The sheep and goats in Palestine are hard to tell apart. That's why the parable has so much more poignant meaning. The shepherd, on judgement day, has to look carefully and discern which is which. So, like the wheat and tares that grow together, so the sheep and goats may be in the same pasture, but when they have to be distinguished only the master shepherd is able to do so.
Furthermore, the fact that the goats look outwardly much like the sheep is a commentary on the church. The sheep live together with the hypocritical goats, and at the judgement both are surprised. The sheep were humble and so are surprised that they are redeemed. The goats were proud and are surprised that they are damned.
How to be a sheep? Serve the poor. Now, this is not just some sort of superficial spiritual blackmail to get us to do more for the poor. No, this is an indication of who the sheep really are and who the goats really are. The goats are the Christians who are all pious and have their worship and doctrine all correct and come across as the 'good Christians'.
The sheep look like the Good Shepherd who is also the Lamb of God. They resemble him who came--out of his vary nature--to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. These sheep may look like goats, but they just quietly get on with the job of loving God and loving their neighbor. They do so, not because they are trying hard to be good, but because (as they serve the poor) they are simply doing what they want to do.
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Question Father
ReplyDeleteHow do you serve the poor if you are poor yourself?
At Mass yesterday the priest in his Homily said the goats are separated not for what they do but for won't they don't do.
ReplyDeleteI have found that I best serve others with my time. I can't give financially but a little bit of time to give to someone who is lonely or any time or talent you have shared with another is considered charity. Some of the best charity I've seen never had anything to do with money.
Jack Hughes: you start by giving the widow's mite, which you have to give.
ReplyDelete@Mad Catholic...
ReplyDeleteStart a non-profit! ...;) But hey all kidding aside this is a major question posed by the so-called "prosperity gospel" movement (which btw is generally mischaracterized by their supposed "representatives" on television, most of whom are no more than temple merchandizers), the question being "How can God's people ever bless the poor materially, as we've been commanded, if they are themselves broke and busted? I think we all know there are certain spiritual awakenings that come easier with poverty, but I doubt that meant to revel in a needy state forever. Didn't Jesus say something about how even evil infidels know how to take care of their own children, and so all the more God, us? Heck the Old Testament is just chock full of promises regarding material sustenance and even overflow toward the righteous, and I don't know too many Jews that believe the inability to pay your bills glorifies God. So I thought the church's job was to augment and fulfill the old covenant, not render it to "greedy" and reform it.
Here is what i always get from that gospel--I am both sheep and goat. Both poor and humble and rich and hypocritical. In the ways I need to be ministered to I am poor. In the ways I can serve I am rich Hard to tell apart, indeed--because I am, always, both.
ReplyDeleteYour reference to separating the sheep from the goats -- are you implying that the distinction between those who go to heaven and those who don't is whether they serve the poor? Our presence in Heaven depends on one thing: the sincere acceptance of what Christ did for us, not what we do for the poor. Your point that we should serve the poor is a good one, but it is not the determining factor. And full rejection of "good Christians" as goats is insulting and denies the reality that even Christians are a work in progress -- none perfect, but doing what they can to come to know Christ. To dismiss them because they fit your good Christian stereotype is judgmental, which is not your place.
ReplyDeleteHeard a wonderful homily on this passage on Sunday, in which Father said that sometimes the poorest and neediest people aren’t those who have the least financially, but they can be the grumpy husband, the self-centered wife, the obnoxious neighbor, the moody teenager, etc. Father even used the word "rotten" to describe those suffering from this kind of poverty. The poorest people are those who are farthest from God. Father also said that we are all part sheep and part goat. We are sometimes more one and sometimes more the other.
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