A week ago I replaced my tyres with winter ones. It cost me a small fortune, but I did it being certain that was cheaper to do that than replace a car after a possible crash. Since then the temperature has hardly dropped below 10 degrees Celsius. Well, actually it has, but in Elgin and Inverness, not here. It seems I’ve just wasted money… Moreover there are many people around thinking exactly the same. A year ago, someone down in London thought the same way and as a result Heathrow Airport was closed for almost a week because of an inch of snow – and I couldn’t come back home after visiting my mum in Poland. Recently, managers of the British airports proudly announced how well they are prepared for winter this year. I guess it will be a relatively nice and warm winter. Just because we are well prepared.
All those preparations might look overcautious and exaggerated till we desperately need them. And when we do need them, it might be too late. Winter two years ago was extraordinarily harsh. At one point the car park beside St Sylvester’s church in Elgin was covered with inch-deep compacted snow that soon turned to ice. It was so dangerous that we seriously pondered closing the car park for the time being. We couldn’t buy salt – it was unavailable all over the country. The following autumn we ordered a tonne of salt in advance, and the car park was one of very few snowless and iceless spots in the whole town during whole winter. The advance preparations paid off.
The vision of the Judgment Day in today’s gospel is one of my favourite passages in the whole gospel. It reminds me what really matters independently of the name we call God or of the religious practises we do. The judge in this vision doesn’t ask about religious denominations, beliefs, practises; he doesn’t ask about nationality, race or political views. Love towards others is the only thing that matters. But don’t leave the church yet, please. Let me finish this sermon.
Jesus presented his message in an environment completely different than ours: in the society without any welfare system, where people were exploited and had to look after themselves. Unemployment, disability or sickness might have meant an incredibly difficult life with little hope. The gospel offered a revolutionarily different approach. It focused on the human being and human dignity at the centre of interest. The explanation was simple: ‘all the nations will be assembled’ and judged by the just and incorruptible judge: Jesus Christ.
The everyday experience of each one of us shows us clearly that love in practical terms is something difficult. All of us have a specific inclination of thinking about ourselves than others, especially when those others are not particularly nice and pleasant people. We need something or someone to help us to overpower that inclination in us. Religious practices help us to meet Jesus, who encourages us to look around and to notice other people with their needs. Religion is like the salt in Elgin, or like tyres in my car: unimportant, but at the same time essential: for the sake of love.