Beloved brothers and sisters, on this solemn Sunday of the Last Judgment, we hear Christ's weighty words separating the righteous from the unrighteous, based on how they treated the least of His brethren. "For I was hungry and you gave me food...I was a stranger and you welcomed me...As you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me."
These words should pierce our hearts as we prepare to embark on the great spiritual journey of Lent. As St. John Chrysostom exhorts: "If you cannot find Christ in the beggar at the church door, you will not find Him in the chalice."
Our fasting must not be mere abstinence from food, as St. Basil the Great instructs: "Let us not be confined to the aspect of fasting alone...True fasting is to put away all evil, to control the tongue, to banish anger, to suppress lust, to avoid falsehood, to keep ourselves innocent of detraction."
For how can we claim to be fasting for the sake of the Kingdom, while neglecting the King's commanded works of mercy? As Christ makes plain, on the Day of Judgment our eternal destination will hinge on whether we saw His face in the poor, the hungry, the naked, the prisoners, the outcasts - and tended to them as we would the Lord Himself.
So my brothers and sisters, as we take up the Lenten disciplines, let us adorn our fasting with generous almsgiving. Open your hands and hearts to "the least of these." Welcome the stranger, clothe the naked, feed the hungry. In so doing, you serve Christ directly. For He fully identifies Himself with the suffering and rejects of our society.
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