No Soup for You

Seeing how we take care of Jesus in the poor

11/22/2020

Matthew 25:31-46 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 the 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.’ Then the righteous will answer him and say, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did 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.’

I want to thank everyone for your prayers, letters, and dinners during my COVID quarantine. We received enough chicken soup to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool – please don’t send any more. That reminds me of the Seinfeld episode where the chef said: “No soup for you!” I was especially touched by the prayers of the school children and their hand-made cards. Let me share a few of the funny cards from Immaculate Conception’s fifth grade class. Little Madelyn wrote: “I am praying for you and thinking about you. I miss your homilies and you performing Mass. I hope you are well and not bored…I will say 2 Hail Holy Queen prayers for you. Love, Madelyn.” By the way, the Hail Holy Queen is not a short prayer, so that really counts for a lot! Sweet Stella wrote: “We are praying and thinking about you! We hope you get well soon because we love your homilies! Hopefully, Fr. Daniel will take over! Don’t rush to get well (although it would be nice if you did), but don’t. But in the meantime we will truly miss you and I will say 3 Hail Holy Queen’s for you! With much love, Stella.” Stella could not make up here mind how fast she wanted me to heal: “Don’t rush to get well.”

Little Linda sent somewhat more serious sentiments, writing: “We all get sick many times in our lives. But you have one that can possibly kill you. I am here to say I hope you survive so get well soon. Love, Linda.” Linda is a quite the realist. Morgan wrote: “We hope you get better and we miss you and we hope to do church again. Be safe because you do not want to give COVID 19 to someone else, but we still love you.”

A boy named Emmanuel wrote: “Dear Father John, I hope that you feel better. I hope that you like my art, I try my best and hope you like it…In class we did the rosary, it was hard but I did it for you. Love, Emmanuel.” Emmanuel is right: the rosary is hard! Fifi wrote this glowing letter: “Get well soon, Father John! I hope you feel better! You are such a great role model to everyone including me. You are strong and one of a kind. You are a great priest and one of the greatest of them all. I hope you feel a lot better! Love, Fifi.” After reading that card, at least my ego felt a lot better!

I wanted to share those cards with you to highlight what compassionate children we have in our school. But I believe these children also exemplify what Jesus is talking about in the gospel today, namely, loving others, especially those most in need like the sick. In Matthew 25, Jesus describes the scene of the Last Judgment, where our Lord returns to separate the saved from the lost, the sheep from the goats. Those who are saved are those who love the poor: those who are the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the ill (like me) and the imprisoned. And to their great surprise, the sheep discover they were really loving Jesus in loving the poor. That is what makes our children’s cards and prayers so powerful and purposeful: they are not just loving a priest who has COVID-19, they are loving Jesus in him.

I am convinced that the poor will have a privileged front row seat to the final judgment. How so? Well, they get to see the world through the eyes of Jesus, who is always disguised in the poorest of the poor. When I was in high school, I worked with the Missionaries of Charity, the order of nuns started by St. Mother Teresa. I learned that besides the three traditional vows all nuns take of poverty, chastity and obedience, the MC’s take a fourth vow which states: “I will give whole-hearted and free service to the poorest of the poor.” Why did she insist on this unique fourth vow? Well, because Mother Teresa was convinced she was loving Jesus himself in the poor. Mother Teresa often said: If you cannot see Jesus in the poor, you will not be able to see him in the Blessed Sacrament. Both require the eyes of faith.

I think it is part of God’s providence that today’s feast of Christ the King and reading Mt. 25:31-46 always falls close to our national celebration of Thanksgiving. Why is that providential? Well, Thanksgiving is not only about family gatherings, turkey and dressing, and tryptophan naps watching football. Much more importantly it’s about love of neighbor and especially love of our poor neighbors. Here at the church office, we took up a collection among the staff to buy Thanksgiving dinners for the poor in our community. Several parish families have sent donations to Dc. Greg to support the work of the Hope Campus for the Homeless to take care of the poor. Thanksgiving makes us thankful for what we have because we are acutely aware of how little others have.

Do you know I regularly receive requests from international agencies and outreach organizations to come and speak here at Immaculate Conception? Why do they want to come here to I.C. more than other places? Simple: they know you are extremely generous especially to the poor. Like the sheep in Mt. 25, you are eager and excited to help Jesus in the disguise of the poor. You come to Mass and see Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, and then you leave Mass and see Jesus in the poorest of the poor. Both require the eyes of faith.

After having gone through COVID-19, I pray that no one else contracts the illness, especially since Morgan told me not to give it to anyone else. But there was one great blessing in this illness: for ten days, I got a front row seat at the Final Judgment. I too got to see the parable of the sheep and the goats come to life as I stood in the place of Christ and felt the love of our children and parishioners minister to me. “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.’” In other words, if we say to Jesus in the poor, “No soup for you!” then Jesus will say to us at the end of time, “No soup for you!”

Praised be Jesus Christ!