Today the Church celebrates the end of the liturgical year with the feast of Christ the King.Christ the King Sunday used to be celebrated on the last Sunday of October, but in 1969 the church calendar was reformed and now it is celebrated on the last Sunday of Ordinary Time, which is the Sunday before Advent, which is today.
It is an appropriate time to remember that Christ is king as we begin the journey into Advent and the Christmas seasons. Jesus isn’t born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but rather he is placed in a manger in a dirty cave used to house animals during the cold nights. And Jesus doesn’t reign from a gilded throne, but rather from a cross used to execute criminals.
These seasons of the church year and its festivals and feast days are meant to remind us that God doesn’t operate the way that we expect people to operate. Shepherds were hired hands out to make a buck and earn the best living they could afford. And pagan kings that were meant to willingly go to sacrifice and appease the gods for the good of the people often dressed up slaves and criminals in royal robes to take their places.
But Jesus is king because He is the good shepherd who gathers the flock together and offers them safety. And Jesus is king because He willingly goes to the cross as a sacrifice for our sins.
Just as Pious XI instituted this special day in 1925 so that Christians could remember that Jesus was the true ruler of our lives we should remember that Christ is the ultimate ruler not because he received the most votes or because he staged a successful coup or because he inherited a crown, but because he is the one who gathers us in safety and judges us with righteousness, justice, and forgiveness.
Meditation for Feast of Christ The King
Paul’s letter to the Colossians 1:11-20 gives an affirmation of God’s love and caring for every person on the face of the earth and the earth itself.
“The Father who has made it possible for you to join the saints and with them to inherit the light. Because that is what he has done: he has taken us out of the power of darkness and created a place for us in the kingdom of the Son that he loves, and in him, we gain our freedom, the forgiveness of our sins. He is the image of the unseen God and the first-born of all creation, for in him were created all things in heaven and on earth: everything visible and everything invisible, Thrones, Dominations, Sovereignties, Powers – all things were created through him and for him. Before anything was created, he existed, and he holds all things in unity. Now the Church is his body, he is its head. As he is the Beginning, he was first to be born from the dead, so that he should be first in every way; because God wanted all perfection to be found in him and all things to be reconciled through him and for him, everything in heaven and everything on earth, when he made peace by his death on the cross."
The kingdom that Christ reigns over is not of this world, but is the everlasting kingdom to which we are called after living in this material world. The kingdom is a spiritual kingdom where peace and harmony and elation of being with the angels and saints and most especially the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, abounds.As King, Christ has the ultimate say on who will and will not be welcomed into this kingdom.
The Gospel from Luke 23:35-43, “Above him there was an inscription: ‘This is the King of the Jews’. One of the criminals hanging there abused him. ‘Are you not the Christ?’ he said. ‘Save yourself and us as well.’ But the other spoke up and rebuked him. ‘Have you no fear of God at all?’ he said. ‘You and I received the same sentence as he did, but in our case we deserved it: we are paying for the crimes we committed. But this man has done nothing wrong. Jesus,’ he said ‘remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ ‘Indeed, I promise you,’ he replied ‘today you will be with me in paradise.”, strengthens the concept that Christ is the power through which we gain eternal life in the paradise that is the Kingdom of Heaven.
In First Chronicles 29:11 we read this statement “Lord, you are great and powerful. Glory, majesty and beauty belong to you. Everything in heaven and on earth belongs to you. Lord, the kingdom belongs to you. You are honored as the One who rules over all.” and in Matthew 5:19 we read these words of advice as to how we can gain entrance to the Kingdom for which Christ is king; "Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”The Commandments we have been called to live by are simple according the Christ; as found in Matthew 22: 38-39
“Love the Lord, your God, with your whole heart, mind, soul and body and the second is like unto it, Love your neighbor as you love yourself”, and in Christ’s Sermon on the Mount where he gave us the Beatitudes telling us the way to treat our fellow humans.
As we are about to enter into the time of preparing to celebrate the birth of Christ, the season of Advent, it is a excellent time for us to make an evaluation of how well we are doing in our daily lives preparing for our admittance into the Kingdom of Christ, Heaven, when our time here on God’s earthly plain is over.Are we mindful of the needs of others, are we caring and accepting of all of God’s children not just those we consider acceptable because they conform to our way of thinking? Do we discriminate against others because of Race, creed, marital condition, sexual orientation or political party? Christ gave us the example, He did not reject anyone who came to Him and neither should we. In this time where people are thinking of giving gifts to their family and friends let us acknowledge the gifts God, our father, has given us and use them to the benefit of all especially those who have not been so blessed.By doing this we can not only show our love and respect for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords but build up our treasures in the Kingdom to come .
Amen
