Fr. Tom Ritchie
In today’s Gospel they said: We have been with you. We ate with you. We walked in the street with you. But Jesus said: Be gone! I do not know you. You are not followers of mine. You will see people coming from East and West but you will be left outside.
To carry the name of Christian, to be seen at Church, to be seen praying, to carry rosary beads; these are not enough. What more is needed? A story written by the Russian author Tolstoi helps us understand.
Peter was a bootmaker in a little Russian village. He used to complain that it was easy for the apostles to be saved because they lived with Jesus, but he could not meet Jesus. But this day he had a strange feeling that something was going to happen. Perhaps he would get his wish. It was a cold winter’s day and he was in his shop working on shoes when he saw Nicholas clearing the snow from the foot path. He looked cold so he invited him in and gave him some hot tea.
Later in the day he saw a young woman looking into the warm shop. She didn’t appear to have good clothes and was carrying a baby. He invited her in and gave her steaming soup and bread and warmed milk for the baby. Before she left he gave her the woollen shawl that had belonged to his wife.
As he was about to finish an old farmer’s wife came to pick up her husband’s boots, but she had no money so he told her to take the boots and bring some turnips when the crop was ready. She left with gratitude, and he gathered up the scraps of leather and twine and threw them on the fire. He began to feel disappointed that he still had not seen Jesus. He seemed to hear a voice which said “Did you not see me?” Then the image of Nicholas, and the girl and her baby, and the old farmer’s wife came before his eyes and each time he heard the same voice say: “Did you not know me Peter?”
He blessed himself and picked up his bible. It fell open where the words run: “Come you blessed of my Father and possess the kingdom prepared for you for I was hungry and you gave me to eat, I has thirsty and you gave me to drink, I was naked and you clothed me……..as often as you did this to one of these least ones you did it to me!”
So his story ends, but not ours. What claim do we have to be called followers of Christ? Is it an empty name so Jesus will say: “I do not know you”. Or do we have a claim on the promises made to those who are merciful, to those who demonstrate that they really love others. We are challenged to look at our lives to see if we really live as followers of Jesus.
