Sarah Fuller, PMC congregant and a member of a Catholic Worker community in Los Angeles, continued our series “Why I am a Mennonite,” basing her thoughts in Matthew 25:31-46.

This passage expanded Sarah’s understanding of Christian identity and presence in the world in very important ways, and is ultimately very informative for Mennonite theology. It also is influential in the other tradition I’m a part of, the Catholic Worker tradition. It is a passage from which we get the traditional list of the “Works of Mercy”: Feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, visit the sick, visit the imprisoned, and bury the dead. One Catholic Worker historian called the Works of Mercy “not only the unifying practice of the Catholic Worker movement but also its hermeneutical principle — its way of interpreting both the past and the present.”

The Works of Mercy, compassionate action in the here and now, are an important part of Mennonite tradition and theology, and that’s one reason I’m a Mennonite. Matthew 25:31-46 lays out a mini apocalyptic vision that reveals that practical care for those around us is service to Christ of ultimate spiritual import.

However, she found herself conflicted upon rereading this passage to encounter the centrality of judgment. Feeling kind of fragile time lately, with the global pandemic, the mini-apocalypse, and not really in the mood for hard declamatory statements (even ones that may be true) — she’s rather feeling a desire to develop mercy and softness, appreciating the tenderness that other people have shown in this time and wanting to value tenderness towards others.

A striking thing, coming from her particular religious background, was the linking in the Matthew passage of concepts of salvation and eternal life with the practice of taking care of the practical bodily needs of the people around us, which is, we learn, apocalyptically, taking care of and serving Jesus. This links with exhortations in the book of James (2:14), “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if people claim to have faith but have no deeds? Can such faith save them?”

So in this sense, the connections between angels, heavenly thrones, ultimate spiritual destinations and a gifted t-shirt, sandwich or pair of tennis shoes found in Matthew 25 are not surprising. Spirituality and the physical world, and the physical experiences and needs of ourselves and others, are inherently linked. And yet, this link can sound surprising whenever we forget the incarnational earthiness of the gospel — and of the resurrection.

Questions for discussion:

1. If I had no other information about my own values and beliefs other than what could be supposed from my actions, what could I conclude that my values and beliefs are?

2.  If you had to draw a diagram about how spiritual and physical realities are related to each other, what would it look like?  What were you taught about what that diagram might look like in various times and places in your life?

Hear much more as Sarah examines the connections between Mennonite and Catholic spirituality, her background in an evangelical Mennonite community that practiced service without preaching about it, and her personal values of the sacredness of all of life and of the physical world, and caring practically for our neighbours as a religious imperative, are part of the Mennonite tradition (among other traditions).

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