Christ the King – November 24, 2013

Christ is the King of the Universe. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. Prayer for the Acceptance of Death.

To view Lectionary 162, click here.

Christ is the King of the Universe: Central idea

Reading 1 2 Sm 5:1-3

• God chose David to be the shepherd and commander of his Chosen People. David proved his worth under Saul. The elders of Israel asked David to be their king, he agreed, and they anointed him.
• God the Father chose his son, Jesus Christ, to be shepherd and commander of all human beings. Christ proved himself through his Passion. When we ask him to be our king, he anoints us with the Sacraments.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 122:1-2, 3-4, 4-5

I rejoiced because they said to me, “We will go up to the house of the LORD.”

• The House of the Lord, now, is heaven where Christ the King of the Universe dwells. His person is the Temple. We are of his tribe. Our life on this earth is a pilgrimage whose goal is that House. This is why “I rejoiced because they said to me, ‘We will go up to the house of the LORD.’”

Reading 2 Col 1:12-20

• In just a few sentences, St. Paul presents a complete Christology, that is, an account of who Jesus Christ is. Paul’s words will echo in the Nicene Creed. which we will recite shortly.
  • In Christ the fullness of God dwells.
  • Through him and for him all things, including the angels, were made.
  • Christ is our redeemer, by his cross delivering us from the devil and forgiving our sins.
  • He is our sanctifier, making us fit for heaven.
  • He is the head of the Church, which is his body.
  • He is the first to rise from the dead.
  • He is, as today’s feast says simply, the King.

Gospel Lk 23:35-43

• The rulers, soldiers, and even a condemned criminal poured scorn on our Crucified Lord. Yet Christ was “the Chosen one, the Christ of God,” the “King of the Jews,” and “innocent,” who ascended to his throne through every way that is the opposite of human triumph.
• Christ’s reign in his kingdom of Paradise would begin that very day.

He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead: Doctrine

• “Christ the Lord already reigns through the Church, but all the things of this world are not yet subjected to him. The triumph of Christ’s kingdom will not come about without one last assault by the powers of evil.” (CCC 680)
  • Christ reigns on earth through the actions of each person who cooperates with his grace.
  • None of us does this perfectly but many seem perfectly opposed to this good subjection.
  • Before the end, the powers of evil will rise up against Christ and his Church on earth.
• “On Judgment Day at the end of the world, Christ will come in glory to achieve the definitive triumph of good over evil which, like the wheat and the tares, have grown up together in the course of history” (CCC 681).
  • We are living in the age of the wheat and the tares, of good and evil existing together, when evil cannot be extracted without harming the good. God is permitting them grow together to allow them turn out the way they choose.
  • The tares can become wheat through God’s grace and our apostolate.
  • We who are wheat can have tares growing in our own hearts by our attachment to sin.
• “When he comes at the end of time to judge the living and the dead, the glorious Christ will reveal the secret disposition of hearts and will render to each man according to his works and according to his acceptance or refusal of grace” (682).
  • Christ will bring all humanity together and every one of us will know everyone else’s true life story because Christ will reveal it.
  • We shrink from the idea of being truly known out of shame, but everything will come to light someday.
  • Final reality is binary: heaven or hell will be the consequence of our good or evil works and our acceptance or rejection of God’s grace.

Prayer for the Acceptance of Death: Practical application

• Catholic piety has created many ways of responding to the reality of death and judgment. One is this “Prayer for the Acceptance of Death” which we can both meditate on and recite often.
  • “Dear God and Father of mine, Lord of life and death, with an immutable decree you have established that, as a just chastisement for our sins, all of us have to die.
  • “Look at me here bent low before you. From the bottom of my heart, I abhor my past faults, for which I have merited death a thousand times, a death that I now accept as atonement for my sins and as proof of my submission to your lovable will.
  • “O Lord, happily will I die at the moment, in the place, and in the way that you want.
  • “And until that day I will take advantage of the days of life that remain in order to fight against my defects and grow in your love, to break the bonds that tie my heart to creatures, and to prepare my soul to appear in your presence; and from this moment on I abandon myself without reserve into the arms of your fatherly providence.”