Dn. 7: 13-14; Ps. 93:1-2, 5; Rev. 1:5-8; Jn. 18:33b-37
Our Lord Jesus Christ has come and is coming again. The Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end of all things is calling us into his kingdom while there is still time. The majesty of the Lord surrounds us in all of creation. We are to contemplate the beauty of creation from the heavens above to all of nature on earth, and the miracle of life that reveals the God who is with us. Creation is not an accident but an act of love from the King of the Universe who was from all time, remains with his elect, and keeps coming until the end of time. Praise the King of glory!
This act of love from God speaks to each of us that we are not an accident of humanity but an act of love from God who has given us the breath of life for a God given purpose. Are we living our purpose for being here? Our purpose is fulfilled only when we unite ourselves to his love. Only then that our individual talents, the work that we do, and our state of life become a blessing from God and for God turning to gold, the gold of heaven that lasts for eternity. This is the manifestation of God revealed to us and through us to be his disciples and witnesses that Jesus Christ is King in our hearts and that we belong to him in his kingdom.
The alternative is what we see in this world that has rejected the God of all creation to become a god unto themselves. It carries the mantra of “my choice my will”. It denies the power that is greater than itself from which all creation exists to become the center of power for itself that no one else cares for. It leads to a lonely world filled with darkness of soul, a sequence of disappointments with short-lived pleasures of the flesh. It has rejected the grace of life for a culture of death. The irony is that while it seeks to run away from death it is in reality running to it dying from within. This is not the will of God but the free choice of those will it.
The King of glory comes in the majesty of his love. Jesus Christ joined our humanity that we may encounter him in a personal intimate bond of love. We are called to love with all our heart, mind, and soul that our whole being may be an act of love to God and with God to others. This is our communion of faith to join together in this act of love we call the Mass. Here we offer ourselves up to him in his sacrifice for us to God the Father.
The Mass is not an institution the Church created but a gift that Jesus Christ instituted for the Church, that is for the body of Christ in which we come to love him and to serve him. The Mass is not about us and what we receive or as we sometimes comment as what we “get out of the Mass”. Yes, we receive the Word and Jesus Christ in the Eucharist and sometimes the homily will speak to us with a word of knowledge but the Mass is foremost Jesus Christ going to the Father in his sacrifice for our sins. Jesus is the lamb suffering on the cross as an offering to wash away our sins we confess as we begin the Mass. He is worthy to be king of the universe.
When we hear that “his kingship shall not be destroyed” we are reminded how Jesus spoke that his kingdom was not of this world. The kingship of the Lord is his reign over his elect and we will not be destroyed but live for all eternity with the King of kings. For this we not only bear the cross of this world but celebrate that the Lord is asking us to carry the cross of fidelity, the cross of love, the cross suffering but only for this brief time on earth. This world is the extraordinary time of suffering before we enter into the ordinary time of eternal love in heaven. Sin came into the world and took us out of the ordinary creation God desired for us. Jesus Christ came into the world to take us back from this period of life that is outside of God’s perfection and bring us into his perfection. Jesus Christ reigns!
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