In the 1st Reading, God is the presented as the Shepherd. He will lead His flock as we hear in the Responsorial Psalm. However, in the Gospel, the scene shifts to the Last Judgement where Christ will sit, sift and separate the sheep from the goats. While there is selection, the criterion for judging is based on the 1st Reading, that is, how well we have served like God the Shepherd has.
At first glance, reading the Gospel, we see the King’s rather heavy-handed judgement until we realise that He is doing nothing more than to use the criterion of service. Here the talents are at play. Christ the King judges on account of our use of His blessings. He identifies as the poor, the hungry, the naked. In short, He places Himself in the shoes of the disenfranchised. Thus, to serve these marginalised is to serve Him. Blessings which are resources on loan to us are meant for our service of Christ in the poor and the rejected.
The question is how can we serve better? What does it mean to serve?
This year we have decided to bless and commission the Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion on this Solemnity. They have been called to provide a valuable service in the Cathedral. We often associate service in terms of fulfilling one’s duties. But service is more than discharging one’s obligation. To be able to provide a service is good because it is allows the Cathedral to function. Thus, we will soon ask for new lectors and commentators to proclaim the readings, sing the psalms and make announcements. We also require sacristy helpers, the people who wash, starch and iron the sacred linen. We seek for artists to arrange the flowers to beautify our sacred space. We need hospitality ministers who can greet and welcome the faithful who attend Mass. We want a cleaner crew to help upkeep the cleanliness of the Cathedral on a regular basis.
All these are necessary for the smooth running of the Cathedral. We have all come to accept and expect such services to be rendered so that we can worship in comfort. When the microphone does not work or now the LCD are growing dimmer, we are immediately conscious of how crucial the cogs must come together for a fully functioning Cathedral.
The commissioning of these extraordinary ministers on the Solemnity of Christ the King is a good way to get a sense of what it means to be a servant. As mentioned earlier, we naturally associate servants with service. But the truth is that to minister is more than just providing a service.
In the Last Judgement, the separation of sheep from goats seems to suggest that serving the poor is the only criterion used. In reality, it is more profound. Here perhaps we can appreciate that Christ the King is actually inviting us to imitate Him. What do I mean? We all recognise that service can be clinical and cold. Do you remember the scandal where some doctors, fearing religious contamination through touching, used pens instead to examine their patients? Likewise, the Cathedral can run like a clockwork. But what happens if it runs without the heart?
Without the heart, duties will soon turn heavy and burdensome. An EMOHC or anyone who ministers can actually get by with simply serving dutifully. If everyone takes his or her duties seriously, the Cathedral moves along just nicely. And yet, the question to ask is this. Do we resemble Christ? Is our heart like Christ’s heart?
We have placed a devotion at the centre of our liturgical life outside the Eucharist. Another term for the Adoration before the Blessed Sacrament is the “Eucharist prolonged”. Each Thursday we allocate two hours for parishioners to come and spend time with the Lord. Now we have added in Confession during the duration of our adoration so that the connexion between recognition with contrition for our sins and the Eucharist can be maintained. But more than this awareness of sin and grace, we are providing space and time so that the extraordinary ministers might come before the Lord. It is logical for an EMOHC to be present at the Eucharistic Adoration because their duty at the altar requires that they recognise the logical link between who they are and what they do. More so, Adoration before the Blessed Sacrament is the time and space for growing more and more into the Heart of Christ.
The ability to perform one’s duties is vital to a functioning Cathedral community. But loving Christ and beating with His Heart is so much more critical. Perhaps when we focus on Christ the King in His capacity as Judge, we may just miss the point that in order to be able to serve the poor and disenfranchised, it is not about more service that we have to provide. Rather, to be able to see Christ in the poor, our heart needs to beat more and more in rhythm with the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ the King.
