Like a magnet to a magnet, I am at once attracted to and repelled by this vision. I find its picture of the end time attractive because it so vividly depicts the transcendent and divine dimension of every earthly act of human mercy. With exquisite simplicity, our Lord says of visits to the sick and imprisoned, bread shared with the hungry and clothing given to the ill-clad, "as you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to me."

Here we are told that the divine-human nexus, so clear in Christ’s incarnation, baptism and crucifixion, extends also to the risen and exalted Lord, Christ the King, for he identifies himself with the lowly ones, the poor and the little ones of the earth.

I am attracted, too, by the innocent ignorance of those called "righteous". They are surprised, aston…