Thirty-Fourth or Last Sunday in Ordinary TimeSolemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ the King
“The one like a Son of man received dominion, glory, and kingship;
all peoples, nations, and languages serve him.” Daniel 7:14
Jesus answered, “You say I am a king.
For this I was born and for this I came into the world,
to testify to the truth.
Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” John 18:37
Piety
Jesus Christ, you are the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and ruler of the kings of the earth. To You who loves us and has freed us from our sins by your blood, who has made us into a kingdom, priests for his God and Father, to You we proclaim glory and power forever and ever. Amen.
Study
By Rev. Joe McCloskey, S.J.
http://www.usccb.org/nab/112606.shtml
Christ is the embodiment of all that is important about life. To merely walk into the oval office of the President caught my attention. Shaking hands with the Pope and different presidents never became old hat. To enter the presence of unequivocal power always left me speechless.
Whether I have an authority problem or not, power speaks loudly to me that “Children should be seen and not heard.” To call Christ the King might bother some, but it sets loose in my mind a response akin to servitude. True authority claims the attention of all that I am. I find myself wanting to give all that I am. The trappings of authority reduce me to a babbling idiot. The kingship of Christ does nothing like that to me.
Christ, coming on the clouds of heaven, has dominion over my heart. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not be taken away. Christ came to serve, not to be served. His kingship derives from his tree of glory. His throne is the Cross. He has won each of us for heaven if we will but allow his dying for us. Christ was born into this world to testify to the primacy of love. Our joining ourselves to his dying on the cross gives us the right to claim his resurrection. His love is forever.
Christ’s glory is in his dying for us. We become his disciples and accept his kingship when we take up our crosses to follow him. Our claim to heaven as his disciples will flow from our being soaked by the blood and the water that flowed from his pierced heart on the cross. Our greatness will be in our willingness to take his place on the crosses of our lives. We share his kingship in our dying for each other. Thus his dominion is forever in our lives.
Action
“Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
The kingship of Christ is possible only when others are in relationship to Him. How can you improve that relationship and hear Christ’s voice – the truth – in the world today?
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