Mt 25:31-46
[Jesus said to his disciples,] 31“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, 32and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. 34Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, 36naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’
37Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’ 40And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’... 46And these will go off... to eternal life.”
Whatever you did. We will be judged by our actions: what we failed to do, what we did, and what we could have done. Good intentions are not enough. Excuses and alibis will not be heard. In the end, the question is what we have done to make the world a better place: what we have contributed, stood for, endured, fought for, believed in, shared, sacrificed, and offered our lives for. Our biggest regret, they say, is to realize that we could have done something but opted not to! The irony of these bold undertakings will be how we express them into little acts of kindness—a glass of water for a stranger, a friendly visit to the lonely, or a simple inspiration to the fainthearted.
I was having dinner with an elderly retired priest when I suddenly remembered his gift for me on my ordination 25 years ago. I thanked him sincerely. He could not remember anything anymore. He did not even know he had given me a gift or why he had done so. But I remembered his kindness very well, his exact words, and his small, kind hand offering the gift; I can still recall the joy, the image of his younger caring face, and the nice thought from an older brother priest.