A reading from the Holy Gospel according to the Apostle and Evangelist St. Matthew (Mt 25:31-46)
"When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.
Then the King will say to those on His right hand, 'Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: 'For I was hungry, and you gave Me food; I was thirsty, and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger, and you took Me in. 'I was naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.'
Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? 'When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You?' Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?'
And the King will answer and say to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.'
Then He will also say to those on the left hand, 'Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels: 'For I was hungry, and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty, and you gave Me no drink. 'I was a stranger, and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.'
Then they also will answer Him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?' Then He will answer them, saying, 'Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.'
And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life."
Reflection
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, all peace and good to all of you!
On this Sunday dedicated to the Last Judgment, before I begin my reflection on today’s passage, I would like to share with you a homily with a high emotional impact by Saint Basil of Caesarea (on the need not to cling to worldly things 8):
"If a poor man comes before us who, because of hunger, barely manages to speak, we turn to the other side in front of one who shares in our own human nature, we despise him, we move away quickly, as if we were afraid of having to share the same misfortune if we walk more slowly. If then, feeling ashamed of his misfortune, he keeps his head bent down to the ground, let’s say that his is a hypocritical pretense, if instead he turns his gaze towards us without any fear, pushed by the heavy urge of hunger, we call him brazen and overbearing. And if it happens that he is dressed in good clothes that someone has given him, we reject him judging him insatiable and we swear that he pretends to be poor; If instead he is covered with indecent rags, again we cast him away thinking that you stink, and even if that such a person mixes to the supplications the name of the Creator or makes continuous pleads so that we do not happen to fall into similar misfortunes, he cannot bend our inhuman decision".
Beloved brothers and sisters, each one of you has certainly impressed on your mind the parable of the Good Samaritan. In that parable, our Lord Jesus Christ is depicted as one who freely and lovingly saves us, without considering our social class or our origin. And his pure love, free from all human conditionings, impels him to take care of us dying.
However, in the passage that today the Holy Church of God invites us to listen and meditate, as if it were the continuation of the same parable, Jesus is portrayed as the one who needs our help. While remaining in the bosom of the Father and in the infinite love of the Holy Spirit, he presents himself to us as hungry, thirsty, foreign, naked, sick and prisoner.
Today Jesus promulgates the law of God. In fact, the parable of the Final Judgment tells us what we must welcome the people, whom the new super-modernized and super-social society has forgotten along its way: those who live on the margins of our cities, those we continually meet along our roads but we are completely distracted by the things of the world and we sometimes have eyes blindfolded by thick black bandages that prevent us from actually seeing the important things. Because if we can really see beyond our nose or turn our gaze beyond the screen of our smartphone, we will know, for sure, that this world is full of endless "treasures". Each with its unique history, with its own past and its own experience. And if only we were so able to take care of them, we will have the gift of the Kingdom of Heaven: "Come, blessed of my Father, receive in inheritance the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world".
Jesus, identifying himself with the weakest and the smallest of society, effectively gives a concrete meaning to his Immaculate Conception! Despite being God, he never stopped being Man and despite being Man he never stopped, even for a single moment, being God.
It is remarkable that this Gospel passage is read on this Sunday.
You must know, my brothers, that I have been working for almost two years in a social community where the type of patients are young people and adult and some of them, during their life, have also used drugs. A few weeks ago, while I was doing my daily duties, I was talking to a guy who had not entered the facility for a month, and who has now been discharged, about Faith.
At the age of 14 he had moved away from the Roman Church because he could no longer believe in the living existence of Christ, motivating this choice, for a lack of actual evidence. Speaking of various theological topics, I told him the passage of the Gospel in question and added "But if you see a person on the street who is thirsty, what do you do? You give him a drink, or you turn around?". And he said, "No. I help him". "Why do you do it?". "Because it’s one of my principles," he said. And I said to him looking him in the eye, "No. It’s not your principles that make him help. It is love that makes you go towards the other who needs you and God is this. He is Love personified!" "Ah but this you say!" he replied. So, stopping a moment from what I was doing, I asked him if he believed in science. His answer was absolutely positive, and I asked: "Where does science come from?". "From man," he replied. "No. Science is a gift of the Holy Spirit and comes from God" and I left him immersed in thoughts.
