Our Lord Jesus Christ, Universal King, 20 November 2011, Matthew 25:31-46

Pantocrator - Christ the ruler of all

This Sunday is the last Sunday in the Church's calendar. Next Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent, and with it comes a new year. On this Sunday, the thirty-fourth Sunday of the Church's year, we always celebrate Our Lord Jesus Christ, Universal King.

This Solemnity was first instituted by Pope Pius XI in 1925. In his encyclical entitled: Quas Prima, the Pope sought to say the things that really matter as he looked out on the post World War I world. He saw the rise of fascism as the result of the economic decline that would culminate in the Wall Street Crash of 1929. As Pope, as Pastor to the world, he could see some of the serious difficulties that the world was heading towards. In our own time, Pope Benedict has presented the beauty of our faith in his first encyclical Deus Caritas Est.

Living now, as we do, at a time of increased uncertainty and anxiety, primarily as a result of the economic recession, we find ourselves once more called to re-evaluate where our deepest allegiances lie. To do this we must first of all take a hard and honest look at what is really happening in our world. Like Pope Pius living in an uncertain time, we find ourselves living in an uncertain time, with the possibility for great good and for great evil.

Having been talked up, hyped up into a frenzy around the Celtic Tiger, we now find ourselves being talked down into an economic depression, a recession. Certainly a recession is no good thing, we need only to think of the 1980s and early 1990s to remind ourselves of the dual-plague of long dole queues and mass-emigration. None of us want to go back to that. However we must be careful to discern the truth, and even if we found ourselves being swept along by the talk of economic certainty and fortune, we must now be careful not to be swept away by the blue talk of economic downturn.

If we are to have some anchors, some stability in this storm of words, then we must first try to wade through the words, or like St Peter, we find ourselves to step out of the boat in faith and to do with seems impossible, to walk on water. Only by placing our trust in God, in Christ Jesus, will we find a firm foundation, free from the stormy waters of economic upturn and economic downturn. This was what Pope Pius XI was attempting to do in 1925 when he inaugurated this feast day. He was attempting to call people to have allegiance to Christ, to make Christ their King.

Sixty years ago this year, the United Nations published the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In this document, intended to be a global document for a global human family, the dignity of the human person is enshrined. As a result of the declaration, human rights have flourished especially in the western world. It is our job, and our duty both as citizens of our country and also as Christians, to uphold the rights of every human being. These include the right to life, the right to shelter, the right to work. The vision that enables these rights is a vision that sees the world as a creation of God, not merely a marketplace where profit can be made or lost.

In our Gospel this Sunday we see that those who will be judged most harshly are those who do not show love for God in and through their love of their neighbour. Our responsibility to others is not dependent on our own financial wellbeing. We have a duty to other human beings that goes beyond simply the minimum they are due in justice. We, as Christians, are called to a much deeper love of our neighbour that reflects the love that God has shown us in our own lives. It is true that the more we have been forgiven, the more we ourselves in turn are called to forgive and to love. An abundance of love is the call of today's Gospel, a love rooted in Christ, Christ who is in the first place in our lives.

Today is a day to ask ourselves about how we have lived up to the demands of the Gospel in our own lives. The bottom line is not about money. The bottom line is about people.