The Republic of Heaven

 ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ (Matthew 25:45)

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Matthew 25:31-46 (Year A: Christ the King)

                                           pic: thoughtsofaith.wordpress.com/

Royalty and images of royalty run through the Old and New Testaments. Jesus adds a new dimension in claiming a Kingdom of Heaven – distinct from the earthly notions and realities entertained in the world around him.  He turns everything upside down by declaring the values of a kingdom where those least powerful, least honoured, least regarded are placed in a position of kings and queens. He goes even further by saying ‘whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ (25:40) The corollary is clear: ‘whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ (25:45).

Nobody has ever identified himself or herself so radically and so completely with those in need as Jesus did – neither before then or after then.

Sometimes we can read these passages as about good living – doling out a bit of our time and a bit of our money ‘to those in need’. At worst it can become a type of direct debit comfort to the conscience.

The writer Ron Rolheiser tells a story about a town built just beyond the bend of large river. One day three bodies were sighted floating along downstream in the river. One body was dead so they buried it. One was alive, but quite ill, so they put that person into the hospital. The third turned out to be a healthy child, who was placed with a family who cared for the child and who took her to school.  ‘However, during all these years and despite all that generosity and effort, nobody thought to go up the river, beyond the bend that hid from their sight what was above them, and find out why, daily, those bodies came floating down the river’

The story is about how we behave towards one another in a world where our sights need to be raised and our hearts enlarged.  This calls us out of a narrow interpretation of need, its response and our role.

Images of royalty – which continue to be relevant (after all we pray ‘Thy Kingdom come’ every day) – are complemented by images of civic, spiritual republicanism where we become citizens of a heavenly kingdom already emerging here on earth.