Feast of Christ the King
November 26th 2017
Gospel: Matthew 25,31-46
Homily of the Pontiff Samuel
The Gospel of Matthew accompanies us throughout this liturgical year of our Church to deeply examine and meditate the word of Jesus. The passage from the Gospel quoted today (Mat 25: 31-46) leads us to meditate on Christ, true Man and true God (Joh 3:13; 1Jo 5:20), the King of kings and the Lord of lords (Rev 17:14; 19:16), who in His infinite mercy will judge us (Sir 16:12-13). He will judge everyone: sons and creatures; free and slaves; those who are animated by good will and those who are not, judging the faith and the deeds of all peoples (Sir 24:21, Isa 3:8, Jer 25:14, Eze 7: 3.8, Mat 5:16, Joh 3:19-2), so to save those who have faith in Christ (Joh 6:28-29; Rom 3:25-26;) and accomplish His works (Rom 2:5-11; Jud 2:14-26).
Jesus is good but He is also just (Psa 116:5). He judges the Gentiles and separates them one from another as the Shepherd separates sheep from goats (Mat 25:32). Jesus is therefore the Good Shepherd (Joh 10:11.14) but also the Supreme Judge (Acts 10:42; Rom 2:6; 1Co 4:4; 2Ti 4:1.8; Heb 12:23). Those who are placed at His right hand are the “righteous”, the “blessed by the Father” (Mat 25:34), while those on His left hand are driven away from Jesus (“go away from Me”), are called “cursed” and chased away, into “the eternal fire” (Mt 25:41).
Christians usually see Jesus as meek and good (Mat 11:29), gentle and understanding, always ready to reach out to everyone. And this is Jesus. But Jesus is also passion. Live passion. That live passion that get Him to defend what belongs to the Father (Mat 21:12-13), to defend Christianity and at the same time to rise up against all those who have betrayed His teachings, against the hypocritical Pharisees (Mat 23:13-33), against those who scandalize the little ones and the innocent (Mat 18:6). In today’s Gospel Jesus tells about the “little ones” (Mt 25:40.45).
Jesus blesses and calls “righteous” (Mat 25:37) all those who, during their lifetime, have helped the “little ones” that are hungry and thirsty; that are strangers and naked; sick or in prison (Mat 25: 37-40). Whoever helps the “little ones”, helps Jesus. The first aid is for the spirit of the “little ones” that is to be nourished. And we must understand the essential nourishment. Jesus is true Man and true God. Jesus is flesh and spirit at the same time (Joh 1:32-33; Joh 3:34). In Jesus, the Spirit and the flesh melt together becoming one thing. And so it must be for each of us, called to be “sons of God” (Rom 8:14). And by virtue of the Baptism we received (Act 22:16; Rom 6:4; Eph 4:5; Col 2:12), this is who we really are (1Jo 3:1). The sons of God are those who are baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit (Joh 1:12). So it is not true, as it is preached in another house – which once was and now is not (Rev 17:8-11) – that we are all sons of God. It is one thing to be “sons” but another to be “creatures” of God. The difference is essential and substantial.
The sons of God, on the example of Christ, Man-God, and on the example of the first Christians, the Apostles, are called to give to everyone the first essential nourishment: Christ, so to feed the soul first. Then, to provide to nourish even the body. I was “hungry” and I was “thirsty”. You gave me food and drink (Mt 25:35). Christ is the essential nourishment for the sons of God, the only One who feeds and quenches their thirst (Joh 6:50-51). Christ wants to feed and give drink to everyone, so that all of them can be a part of Him. That means to live His Mass, that is alive, continuous, and palpitating: to co-participate in the Redeeming Sacrifice of Christ (Rom 12:1). The first nourishment that is to be brought to all people, to the “little ones” in the world, is Christ. Here is the importance of proselytism, as Jesus commanded. Christians must proselytize (Acts 13:47). Saying the opposite, as others continually do, defining proselytism as a “solemn nonsense”, means denying the teaching of Jesus, means saying that Jesus talks nonsenses. He who says this, is not animated by the same Spirit of Jesus, but by a spirit contrary to Jesus (1Joh 4:3), for teaching to do the opposite of what Jesus teaches, He who has commanded His sons to proselytize (Mat 28:19; Mar 16:15-16; Luk 24:47).
