Whenever it comes to Friday, some ideas will come to our minds.
For most, it is “TGIF” – Thank God it’s Friday. The work week has ended and the weekend is here.
For priests, it’s “ONIF” – “Oh No it’s Friday”. Especially if the Sunday homily is not yet done!
We know what is Good Friday. It’s called Good Friday because Jesus died for our good.
And then last Friday is called “Black Friday”. It may sound like some kind of unlucky day, like “Friday the 13th” which is thought of as unlucky for whatever reasons.
But Black Friday is a day where retailers offer discounts of up to 50% or even higher. So it’s a day of savings for shoppers and a day of sales for retailers.
But why is it called Black Friday? When shops lose money, the losses are written in red. But on Black Friday, they have the opportunity to make so much sales that the shops make a profit and are “in the black”, as in contrast with “in the red”. Hence, the term “Black Friday”, and this is also a day of savings for consumers.
And talking about savings, there is only one Black Friday that offers eternal savings, and that is on Good Friday.
And coincidentally, this year, on Black Friday, the PSLE results were released and there were not many “in the red” as the news reported that 98.4% of the students made it to secondary school.
So Black Friday can be called a happy day for most shoppers, retailers and students.
But life is certainly more than just shopping for savings and passing exams to get into choice schools.
Today’s gospel brings us back to the basics of being human and it is the gospel text chosen for the feast of Christ the King.
More than just about the basics of being human, it is also the basic examination for our eternal destiny.
The question of feeding the hungry, giving drink to the poor, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked and visiting the imprisoned seems so secular and there seems to be no religious aspect to it.
None of the above is specifically religious, but that is where having a religion and being a human is connected.
Having a religion, should and must make us more human, so that we can feel the needs of other human beings and respond to them with a faith that is expressed in love.
Faith and love are needed to recognise the presence of Jesus hidden among the poor and the needy. Where their needs are met, Jesus is acknowledged and served.
When the hungry are fed, the thirsty given a drink, strangers are offered hospitality, the naked are clothed with dignity, the sick are attended to, and prisoners are visited, then Jesus the King is being served with love. And it takes faith to see all that and do all that.
As in the gospel, the king would say: I tell you solemnly, in so far as you did this to one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me.
So there are no random or meaningless acts. We are all connected in one way or another and our lives meet in Christ just like all the spokes of a wheel meet at the hub. We cannot separate ourselves from each other just as the wind cannot be separated from the breeze.
This fact and reality in addressed in today’s gospel, and a rather interesting reflection of this is in a novel “The Five People You Meet In Heaven” by Mitch Albom.
The novel begins on the last day of Eddie's life. He is 83 years old and works as the maintenance manager at Ruby Pier amusement park, the same job his father once held. Eddie is resigned to his position, even though he swore to never follow in his father's footsteps. Most of the people he loved have passed away and the knee injury he sustained during World War II still plagues his every movement. However, Eddie is loved at Ruby Pier. Eddie is proud of Ruby Pier's spotless safety record, but that all changes when a missing car key damages the machinery on a ride and cart begins to fall off the track. Moving as quickly as he can, Eddie tries to save a young girl from being crushed by the falling cart. He remembers grasping her small hand and then - his life is over.
He goes to heaven and the first character he meets is Blue Man, who was part of the Ruby Pier sideshow when Eddie was eight years old. The Blue Man reveals to Eddie that he was responsible for the Blue Man's death. Young Eddie dashed in front of the Blue Man’s car chasing a runaway baseball, and the Blue Man swerved his car and it crashed and killed him.
Then Eddie meets the second of his "Five People": the commanding officer of his World War II platoon, whom he calls Captain. Eddie recalls being held captive by the enemy in a village, along with the Captain and four others. Then they managed to escape when the village caught fire, but as they were running off, Eddie thought there was a child trapped inside a hut and wanted to save the child. However, a bullet shattered his knee, stopping him in his tracks. Eddie learnt that it was the Captain who shot him in order to prevent him from losing his life in the fire.
Then, Eddie meets Ruby - the third of his "Five People." Ruby reveals that her husband Emile was the founder of Ruby Pier, which he named after his beloved wife. Ruby offers Eddie a new perspective on the circumstances surrounding his father's death. Eddie used to think that his alcoholic and abusive father caught pneumonia after making a drunken decision to jump into the freezing river. However, it turns out that Eddie's father was saving the life of his oldest friend. Eddie's father had many faults, Ruby explains, but he was loyal. She tells Eddie that his father called to his family out the hospital window right before his death. Ruby knows this because she was tending to Emile in the very same room.
Then he met Marguerite, who is the fourth of Eddie's "Five People," and she is there to teach him about eternal love. She shows him that their love was always there, even after she died.
Eddie's fifth and final meeting is with a young girl named Tala. Tala reveals that she was the child Eddie saw in the burning hut as he was escaping, and she died that day. Eddie falls apart upon realizing that he was responsible for this young girl's painful and untimely death, but Tala comforts him.
Tala asks Eddie why he was so unhappy on earth, and Eddie responds that he never did anything meaningful in his life. But Tala tells him that he was meant to be at Ruby Pier to keep all the children safe on the rides. She also reveals that Eddie did save the little girl from the falling cart on the day of his death - he pushed her out of the way.
The novel brings out a point that to understand what happened in our lives and to have it explained and connected together may bring about a peace in our hearts.
But Jesus tells us in the gospel that whatever we do or don’t do, for better or for worse, is done in Him and done to Him.
Those five words “you did it to me” will tell us that we are all connected in one way or another and no act is a random act or a meaningless act.
Those five words “you did it to me” will help us to remember the basics of being human and to live out our faith with love on earth so as to be numbered among the blessed in heaven.