Brothers and sisters, it takes courage to dive. It takes faith in believing to be able to embrace the immense mystery of our redemption and we must pray continually for those who are afraid, or do not even have the strength to do so.
Regarding the Gospel passage in question, in addition to love, we must rediscover the beauty of having a heart. A heart that is alive and beating. Not only for ourselves but also for the next. And Saint Gregory of Nazianzus, in his "discourses 14,5-6", says it clearly:
"If, in obeying Paul and Christ himself, charity is to be considered the first and greatest of the commandments and the synthesis of the Law and the Prophets, I find that his most exalted point is love for the poor and mercy and compassion for our fellow men. From nothing does God receive honor as well as from mercy because nothing is proper to God more than it; mercy and truth precede him, and mercy must be offered to him before judgment. No other reward is love for men more than love for men on the part of him who justly measures and places mercy on the scales. It is necessary to open our hearts to all the poor and to those who suffer for a greater reason, according to that precept that commands us to rejoice with those who rejoice and to weep with those who cry and, since we are human, we must bring to human beings the offering of our goodness, where there is need because of widowhood, orphanage, remoteness from one’s homeland, the cruelty of those who hold power, the arrogance of the rulers, the inhumanity of those who collect taxes, the bloodlust of the masters, of the insatiability of thieves, of confiscations, of shipwrecks. They are all equally to be pitied and look to our hands as we look to God’s, asking for what we need."
However, if joy in welcoming the suffering and needy Christ opens us to the doors of the Kingdom, our refusal opens us the doors of Hades: "Away, away from me, cursed, in the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels".
Pay close attention to this: it is our action, that is, the blindness that prevents us from seeing Jesus in the smallest that bars the doors of the heavenly Jerusalem.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, never tire of doing good. Even if you are fatigued and oppressed, disappointed, in mourning or if you feel abandoned by everyone and everything, always entrust yourselves to the Lord to become witnesses of his Love and to bring this joy that arises in helping the other, in a world that is now going to ruin.
Meditate on what Saint Gregory of Nyssa said (homilies on the love of the poor 2,7)
"It is good to remember who we are when we reflect on others: we are men who are dealing with men and, as for the common nature, we have nothing different. Unique for all is the entrance into life, unique for all is the way to be able to live: eat and drink; similar is the vital force, unique is the conformation of the bodies and the conclusion of life. Everything that has been done is undone. There is no reality that is endowed with a solid structure, our vital breath, tied to the body, vanishes in the time of a bubble of water; and then we extinguish ourselves, leaving to life not even a trace of this fleeting breath. On the stelae, the stones, the epigraphs there is our remembrance, but even these things do not remain forever. Refer this to yourself. Do not be pride, as the Apostle says, but fear; perhaps you yourself care to be hard. Tell me, do you flee the sick? What have you to reproach him for?... Stranger, naked, hungry, sick, prisoner, and all that is said in the Gospel is this for you. He goes around, homeless and naked and, moreover, sick, in need of everything because of poverty caused by poverty. Without a home of his, he cannot even have one to rent because it lacks everything necessary to live, chained as it is by disease. You have here the opportunity to fulfill in fullness the commandments and to make your debtor the Lord of all, showing you full of love for this man. So why make war on your own life? Not wanting to remain united to God of all is nothing but becoming violent against oneself, since God comes to dwell in those who keep the commandment, so he withdraws where there is hardness".
Beloved brothers in Christ, on this special day, the Church recalls the liturgical memorial of St Fontius, Patriarch of Constantinople.
Saint Photius was patriarch of Constantinople twice: the first from Christmas 858 to 867; the second from 877 to 886.
Photius was born while his family was visiting Constantinople, of which his uncle Nikephoros I of Constantinople was patriarch. His family enjoyed authority in Constantinople; his father’s name was Sergius and he was the head of the imperial guards.
Photius had an excellent education, was very appreciated as a man of vast culture, philologist, exegete and expert in the Patristics and his parents decided for him that he would embark on a life as a layman; so, he became a professor of philosophy and theology and later a statesman. Thanks to his kinship with the Imperial family, he was able to take on duties of great responsibility, since his brother had married the aunt of the Emperor Theophilos II of Byzantium and, thanks to this support, Photius soon occupied positions of very high prestige, such as that of Secretary of State and Captain of the Emperor’s bodyguards.
