caught by surprise

I believe you must have remembered a peculiar story going around after that dreaded flooding brought about by typhoon Frank. For the sake of those who have not heard this story permit me to narrate it for you.
Just a few days before typhoon Frank, a strange little boy went to a home in particular village in the city to ask for a drink of water. Since the boy was unfamiliar, a complete stranger in fact, the woman ignored him and sent him away. As the boy was leaving the woman thought she heard the boy say something about sending the village lots of water in the coming days because of her refusal to give him even just a glass. The woman however ignored the strange little boy. A few days later, so the story goes, the woman, realized to her surprise the meaning of the words she heard from the boy who came from nowhere, for true enough water came and it overwhelmed the city in a deluge few of us will ever forget.
Frankly I do not believe the tale. But I just want to use the story to illustrate something - something that we often experience and would surely experience at the end of time. And what is that something - the woman realized to her surprise that the boy meant something more, that her refusal meant more than just a simple refusal she never expected. In hindsight, the strange boy and his words caught her by surprise.


It is the same reaction we find today in our gospel. They too were surprised. Presented before the judgment seat, they hear the king speak about their lives and they were caught by surprise - Lord when did we see you hungry and feed you; when did we see you ill and in prison and visit you; Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty, or a stranger or naked or ill or in prison, and not minister to your needs? They were surprised, they were taken aback, both the good and the bad, both the sheep and the goat - they did not expect it. It’s not as if they knew from the very start that by feeding the hungry, by visiting the sick, by clothing the naked, they were doing it for Jesus, and because they were doing it knowingly for Jesus, they will be reserved a place on his right and a space in the kingdom. No - they were surprised as much as those who did evil were surprised by the pronouncement of the king. Are you not intrigued by their line of questioning? They asked, Lord, when did we see you? They did not say, Lord, of course I know, I know, I know that from the start - you really are in the poor, in the hungry, I know that from the start. No. They were surprised. This is intriguing, isn’t it?
Last night I asked myself, what would the Lord surprise me of in my day of judgment, what are the surprises he has in store for me when I come to meet him face to face? Surprises which would make me exclaim - really Lord, where you really there, I did not notice? O my God, so it was you, I remember that but I never really thought it was up to something.
Last night I shed some tears praying to the Lord. Lord, I said, what would be your great surprise to me. What will you surprise me of - good and bad, what will you surprise me of? I want to know and yet I want to be surprised.
Aren’t you excited to go before the Lord so that he will reveal to me and to you this Great Surprise?
But I would like to explore further the question - why did their goodness surprise them? Or why did their badness surprise them? Why.
This reaction of surprise can only come when we are doing something unknowingly - the good that we do is done unknowingly, the evil that we do is done unconsciously. It just comes out just as a good tree will produce good fruit naturally, and just as a bad tree will produce bad fruit naturally. The really good is never conscious that he is good, and the bad is never conscious about how bad he has become. That is why we always plead not guilty. And that is why the judgment of God will always come as a surprise. The Great Surprise. This is not just about lying about the bad that we do nor is it just pretending about the good that we do. It is about the good and the bad flowing out unconsciously from our hearts and being.
There was once a holy priest who had worked so hard for God. One day God decided to reward him. So he sent an angel to the holy priest who said, “Because of your generosity and selflessness God decided to reward you. Ask God whatever you want and he will grant you your wish. Do you want the power to heal the sick, the angel asked.
But the holy priest answered, “only God heals.”
So the angel asked, “do you want the power to convert even the most hardened of sinners?”
And the holy priest answered, “only God can convert sinners.”
But the angel insisted saying, “but you have to ask something at least.”
And the holy priest replied, “if you insist, then I ask that goodness will flow through me without me knowing about it.”
And so it happened. Wherever his shadow falls the sick were healed, lands become productive, those who have problems were made stronger. The priest did not know, and he never came to know that all these goodness became possible through him. Even the people’s attention was directed to his shadow and not to him.
His prayer and wish were answered.
You and I are good. We were created good. In fact God pronounced us very good. Goodness is innate in us. Someway somewhere in between then and now something happened to us. We learned to hate, we learned selfishness and greed, we acquired bad habits that made us less sensitive, less forgiving, less compassionate, and more stupid. We became arrogant. But it is good to go back to what and who we originally were, to see it in us again, to get in touch with it, to reacquire it, to cherish our original goodness. In doing so, goodness will flow naturally once more. And by then we will be ready for the Big Surprise when we present ourselves before the king.
Today is the feast of Christ the King. Today is also the feast of Virgen de la Regla, which I am told, is an important feast in the parish of Nuestra senora de la paz y buen viaje. There is a reason why the church reformed the calendar in Vatican Two. As I told Fr. Nats all these taken together can be so confusing. Nevertheless these feasts serve one purpose and end - the living out of the gospel by recovering in us the original goodness God has given us to start with. Recover that goodness. That is what Christ died for, that we may recover our goodness. We were baptized, we receive the Lord in Holy Communion, we constantly listen to the gospel so that we can unravel the goodness that is in all of us, the goodness that makes us truly human. We are already good, in fact, very good. Once you rediscover this in you, I tell you, you will be astonished at your capacity for goodness. Then when the king comes you are in for a really great surprise.