Pay attention, this is on the final exam…..”‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food”

Today at Holy Mass we hear in the Gospel of St Matthew how Jesus felt compassion for his people, they were hungry so he fed them…Such a basic idea…His response is so natural…They were hungry so he fed them….”Jesus summoned his disciples and said, My heart is moved with pity for the crowd, for they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, for fear they may collapse on the way”……..Everything Jesus does in the Gospel is done for a reason - He is giving us an example and we are meant to do the same - Just as he did…..No one ever became poor by sharing…..And if we each did our part, there would be no one who goes without in this world…Have you ever been “in want” of something?…Have you ever been hungry?…Many times its the poor, who understand what it means to share because they know what it means to be hungry - Because they lived it…..When we were students in high school our teachers would say…”Pay attention, this will be on the final exam”…..Well, Jesus was the greatest teacher who ever lived…..And this is what he is telling us today - It should be crystal clear - So pay attention………………”When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by 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, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison, and visit you?’ And the king will say to them in reply, ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.’ Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal 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, a stranger and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing, ill and in prison, and you did not care for me.’ Then they will answer and say, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs?’ He will answer them, ‘Amen, I say to you, what you did not do for one of these least ones, you did not do for me.’ And these will go off to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

“The crowds were amazed when they saw the mute speaking, the deformed made whole, the lame walking, and the blind able to see, and they glorified the God of Israel.”

Jesus was a Jew and if you have some knowledge about what it means to be a practicing Jew you will know that they have a lot of laws…Jesus, a good Jew distilled the law into two bullets....…”Love God above all things and love your neighbor as your self”…Why bring this up?…Because before we can love our neighbor correctly, we must first love God…Because if we do, we will see God in our neighbor and if we see God in our neighbor, we will treat are neighbor well….As a father of five, I cannot watch children suffer, whether its on television or with my own eyes…Because when I see a child suffer, I immediately think of my own children….Having my own children changed my prospective…We too need to change our prospective…We need to see God in others…Then and only when will we reach out a hand to help them when they are in need…..Years ago when I was the driver for the Missionaries of Charity in New York there was this family living on the first floor in the Elliott-Chelsea Housing Projects in Lower Manhattan….A single mother lived there with her 8 children…One of the Missionaries of Charity would always ask me to drive over to their apartment to bring them trays of food…When I would go there the window was always open in the family's apartment and I would call up from the sidewalk to Louis, who was one of the eight kids to come down to the street and bring the food up to his family……..Louis was such a nice young boy and he would always come down……I always remember Louis and years later after I was married I was visiting the sisters and asked one of the nuns about Louis…She told me he was in jail, Rikers Island to be exact…This news broke my heart…I had my own children at this point and remembered Louis as such an innocent little boy when I would call up to him…Now he was in jail….Thinking about it makes me want to cry to this day…..Again most especially now because I am a Father of five and have three boys of my own……..Why mention this story?.....God looks at all of us as his children…And God weeps when we hurt or are in need, like any parent would……God appreciates when we assist his children in need, as we would if someone helped one of our own children…..Before I had my own kids, I looked at young Louis differently…He was just some “poor kid”…Someone else's kid…Now that I have my own kids, I see all children differently…My prospective has changed….We too must “change” our prospective in how we “see” others…..In order to “see”, we must take to heart the first two commandments Jesus gave to us…..”Love God above all things and love your neighbor as your self”….We will never “see” our neighbor or feel we need to reach out a hand to help him until we learn to see God in our neighbor….How can we learn to “see” in this manner?…If we can see Jesus, who is fully present in the Blessed Sacrament…Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity…..Then we will see Jesus in our neighbor….Our prospective will change and when our prospective changes, the world around us will change as well.

“Then he took the seven loaves and the fish, gave thanks, broke the loaves, and gave them to the disciples, who in turn gave them to the crowds. They all ate and were satisfied”

St Matthew today in the Gospel tells us about Jesus feeding others…..Why did he do it?…Because he cared for his people…Do we care about others?…Do we see Jesus in others?…….Some people think that this mindset is optional….Once again, St Matthew reminds us that helping others is not optional…In fact, in our “exit interview” before God when we die, how we treated our neighbor will be front and center during the conversation…..‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of these least brothers of mine, you did for me.”….Back to what our high school teachers would tell us, ”Pay attention, this is on the final exam”…..”‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food”