BYU–Hawaii News

BYU-Hawaii President Eric B. Shumway focused on the parable of the sheep and the goats found in Matthew 25 during his devotional last week in the Cannon Activities Center. He illustrated the Savior’s poignant reminder that we must internalize righteousness and holiness to the point they become unconscious and natural in our actions and lives. President Shumway explained that Christ’s parable, in which the sheep are separated from the goats at His second coming, “focuses on six or seven basic human needs without which a happy existence is impossible: Food, water, general health, the need to belong and feel accepted, warmth and protection, comfort and freedom. Those who will be on the right hand of God constantly help to fulfill these needs within a suffering humanity.” “Of course, most people around us, for example, are not literally hungry and thirsty, but some may be spiritually starved, even emaciated,” he said. “Most people are not physically sick, but many hack and cough and are barely breathing spiritually. Many of the things we value in our religion will not be enough to save us.” “Personal testimony is not enough, a temple recommend won’t do it, visions and ministering of angels, personal healings, a brilliant grasp of the gospel, a righteous lineage; all of the ordinances put together will not do it. Each of these is necessary, but without reaching out to the ‘least of these, my brethren,’ they don’t qualify us,” President Shumway said. He added, “In this parable the Lord seems to say, ‘whatever good you do or don’t do to someone else, you do it or don’t do it to me.’ Thus, we bless and nourish and sustain Christ in the act of blessing, nourishing, and sustaining even the least of human kind. Or we ignore Him, neglect and despise Him, as we ignore, neglect or despise even the least of mankind.” The parable indicates that the righteous seem to be surprised they’ve done anything good to Christ personally. “This constitutes a private, personal ministry that flows out spontaneously and naturally, often in unrecorded, unacknowledged, even unremembered acts of kindness,” President Shumway said. “Serving a mission for the Church puts us in a concentrated learning mode for persistent daily selfless service, where your own ministry becomes the Lord’s ministry.” “After missionary service it’s also possible for impediments and distractions to gradually harden our hearts or dull our sensibilities to the needs of the ‘least of these, my brethren,’” he said. President Shumway said returned missionaries sometimes “cease to pray the way we did in the mission field. Some of us no longer specifically ask with the same fervor for opportunities to help others. In the mission field we didn’t just say prayers, we lived and breathed your prayers. The language of our prayers was constantly filled with the names of others, their challenges, and their predicaments.” “We must not let our prayers become shallow and self-centered, filled again with clichés and thoughtless phrases,” he continued. “Remember especially that even eloquent and specific prayers must be connected to righteous service.” “I believe that righteous prayers will deploy angels to the spot where we cannot go ourselves. I believe that it is in our prayers that our own souls are shaped and tutored, again when they are linked to personal action where we are able,” he said. President Shumway also cited several other impediments, including subtle cynicism and mockery of those who do try to do good the best way they know how, judging others, incorrectly thinking we don’t have anything to offer others, or addiction to amusement. “Surely personal worthiness, total and complete chastity, and all of the personal qualities of holiness are important. But in the end, all goodness must be translated into the manner of how we treat each other, and especially, how we treat those who have for whatever reason been damaged by the vicissitudes of this world,” President Shumway stressed. President Shumway told the story of a distraught father whose son was discouraged and miserable just after arriving in a foreign mission, and wanted to come home. In a reception, the father mentioned his son’s struggle in passing to President Hinckley. He said the young man stayed to complete his mission after receiving and being inspired from a letter of encouragement written by the Prophet himself. “Think of it! President Hinckley, in spite of his age, is such a public figure, revered for his extensive speeches, books, and his general leadership in the Church,” President Shumway said. “Yet, he conducts a private, silent ministry as well to bless others individually. Can you imagine how that single unselfish act of a Prophet will be treasured not only in this young man’s life but in his posterity?” President Shumway added, “In the end, the art of nourishing even ‘the least of these, my brethren,’ begins at the heart, to see as Christ sees, and feel as Christ feels toward those who carry burdens that we cannot see or appreciate, or comprehend if we did see.” “This unconscious flow of righteousness outward must begin in and be nourished by the home, and then in the wonderful ward assignments we have, home teaching and visiting teaching in the true sense of being caretakers of souls,” he said. “Our love for Christ is best measured by our love and caring for the ‘least of these.’” Read Full Story

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