Therefore, the Christian’s first duty is to be nourished by Christ and to take Christ and Christianity to all peoples, so that they may be saved. This is the first and real hunger to be fed, and the first and real thirst to be quenched, as Jesus said to the Samaritan woman at the well: “Whoever drinks this water will get thirsty again; but anyone who drinks the water that I shall give will never be thirsty again”. And the woman, who was a pagan and not a “Christian”, immediately said, “Sir, give me some of that water, so that I may never get thirsty and never have to come here again to draw water” (Joh 4:13-15).
In this Church, Christ is the priority. Christ is the centre. Christ is the first necessity. Christ is everything. Christ is the living Bread which has come down from Heaven (Joh 6:51) and in Spirit and Truth (Joh 4:24) must be the nourishment and the drink for all people. Here is that, in this final point of time (1Pe 1:5, 20) of God’s history which we are now living, the words of Jesus recorded in the Gospel are fulfilling. And everything is experienced in Spirit and Truth (Joh 4:23). In this Church, the communion with Christ, living Bread which has come down from Heaven, is lived in Spirit and Truth, in the spiritual communion with Christ, who nurtures His sons, from heart to heart, from spirit to spirit. Thus, the sons of God, in Spirit and Truth, feed on Christ, living Bread which has come down from Heaven, true food and true drink (Joh 6:55-58.63).
Every son of God, after having nourished the soul with what is essential, Christ, is called to help the “little ones” with deeds, even in the corporal necessities of the poor, the needy, who must be helped as much as possible to each, individual citizen and nation. He who favours the “Arab invasion” (these are his very words) on the pretext of helping the poor, in reality wants to undermine Christianity, so to leave peoples and nations in the hunger and thirst of Christ.
Whoever despises Christ and His Person and uses the “poor” for a merely propaganda purpose and for ends that do not lead to Christ, but that instead drives away from Christ, is not from God. Whoever says that Jesus on the Cross made Himself the “devil”, like a “snake”, “ugly to make you sick”, that “the Way of the Cross is the story of God’s failure”, and that calls Jesus “stupid”, is not from God (Phi 3:18, 1Jo 2:18). The poor are used, the poor are exploited, but the true hunger and true thirst of the people are not satisfied. People, today more than yesterday, are hungry and thirsty for Christ. Christ, living Bread which has come down from Heaven. Christ, the Love made Person (Joh 15:9), that is opposed to the “love” of the one who calls himself “father”, but that is not “father”. A “father” who uses the word “love” to drive people away from Christ and to bring them into a new world religious philosophy that does not come from the true Father, God Almighty. One is the religion wanted by the Father: the Christian one, that in Christ, the only Saviour (Mat 1:21; Luk 2:11; Phi 3:20; 2Pe 1:11), manifests Itself. He who does not believe in a Catholic God, who does not believe that Christ is the Absolute Truth (Joh 14:6) will never welcome and feed the little ones, the poor. But he will increase hunger and thirst in the world. He will cause the spiritual death for hunger and thirst, of many “little ones” in the world.
Once hunger and thirst are satisfied, Jesus says that we are to provide for the needs of foreigners and to clothe those who are naked. Christ is the close, intimate friend who accompanies us in our daily lives. Not the “foreigner”, the stranger (Eph 2:19). Christ manifests Himself in the little ones. The intimacy of the little ones must be protected and defended. “Let the little children alone, and do not stop coming to me” (Mat 19:14; Mar 10:14; Luk 18:16), says Jesus. The little ones must be protected from those who have allowed hell to prevail against their hearts (Mat 16:18). Woe to who abuses these little ones. Woe to who is accomplice of the abusers of the little ones (Mar 9:43-47), and of those who hide behind empty words only “to show” that they want to do, by instituting commissions and courts that in reality do nothing to really put a stop to this scandal. Woe to anyone who scandalizes one of these little ones, says Jesus in the Gospel (Mar 9:42; Luk 17:2). They “would be better drowned in the depths of the sea with the great mill-stone round the neck” (Mat 18:6). On the day of Judgment, their tears will be bitter. Woe to you, hypocritical Pharisees!
