Nov 21st Mass Rdgs & Reflection

November 21st, 2010 ~ The Solemnity of Christ the King ~ Liturgical Year C, Cycle II

First Reading: 2 Samuel 5:1-3

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 122:1-5

Second Reading: Colossians 1:12-20

Gospel: Luke 23:35-43

Reflection Questions

1. Jesus issued the Good Thief a promise that he would be with Jesus this day in Paradise. How do you think that made the Good Thief feel? How do you think it made the other thief feel?
2. Imagine if our country’s government changed tomorrow, and we were ruled by a king. How would people react to that? Why? What makes Christ’s Kingdom different than any earthly kingdom? Why?
3. By looking at the way you live your life, who (or what) is the king of your life? How can you better let Christ be the King of your life?

Summary of the Gospel

We are at the final Sunday of our Church’s liturgical year, the feast of Christ the King, and at this time the Church brings us back to a moment from Christ’s suffering on the Cross. By having this feast at the end of the liturgical year, the Church is making a huge statement: Christ is the center of everything we do. Now before we shrug this off as a cute ‘churchy’ statement, let’s take a minute to look at the big picture. 


First, we have to understand what it means to be a king: A king is not an elected official, but the ruler of a nation that has come through bloodlines. In other words, it’s a family business. The king has not been chosen by popular demand, but is given his power simply by who he is…and who his daddy is. 


Second, a king has total power: While he may have advisors, he has complete control over the policies of his country, his military, his economy, etc. In other words, he’s the big kahuna. If he wants to skip school, he can just take off, no questions asked. 


This being said, let’s go to the scene on Calvary: How could anyone have thought that the crucified, dying carpenter from Nazareth could have been a king? So it was with the Good Thief. He had the grace to see that Jesus was a king, even though Jesus was battered and bruised on the Cross. He simply asked to be remembered when Jesus entered into His Kingdom. 


The Good Thief was right: Jesus has a Kingdom, the Kingdom of heaven, and Jesus is, therefore, the King. The Cross gives us a clue to Jesus’ type of Kingdom. It is not a Kingdom of power, or force, or domination: It is a Kingdom of love, a love that is characterized by self-giving and self-sacrifice in imitation of Jesus. This is the statement that Christ and the Church are making on this feast-day: You and I are called to let Jesus reign in our lives through offering our daily sacrifices to Him. 


What kind of daily sacrifices does the King of Kings call us to make? Jesus calls us all to offer every moment of our lives, both the good times and the difficult times, to Him for His use. We often cannot control the situations we are put in, but we can always choose how we will respond to them. Christ will be the King in our lives if we allow Him in to every part of our lives. If we let Jesus take complete control, giving Him every moment, then we will become the people He intends us to be. Jesus the King does not just want us to be His loyal subjects: He wants us to be children of the Father. 


Remember, this is an invitation He makes to us – we can choose to reject it. May we have the grace, like the Good Thief did, to humbly ask Jesus to enter into that Kingdom, and put away any attachment to other ‘kings’ that we might have.