Homily of His Excellency Msgr Selim Sfeir Maronite Archbishop of Cyprus
Dear Brothers and sisters in Christ,
“All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.”
The Gospel of this Sunday follows upon the earlier parables of the wise virgins and the faithful slaves. Those accounts of Christ summoned us to vigilance for the Lord’s return. However, the account given by Our Lord today passes from the place of parables into the divine reality of the General Judgement at the end of time when all human beings who have ever lived will be summoned from their graves into the ‘valley of Josaphat’ (Joel 3:2) to be judged by Christ the King.
Amazingly, there is no mention of the Ten Commandments. One might rightly wonder why, on that great and terrible day, Christ does not speak of that law, known to every conscience and written on every human heart. This may lead to someone to err, thinking that God has no interest in obedience to His Commandments.
The moral life is a seamless garment. Obedience to the moral law is the warf on which the weave of charity is fashioned. If the naked go unclothed, if the stranger goes unwelcome, if the hungry go unfed, it is because the voice of conscience has been thwarted and ignored by defying the moral law. Whenever the law of God is disobeyed, everybody and everything suffers.
It is also true that by awaking people to the sufferings of others, the human heart can more easily hear the voice of conscience. This has always been the genius of the saints. Throughout history, when a nation grew distant from God, the Holy Spirit raised upon holy men and women who through their work of serving their brothers and sisters awakened the voice of conscience among their fellow men and drew them back to God and obedience to his commandments.
Prayer
O Holy Spirit, raise up for our nation new saints to move our hearts and enlighten our consciences so that we may obey the will of the Father and find Christ in our brothers and sisters.
† Selim Sfeir
Maronite Archbishop of Cyprus