“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’” (v.40)
We continue our week of reflection on Jesus’ time in Egypt as a young refugee, along with Joseph and Mary. Remember that Jesus spent a couple of His first few years as a refugee – a “stranger”, an “alien”, a “foreigner”, or in more contemporary (and more hurtful) South African coloquialism, a “kwerekwere“. (See Matthew 2:13-18)
Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 25 refers to a very broad category of people when He says “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” That category certainly includes those who are “least” because they are orphans, widows, unemployed, desperately ill, or poverty stricken. It also includes those who are the least and the most vulnerable because they are refugees. In these words, Jesus instructs us to open our eyes to see His own face in the face of the least individual. St. Benedict put it slightly differently, instructing his monks to “receive every person as if you are receiving Christ Himself.”
When Jesus took on human flesh, took on poverty, and even took on the form of a refugee, He identified Himself fully as one of the least. Now He instructs us to see Him in the face of the individual refugee whom He brings into our lives and to “do to him/her as you would do to Me”.
Lord Jesus in love for the world You made Yourself one of the least. In love, You took on our humanity, You took on poverty, You took on vulnerability, and You even took on the status of a refugee. Now You invite me to see You in the face of one of the least of these – the individual in need because of who they are. I confess that I tremble at the very thought of the many ways I shy away from caring for the least of these. Forgive me for my selfishness I pray. Open my eyes to see Your face, for when I do, I know my heart will open too. And when my heart opens, so will my hands. Lord, open my eyes, my heart and my hands to the refugee … to You. Amen.
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