By Father Joseph Chan Wing-chiu
Before I entered the seminary, I used to engage in educational work. In the classroom, I would occasionally play games to help students learn. I remember one of the games was called “Teacher Says”. The rules were that the facilitator would give an instruction and had to say “Teacher Says” every time, and then the students would follow the instruction. For example, if the teacher says “raise your left hand” without the specific words, the students do not have to follow the instruction even if they hear it. This game can often help younger students to identify their left or right because the game invites them to control their left hand, right hand, left foot, right foot, and so on, so that they can familiarise themselves with their left or right.
Knowing one’s right and left seems to be a necessary part of growing up, as it is the most basic knowledge to help us learn the different orientations and directions, but it also seems to be crucial when we look at it in the context of the Bible. Take this Sunday’s gospel [Matthew 25:31-46] as an example, it seems that if a person does not know his right from his left, he may be on the wrong side and be rejected by the Saviour.
However, is this the actual situation? If we listen to or read this Sunday’s gospel carefully, it is not difficult for us to realise that it is not we who chose to stand on the left or the right, but it is the Lord Jesus who discerns for us and separates us. Reading the passage further, we will realise that it is not about right or left. Rather, it is about the line dividing people participating in good works, and those failing to do good works for our brothers and sisters around us.
So, in our faith life, it is not a matter of distinguishing between left and right, or identifying ourselves as lambs or goats. It turns out to be even more important that we are determined to follow Jesus’ instructions to help our brothers and sisters who are hungry, thirsty, unclothed, imprisoned, sick, and in every other kind of need, because the point is in the final conclusion of the whole teaching: “whatever you did to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did to me [Matthew 25:40].
Jesus is the mediator who most concretely enables us to fulfil the commandment to love God, because he took our humanity and became one of us. Through him, man can have direct contact with God, and through him, our human contact can constitute the concrete action of our love for God.
Therefore, whether we help someone or receive help from someone, we are still receiving or giving in the person of Jesus Christ as a mediator. May we discover that Christ is with us and God is among us in our caring, serving and giving to one another.
