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When Christ sends the angels to gather his chosen people, says St. Cyril of Jerusalem, it won’t matter at all whether you’re rich or poor. On earth, Christ was poor himself, so he won’t forget the poor among his elect.
That King, so great and glorious, attended by trains of angels, who shares the Father’s throne, will not despise his own servants.
His elect will not be confused with his foes: “and he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds” (Matt.
24:31). He despised no one, not even Lot; so how could he despise many righ- teous? “Come, you blessed of my Father,” he will say to them, and then they will ride on chariots of clouds, and be collected by angels.
But someone here may be saying, “I am a poor man,” or “What if when that happens I’m sick and in bed?” or “I am only a woman, and I shall be taken at the mill: shall we then be despised?”
Be of good courage. The Judge is no respecter of persons; “He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear” (Isa. 11:3). He does not honor the educated before the simple, or the rich before the needy. Even if you are in the field, the angels will take you; do not think that he will take the landlord and leave you, the farmer. Even if you’re a slave, even if you’re poor, don’t worry at all: he who took the form of a servant does not despise servants. –St. Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lecture 15, 22-23
IN GOD’S PRESENCE, CONSIDER . . .
In my own relations with the world, do I imitate the Lord’s blindness to status and money?
CLOSING PRAYER
Lord, help me always to remember the poor, the widows and orphans, the foreigners visiting our land, and all who are in need.
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