A Strange King?
Summary of a Fr. Gerry Creedon homily from November 20, 2005
"I was
hungry and you gave me food, I was thirst and you gave me drink, a stranger
and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, in prison and you visited me."
Matt 25:34
SOME UNCHARITABLE THINGS were said and written
about the recent visit of Camilla when she accompanied Prince Charles to the
USA. People have not let go of their admiration of Princess Diana. She was a
different kind of royal. She captured attention not only by her physical beauty
but her willingness to identify royalty with the plight of those afflicted with
AIDS and those maimed by land-mines. While she was no saint she exhibited compassion.
She was the Queen of Hearts.
This morning I was at the grave of Bobby Kennedy. Had he lived he would have
been 80 today! In his campaign for the presidency of the US he identified political
power with the farm workers of California, the alienated youth of Watts and
the poor of Mississippi. Long before the hurricanes revealed the poverty of
the Gulf area, he had declared it "unacceptable."
Jesus is a strange King. He is one with the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger,
the naked, the ill and the prisoner. All the people we would prefer to avoid
he chooses as his companions.
In his vision of the judgment nations will be judged as sheep or goats. I
do not know why he did not like goats. Perhaps He saw them as rambunctious,
selfish and arrogant. The sheep symbolized compassion. His message is not just
for individuals, it is for the nation. He seeks communities of compassion.
Our second collection for the Campaign for Human Development provides support
for low-income neighborhoods as they struggle against injustice and apathy.
Let us opt for the poor and the marginalized in their quest for greater dignity.
Today we welcome Sarah Rose though baptism into the church. She is called
to be a part of a great community of compassion. She will be anointed by the
Chrism and christened in the likeness of Christ as priest, prophet and king.
Sarah will be another princess of compassion, another Rosa de Lima for our time.
