Matthew 25:31-46, Solemnity of Christ the King

In electricity, power is energy per unit time. It is usually measured in watts. A two horsepower air conditioner, for example, is about 1500 watts or 1.5 kilowatts (kw). The electricity we pay for however does not depend on power. It depends on energy, which is power multiplied by the time the appliance is on. And so, if that aircon is on for 10 hours, the energy spent is thus 1.5 kw times 10 hours or 15 kwh. At say 10 pesos per kwh, that’s about 150 pesos. At full blast for 10 hours a day, that amounts to 4,500 pesos per month for just one appliance. Power x time, i.e. energy, is what matters. That is what we pay for.

On this Solemnity of Christ the King, let our prayer and reflection focus on power, and not on things archaic such as kings and all the kings’ horses and men. More importantly, as in electricity, we will dwell not so much on the size of power as on its duration. How long does power last?

First point. For all its perks, power is fleeting. How tragic and harmful it is that unscrupulous leaders turn to all sorts of devices to cling on to power. Kapit-tuko. They create political dynasties hoping power to outlive the people who gave it to them in the first place. Bigyan nyo naman ng pagkakataon ang iba. Hindi lang kayo ang magaling sa ating bansa.

If your only horizon is your lifetime, power x time seems a lot. One hundred years is about 900,000 hours. Compress the age of the universe to one second, and your 100 years of power on earth would just be 7 nanoseconds. If your horizon is eternity, your day in the sun is hardly a moment at all. Power will not make you live forever. 

To our leaders with power, isa lamang pakiusap: it takes power to let go of power. It takes power to share power and give it back to the people who gave it to you in the first place. Power is fleeting. If you do not want to fall, do not hang on to it.

Second point. Christ our King invites us to rest our trust in his power. The power of Christ is the power of goodness to outlast greed, the power of justice and truth to withstand tyranny and lies. It is the power of love to outlast indifference and inaction. If all this might seem to be wishful thinking or fantasy, Christ our King reminds us today that true power is crowned with thorns.

True power is enthroned on the cross. To stay on the cross for us, with us, up to the very edge of life, till the very end: this is true power. Kings come and go. The only power that lasts is the one we catch on the cross of Christ. St Paul had a word for this power of Christ: dynamis. It is Christ the King’s dynamis of love, which is also the power to let go of power, that outlasts his enemies. And as St Paul assures us today, “the last enemy to be destroyed is death.”

Only love outlives death. In today’s parable of the sheep and goats, the King reminds us of our power and duty to care not only for those who are dear to us but also for those who are dear to him, the ones with whom Christ our Lord identifies himself. To love those who cannot even love us back, to be present to those who have been abandoned and forgotten, to look after the unloved: this is true power. No other power will carry us beyond death to eternity.

The third and last point has to do with the power or wattage of your love. If your love were a light bulb, would it be a high wattage incandescent or a low watt LED? How many watts is your love? Does your love pack a lot of power?

Actually, it does not matter. Power x time, remember. Some bulbs may be brighter but they burn out faster. What matters is how long our light stays on, which means how long our love endures, for whom, and on whom it shines.

The Gospel today warns us not to pretend it shines long for Christ when our love shines only briefly, if at all, for those in darkness who are dear to God. 

Power is fleeting. Let our love be not so.