In the year 857, Emperor Michael III of Byzantium, known as the Drunkard (842-867), succeeded his father Theophilos II of Byzantium in 842. Unable to attend to affairs of state because of his minority - Michael III was only two years old when he found himself Emperor of Byzantium - the regency of the Empire was entrusted to his mother, Empress Theodora, who remained in office until 858. Among the various acts of her regency, there was the comminatory exile to Patriarch Ignatius I of Constantinople, on the pretext of refusing to give communion to the emperor’s uncle, Bardas.
Theodora therefore needed to appoint a new patriarch of Constantinople and Photius was chosen, at that time still a layman. To achieve this, Theodora appointed him bishop only five days after the exile of Patriarch Ignatius and, at Christmas 858, Photius was appointed patriarch of Constantinople. But the situation was not so easy to resolve, as Ignatius had no intention of placidly giving up the patriarchal seat. He then went to Rome, where he asked for and obtained an interview with Pope Nicholas I, called the Great (858-867); the latter was immediately ready to support Ignatius, and, to this end, immediately convened a synod, which was held in 863 in Rome, where it was declared: that the Pope did not recognize the deposition of Ignatius; that the papal legates were also excommunicated, sent by him to Constantinople in 861 to decide on the matter and that, instead, they had been bribed; that, as a result, Photius was excommunicated, if he insisted on usurping the patriarchal seat.
Photius did not appreciate the affront of a possible excommunication and in turn with the support of Emperor Michael III, he excommunicated the Pope in 867. Photius sent an encyclical to all the Byzantine bishops, explaining some points of divergence with the Church of Rome, which following a series of reforms imposed: The addition of the filioque to the creed; Celibacy for priests; the fixing of the beginning of Lent to Ash Wednesday.
However, in 867 Michael III was assassinated and his executioner, Basil I of Byzantium (867-886), founder of the Macedonian dynasty, became emperor in his place. Basil took away all those in high office under Michael and appointed other dignitaries whom he trusted. To reach an agreement with Rome, Photius was also deposed from his post as patriarch and Ignatius was reinstated in his place. This event, with the relative rapprochement of the Church of the East in Rome, was sealed by the Council of Constantinople in 869, wanted by Pope Adrian II (867-872).
Photius was exiled to a monastery on the Bosphorus, most likely in Cherson in the Crimea. After a few years, Basil I summoned Photius to court, instructing Constantine, one of the emperor’s sons.
In 877 Ignatius I of Constantinople died and the problem arose of finding a replacement for the Patriarchate on the Bosphorus. Basil I of Byzantium then decided to rename Photius patriarch of Constantinople, as he was a very popular person in the capital, and everyone knew him of fame. Even Pope John VIII (872-882) approved the appointment.
Photius reached the height of his triumph with the Council of Constantinople in 879 - 880, where he revoked decisions from the previous Council of 869, during which Ignatius had been made patriarch and reopened the points of doctrinal and theological controversy with Rome. During the same Council, Photius also had the bishops declare that Bulgaria, where in 865 King Boris had indicated Christianity as a state religion, should be part of the religious sphere of influence - and therefore political - of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and that therefore the creation of an autonomous patriarchate was prohibited.
Pope John VIII immediately excommunicated Photius, but this excommunication had no effect, except to create a greater division between the Church of the West and that of the East.
In 886, a new Emperor, Leo VI of Byzantium, known as the Philosopher (886-912), came to the throne of Byzantium, who, with some unfounded accusations against Photius, had him deposed to appoint in his place the emperor’s brother, Stephen I of Constantinople. This procedure was considered irregular by Pope Stephen V (885-891) and therefore the latter launched a further excommunication directed to the new patriarch of Constantinople.
Photius, after being deposed and banished from court, was segregated in a monastery in Armenia by order of the emperor. He died in 893, while he was still segregated in the Armenian monastery where he was sent into exile.
Photius had laid the theological and political foundations for the Eastern Schism, which occurred in 1054, a century and a half after him.
Dear brothers, let us pray that Saint Photius, the Most Holy Virgin Mary Mother of God and Saint Joseph, her chaste spouse, may watch over our journey and lead us towards Jesus Christ, always recognizing him in our most marginalized brother; that the Holy Spirit may give us a pure heart to never tire of giving love.
May the Lord bless you always!
Michele Alberto Del Duca, Archdeacon.
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