Anything you did for one of my brothers here, however humble, you did for me.
Matthew 25.40

This quotation forms the first peak of the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats (Matt. 25.31-46). It asserts that when the Son of Man comes in his glory, he will separate humankind into two groups. One will consist of those who have cared for their fellows in such everyday concerns as providing food and drink, caring for the stranger and the sick, and visiting the prisoner; whereas the other will have neglected these basic works of charity. We are told that whoever cares for even the most degraded of his or her fellows is also caring for Christ and has his Father's blessing; those who reject a fellow creature also reject the Lord, and are promised eternal punishment. The righteous enter eternal life. The parable is especially poignant, because Jesus identified himself with the most degraded criminals on the cross and no one came to his succour. The three women at the foot of the cross showed up best, for at least they supported him invisibly with their love (John 19.25).

There are two types of "sheep": the one helps other people with an eye to future rewards in the life beyond death, and the other genuinely loves humanity, and indeed all created things. It is important to understand that performing a kind action is its own reward, for somehow one has been lifted from a narrow enclosure in one's own personality to a participation in the life of the world, whose Creator stands aloft as a loving father. And so kindness is not premeditated with an eye to future results, but is a spontaneous outflowing of love to our neighbour as we are about our daily business. To do the work commended in this parable, we have to be so aware of the present moment, so undistracted by thoughts, that we are in psychic communion with the person in need. The Parable of the Good Samaritan is our model here: while the priest and Levite walked past the assaulted man on the other side of the road, the lowly, disregarded Samaritan could identify himself immediately with the victim's plight and act accordingly (Luke 10.30-37). The uncharitable person is preoccupied with his or her own concerns, whereas the loving person has passed beyond self to God. "We for our part have crossed over from death to life; this we know, because we love our brothers" (1 John 3.14). And so the very act of caring for another being means that the love of God is pouring through us.

There are two further thoughts. The resurrected Christ showed himself to two disciples on the Emmaus road in the person of a stranger, who first engaged them in learned discussion before revealing himself at the breaking of bread (Luke 24.13-32). Had they not been so bereft, they might well have disregarded the man. We are often more open in love when we have little to give materially. And secondly, we all fail from time to time in rendering the service demanded by the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats. We all have our breaking-point, and we have to learn our limitations. Once service becomes obsessional it soon kills the springs of compassion within us, and God's love becomes a burden rather than a blessing. This is why it is so important to work in a group, of which the Church is the model.

Let us finally remember the wise words of St Seraphim of Sarov: "Man must be lenient with his soul in her weaknesses and imperfections, and suffer her failings as he suffers those of others, but he must not become idle, and must encourage himself to better things." This is the essence of love: to accept people as they are in order to direct them to what they are to be. This God alone knows, but our image is Jesus Christ.

I pray, Lord, that I may never be so preoccupied with my own affairs that I become oblivious of the greater demands made on me as a neighbour and a citizen, to help those in need and to take my stand in the cause of justice and reconciliation.