Jesus in the Gospel then talks about illness and about the conditions of those in prison. When the soul is ill, it needs the Doctor (Mat 9:12; Mar 2:17; Luk 5:31), Good and Holy, Merciful and Just (Psa 116:5). And the same goes for the body. He who believes in Christ has eternal life (Joh 3:18.36; 6:47; 11:25). Life is a gift of God (Gen 2:7) and as such should be preserved and defended. No one can violate the sacredness of life. No man is allowed to turn off people’s lives (Mat 5:21). No “human accompaniment” can justify the “end-life” caused by man. Only God can give or take away life. Woe to the man who replaces God. Woe to the one who “enthrones himself in God’s sanctuary and claims that he is God” says Saint Paul to the Thessalonians (2Th 2:3-4). Woe to who teaches a law contrary to that of God the Father Almighty! “The time is sure to come when” says Saint Paul to Timothy, “far from being content with sound teaching, people will be avid for the latest novelty and collect themselves a whole series of teachers according to their own tastes; and then, instead of listening to the truth, they will turn to the myths” (2Ti 4:3-4).
Here are those times (1Ti 4:1; 2Ti 3:1). Here are the myths, narrated in another house. Christ is no longer the Way, the Truth and Life. It’s no longer taught to believe in Christ, the Catholic God, Universal, the absolute Truth, but it’s taught to follow the good according to one’s conscience. It is taught that everything is relative. Everything is humanized.
In that house, called by the Father to make men live Christianity, the primogeniture has been sold off (Gen 25:23). The True Doctrine, which is Christ, is no longer taught. The indissolubility of marriage is no longer taught (Mat 19:6, Mar 10:9), but instead marriages and the value of the family founded on the union of a man and a woman (Mt 19:4-6; Mar 10: 6-7), are annulled by the blows of the “motu proprio“. The only thing said was: “Who am I to judge?” (1Co 6:10). And so the soul of many is poisoned and put in a state of imprisonment. True Christians have the task of visiting these “little ones”, comforting and freeing them, and making them understand the Truth, which is Christ (Joh 14:6). Many are trapped by the thought that the Holy Spirit can never abandon that house, which once was and now is not (Rev 17:8-11). The Holy Spirit has moved away because that House no longer worships the true God, Christ (1Jo 4:3). The Spirit has been betrayed and the Father has withdrawn His Spirit (1Sa 16:14, 18:12). But many little ones have their spirit imprisoned, trapped.
We want to make everyone understand the Spirit that animates this House, this Church: a Spirit who has wanted to establish His Covenant with this House (Rev 21:3; Jer 31:31-34; Rom 9:25-29) leaving an old Jerusalem (Rom 9) with all its traditions, with all its ostentations, with all its rites, in order to free many sons from a condition of a spiritual slavery, worse than that of the brothers who were set free by Moses at the time of that Pharaoh.
On the Day of Judgment, those who will be saved will not be only the ones who, as the Pharisees say, will enter this Ark or will come to this Land of Love (Joe 3:5; Rev 14:1) chosen by the Father to lead all peoples to salvation. Whoever arrives in this Land to live Mary, the Ark of the New Covenant renewed in the Spirit of Christ, and to honour God and open his heart, has already undertaken the Way that leads to the Father’s heart. And in the moment in which the Father’s Commandments are respected, Salvation is for everyone (Deu 7:9; Eze 18:19; Mat 19:17). But salvation cannot be attained for free (Sal 119,155), as it is said in another house, that house. Salvation is an achievement (1Pe 10-21; Rom 1:16; Eph 6:16-17; 1Th 5:7-11; 2Ti 3:15) of all those who, with heart and will, want to live and to put the Commandments of God into practice.
