Welcome to Finding God in Our Hearts. The following production, Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher, is a weekly program of deep spiritual insight on Scripture, revealing the indwelling presence of God. We appreciate your listenership and if you find this program valuable, please subscribe and share with your friends. Share this program is funded with kind donations by listeners just like you make your donation@pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com we are celebrating the solemnity of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Opening Prayer Almighty ever living God, whose will is to restore all things in your beloved Son, the King of the Universe. Grant, we pray, that the whole creation set free from slavery may render your majestic service and ceaselessly proclaim your praise through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.
Amen. A Reading from the Old Testament the book of Ezekiel 34, 11:12 verse and the 15th and 17th verse thus says the Lord, I myself will look after and tend my sheep. As a shepherd tends his flock when he finds himself among his scattered sheep, so will I tend my sheep. I will rescue them from every place where they were scattered when it was cloudy and dark. I myself will pasture my sheep. I myself will give them rest, says the Lord God.
The lost I will seek out the strayed, I will bring back the injured, I will bind up the sick I will heal. But the sleek and the strong I will destroy, shepherding them rightly. As for you, my sheep, says the Lord God, I will judge between one sheep and another, between rams and goats, the word of the Lord. The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. In verdant pastures he gives me repose.
The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want. Beside restful waters he leads me. He refreshes my soul. He guides me in right paths for his name’s sake. The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want. You spread the table before me in the sight of my foes.
You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want. Only goodness and kindness follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for years to come. The Lord is my shepherd, there is nothing I shall want. A reading from St. Paul’s first letter to Corinthians 15:26 and the 28th verse brothers and sisters, Christ has been raised from the dead the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
For since Death came through man. The resurrection of the dead came also through man. For just as in Adam all die, so too in Christ shall all be brought to life, but each one in proper order. Christ the first fruits. Then at his coming, those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end when he hands over the kingdom to God his Father, when he has destroyed every sovereignty and every authority and power, for he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.
The last enemy to be destroyed is death. When everything is subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to the one who subjected everything to him, so that God may be all in all the word of the Lord. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the kingdom of our Father David that is to come. Alleluia the Gospel is taken from St. Matthew 25th, chapter 31st to the 46th verse.
Jesus said to his disciples, when the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right and goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right, 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 the righteous will answer him and say, lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink?
When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When do we see you ill or in prison and visit you? And the king will say to them in reply, amen. I say to you, whatever you did for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me. Then he will say to those on his left, depart from me, you accursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food.
I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. A stranger and you gave me no welcome. Naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison and you did not care for me. And they will answer and say, lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger, or naked or ill or in prison and not minister to your needs? You will answer them. Amen.
I say to you what you did not do for one of these least ones you did not do for me. And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. The Gospel of the Lord. Take a few moments as we listen to the music to ponder the wisdom and the truth found in these readings. Ram Sam this celebration of the Eucharist is our. Our final celebration for this year.
Liturgical year is not the same as our calendar year, and it ends with this great feast of Christ the King. And it seems so appropriate that it ends this way, because we know that throughout this entire year, as we’ve listened to the Gospel of Matthew in particular, we recognize the call that God has placed in the hearts of human beings to enter into a kingdom, the kingdom of God. So it’s appropriate that we then call this last Sunday a feast, a celebration of the kingdom of God. And when we look at this idea of a kingdom, it seems at first so counter to who Jesus is, because he keeps talking to us about his work as a shepherd, as a caring, loving, simple man who is there constantly caring for us. So we have to be careful with the image of Christ as a king. But it works when we understand something about the promise of how the kingdom of heaven is going to be established on this planet, on this earth, what it is that we’re all engaged in.
And it is a new kingdom with a new leader. And the interesting thing about this leader is yet he carries the image of a patient, loving person. At the same time, he is so strong and so powerful, and he can get rid of everything that is not working toward the kingdom of God. So let’s look at these images. The main thing that I want to start with is the image of God as revealing a son who then becomes a good shepherd. In the first three centuries of the church, the church was a hidden church, an unlawful church.
It was something that was considered, if you were following this new way, that you would be. If you would be discovered, you would be destroyed. And so he lived underground, like in the catacombs, is where they gathered, buried their dead. And the first images of who the Christ is in those first 300 years was always the same. It was an image of his face, but usually always, if it was an image of what he was doing, he was a shepherd. There’s no crucifixion depicted in those first 300 years.
The first one that we’ve discovered is about was around 323. But that interesting thing is that the focus in the beginning was this kingdom that God has come to establish is best described not as A legalistic kingdom where there is a magistrated judge and everyone’s constantly being judged. No, it’s about caring. It’s about a kingdom of caring. And so we go back to one of the earliest images in the Old Testament, in Ezekiel, of this image of God as a shepherd. And it’s a beautiful, beautiful image.
