“I was naked, and you clothed me; sick and you visited me.” (Matthew 25:36.)
We have heard these words so often that we forget perhaps just how revolutionary they are. We are being told that the person begging at the traffic light, the refugee arriving in a new country, the sick or elderly person who we fail to visit is, on a spiritual level Christ. That is the level at which Christ identifies with each person in their suffering. Christ
feels and experiences their suffering as his own and not apart from him. Likewise, Christ receives our acts of care for those in need as acts of love for him.
The crux of the matter is we are judged by only one criterion, love for our sisters and brothers, and in and through that, our love for Christ. I think it is tempting to want to love God through our prayer and worship and to close our eyes to the suffering of the people around us because it can be overwhelming.
This invitation is perhaps especially challenging now as images of the war in Ukraine flood our newsfeeds. Our psychological systems try to protect us by closing our minds, hearts, and eyes to what is unfolding. How do we stay in a place of compassion and reach out without becoming paralysed with fear?
Indeed, we cannot respond to every person in need. And I don’t think that that is what we are being asked. Those cast into darkness in the story never gave food or drink. Who never reached out to those suffering? Yet, on the other hand, we are told that as far as we have reached out to even one of those in need, we reached out to Christ.
We can ask God to prompt us to reach out to one person in need each day and do so with the awareness that we are also doing this out of love for God, who loves this person so much that he is one with their pain and suffering.
• Who today is suffering in my circle of influence? Who can I reach out to and, in so doing, reach out to Christ who is in them?
• Today where did I minister unknowingly to Christ in my care for another human being?