On the Day of Judgment, those who will be saved, are all those who, even though not living this Church, are people motivated by the goodwill of understanding and discerning where the Truth is, the Truth that is Christ. On that day, even all those who have been poisoned intentionally by the old Jerusalem will be saved, for they were poisoned without being aware of it. Those who had no idea of what is really happening, will be saved (Act 3:17, 17:30).
On the Day of Judgment, those who will be not saved, are instead all those who have put in the hearts of God’s sons that poison which led them to no longer be sons but slaves. Those who have sold off holiness, will be not saved. To these, God will apply His merciful justice.
This is the Truth that this Church wants to spread, announcing with simplicity the Word of the Gospel (2Ti 4:2), with the same simplicity through which the Woman of God taught us. With Her essential and substantial example of life, She has made all of us live – in Her essence of Woman – the substance of all that concerns the Father’s Law.
This Church loves Mary, Her pure and spotless heart. This Church will make Her Immaculate Heart triumph and will not nullify the Sacrifice of Christ, who has descended in this Land to give us His live, true and Holy Spirit (Joh 14:16.26; 15:26; 16:7).
This is our awareness. This is what we believe in. This Church is born by the Will of the Father, to bring everything back to the origin and the originality of His Thought. In this Jerusalem, we give honour to God, One and Triune: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We will never say, as it is said elsewhere, that “Within the Most Holy Trinity, all are quarrelling behind closed doors, while outside the image is of unity”.
This is why today we say and we will always say to everyone: «Open your eyes. Open your heart», so to understand, in the freedom that the Father has given to each one of us, where the deception is. Only one is the Way, only one is the Truth, only one is the Life (Joh 14:6). In this House we follow the one and only Lord and we want to remain grafted in the only vine, Christ (Joh 15:1.5). You will be able to tell the tree by its fruits (Mat 7:16-17.20). The tree of the New Jerusalem is holy (Rev 22:2). And betimes and through time, it has transmitted all what came, comes and will always come, in the essence and substance, from the Father. And, as servants of the Father, in humility we want to bring the whole world to know the Father, the only Good and Just, Merciful and Holy Father, that we live and touch through the live Spirit of His Son (Joh 16:13-15). In this Church, we will always give priority to God, the one and only God (Mar 12:29; Joh 17:3) who has called us here and who wants to re‑start from here; where He has re‑established His Church. Just as then, even now. In this Church, people are not plagiarized, nor the hearts are deceived, as instead some say. The doors are open. Everyone can see and listen. In this Church the Truth is proclaimed, even when it is inconvenient, with only one face and only one word: “yes, yes; no, no” (Mat 5:37).
We are here not because we have done wrong or because we have found ourselves in this so-called New Jerusalem. We are here because we have left the old Jerusalem, which has abandoned the primary way, and no longer recognizes the Father and no longer recognizes the Son (1Jo 2:22-23).
In this Jerusalem, we praise the Father and we love the Son; we love Mary and we are consecrated to Her Immaculate Heart. Mary, the totally beautiful, the totally pure. The Immaculate of the Holy Spirit (Luk 1:35; Rev 12:1), through the power that the Eternal Father has vested in Her upon the angels and the archangels, and with the help of St. Michael the Archangel (Acts 12: 7-10 ) will free the world from evil and iniquity (Mat 6:13; 2Ti 4:18), so to make everyone live the time of stable Peace throughout the Earth, as is in the Thought of God (Rev 21:1-4; Isa 9:5-6; 52:7; Eze 37:21-28).
Prayers and hymns to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit (Eph 5:19); and to Her who has generated the Saviour, for humanity (Luk 2:11; Rev 12:1-5). To Christ, the King of the universe (Rev 19:16), the “Amen!” of the sons of God (Rev 19:4).
“Praise and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour and power and strength to our God for ever and ever. Amen” (Rev 7:12).