divine
loving is the basis of the story about the sheep and the goats. This story is yet another illustration of the
two great commandments that Jesus gives:
love God with your whole heart and mind, and love your neighbor as
yourself. In fact, these two
commandments are a summary of all that Jesus taught. They are the measure of our actions and the measure
of genuine Christian teaching. Christian
teaching follows the example of Jesus, who said to love others as he loves us.
Jesus
provides many examples of how to love others; the parable of the sheep and the
goats is perhaps the most familiar. With
this parable, Jesus calls us to feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, clothe
the naked, visit the sick. In other
words, Jesus urges us to do more than wish others well and send them on their
way without the necessities of life (Jm 2:16).
Jesus urges us to love others by taking an active regard for their well
being.
Taking
an active regard for others at times can be a difficult challenge to be sure,
especially in regard to the poor. The
word “poor” suggests destitution—a lack of nutritious food, clothing, reasonable
shelter and the economic resources to acquire these necessities. When we are aware of people in such
circumstances, our response is usually generous. We do not lack compassion for those in need.
The difficulty,
however, is that the poor are often invisible to us. We simply do not see them. Their invisibility stems primarily from geographic,
occupational and social barriers that block one group from seeing another. We feel bad for poor people, but they are hidden
from our view. They live someplace else. Socially and geographically isolated, the
poor these days are without name or face.
Yet, these
are the very ones Jesus urges us to love with real care and support. In this light, John Paul II spoke of the need to abandon
“a mentality in which the poor…are considered a burden, as irksome intruders
trying to consume what others have produced” (Centesimus Annus ,1991, n.28). The U.S. bishops first sounded this same call
in their pastoral letter, Economic Justice for All (1986). In that 1986 letter, the bishops present
economic standards based on biblical norms and the social teaching of the
Church.
The
bishops relied on those norms to affirm that “all members of society have a special obligation to the poor and
vulnerable.” They note
that the “preferential option for the poor” does not mean pitting one
group against another, but rather, strengthening the whole community by
assisting those who are most vulnerable (EJ 16).
The
bishops conclude that, “As Christians, we are called to respond to the needs of
all our brothers and sisters, but those with the greatest needs require the
greatest response” (EJ n. 16). Therefore,
the “invisible poor” must not be marginalized in society or in societal
consciousness. Neither should a “preferential
option for the poor” be invisible
in guiding social policies or a marginalized principle in the consciousness of
Christians. Because of its biblical
grounding, this pastoral letter remains as compelling today as when it was first
published.
This
perspective therefore challenges us to uphold a different vision of life. Jesus reminds us with the parable of the
sheep and the goats that a person’s worth is determined not by appearance or
income or ethnic background or even citizenship status. Rather, each person is created in the image
and likeness of God, and thus has a sacred worth as an inviolable gift of God. In this way, Jesus reminds us that compassion
and justice—especially in our care for the least of his beloved—are not arbitrary
values agreed upon by politicians and sociologists, but holy commands from the
One who created us.
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