And what it is saying is that the kingdom of God that is being established is one that is a empathetic, compassionate environment in which one would live. When Ezekiel uses images of the scattered, living in darkness, being stressed, being lost, being strayed, being injured, being sick, you know, at times, if that may be in your mind, as it was often in mine, that we’re looking at these people who are obviously in this state. When I look at people and they seem to be fine, they’re sitting in an airplane near me. I watch them at the grocery store or whatever. I have no idea where they are. I don’t know if they feel disconnected from people, if they are scattered, if they’re dealing with depression, if they’re feeling so stressed they can’t find any rest, if they feel that they have no direction, that they’ve strayed away from who they really believe they were, and maybe they were trying to find themselves, they’re sick.
I want you to imagine that this is the thing that we have to understand that Jesus is saying to us in his ministry, foreshadowed in this beautiful image of Ezekiel, that this kingdom is about sensitivity and awareness and consciousness of the human condition that we are all sharing in. And, you know, when you are in a position of being separated from the culture, when you’re running the risk of dying if someone finds out who you are, the communities that are formed in that time are really intense. And so we go back to the early church, and when we listen to these directions that were given to the early church, they were very much designed to help them at this time in their life. And so we can’t always just take literally some of the images that are used, because they’re used to address a need at that time. And yes, the need is universal, but in some ways it’s unique to that particular time. So the overall theme is that we’re living in an environment called the Kingdom of God, where care and support of one another is so essential.
Matthew goes to the same things. And it’s interesting, in Matthew, there is something given that is even more mysterious and something to ponder, and that is that when we’re told in Matthew’s Gospel that we should be caring for each other, the Image is given to us that the reason we care for each other is because when we’re caring for each other, we’re caring for God. That we are him, he is us. That there is a union in this whole mysterious thing called church called life. Whatever we do to another, we have done to divinity. Whatever we do to each other, we’ve done to ourselves.
It’s like there’s a oneness, a unity in all of this that we need to ponder. And it’s difficult to figure out how it all works. But the one thing I want to make sure you don’t take away from these readings, something that I used to take away all the time, is an oversimplified binary way of looking at the world. Because Matthew’s Gospel talks about the world. At the end, everyone’s divided, almost 50, 50. Half of them go to hell, half of them go to heaven.
And it’s a very depressing kind of thought that we’re judged that way, and we’re not judged that way. This passage is not about that kind of judgment. It’s not so much about whether there are some that are cast into eternal fire. That’s not it. The main thing is there is a risk of not following what we’re being shown, what we’re being taught. And the way to talk about the risk is to say, if you don’t do it, it’s really a catastrophe, is a mess, it’s destructive.
So living in the kingdom is living in an awareness of who we are to each other, how important it is that we be there for each other, how we need to perceive each other and penetrate the facade of other people. Not by invading in your questions and things, but just going past what you know is probably a facade that we also put up. That we look great, we look like we’re doing fine, and just ponder the beauty and the awesomeness of what it is that we have before us. An opportunity to be sources of life for each other. That’s why we’re here. That’s what it’s all about.
To be in a room filled with people and to realize that they’re all dealing with whatever darkness, whatever difficulty, whatever way in which they feel naked, exposed, whatever, just to have an intention for everyone, that we want them to feel and know that they are loved, they’re valued, that they’re beautiful. That’s the kingdom of God. That’s the kingdom he came to establish. So just as the disciples were challenged to be attentive to each other’s needs and desires, longings, so we too today have the same responsibility. And when we’re in that awareness, we’re celebrating the Kingdom of God. The Closing Prayer Father, open our eyes, open our hearts to the mystery of your kingdom.
It lies just below the surface of our consciousness. So often we get tied up into all the kind of self centered ways in which we struggle to live our lives. But you invite us into the most beautiful kingdom, a kingdom of love, kingdom of truth, life, holiness, grace, justice, peace. Let us embrace this responsibility with hearts filled with hope and trust that your kingdom has come. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen. The music in our program was composed and produced by Ryan Harner for this show.
Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is funded with kind donations by listeners just like you. You can make a one time or recurring tax deductible donation on our website pastoralreflectionsinstitute.com we thank you for your listenership and your continued support. Without it, this program would not be possible. Pastoral Reflections with Monsignor Don Fisher is a production of the Pastoral Reflections Institute, a NonProfit in Dallas, Texas dedicated to enriching your spiritual journey. Executive Producer Monsignor Don Fisher Produced by Kyle Cross and recorded in Pastoral Reflections Institute Studios. Copyright 2020.
