November 21, 2021
Solemnity of Jesus Christ King of the Universe
He was given power, honor, and kingdom.
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the one who is, the one who was and is to come, the almighty.”
Jesus replied:
“You say it: I am king. For this I was born and for this I have come into the world:
to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice ”.
Readings
First reading
Reading of the Prophet Daniel 7, 13-14
I kept looking. And in my night vision
I saw a kind of son of man come among the clouds of heaven.
He advanced towards the old man and came into his presence.
He was given power, honor, and kingdom.
And all peoples, nations and languages served him.
His power is an eternal power, it will not cease.
His reign will not end.
Psalm
Ps. 92, 1ab. 1c-2. 5
R / The Lord reigns, clothed in majesty.
The Lord reigns, clothed in majesty,
the Lord clothed and girded with power. R /.
Thus the orb is firm and does not hesitate.
Your throne has always been firm,
and you are eternal. R /.
Your commands are faithful and sure;
holiness is the adornment of your house,
Lord, for days without end. R /.
Second lecture
Reading from the Book of Revelation 1: 5-8
Jesus Christ is the faithful witness,
the firstborn from the dead,
the prince of the kings of the earth.
To whom he loves us,
and he has freed us from our sins with his blood,
and he has made us kingdom and priests to God, his Father.
To him glory and power forever and ever. Amen.
Look: he comes through the clouds. Every eye will see it, also those who pierced it. For him all the peoples of the earth will mourn.
Yes, amen.
Says the Lord God:
“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the one who is, the one who was and is to come, the almighty.”
Gospel
A reading from the holy Gospel according to John 18, 33b-37
At that time, Pilate said to Jesus:
“Are you the King of the Jews?”.
Jesus replied:
“Do you say that on your own or have others told you about me?”
Pilate replied:
“Am I a Jew? Your people and the high priests have handed you over to me; What have you done?
Jesus replied:
“My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my guard would have fought to keep it from falling into the hands of the Jews. But my kingdom is not from here”.
Pilate said to him:
“So, you are a king?”
Jesus replied:
“You say it: I am king. For this I was born and for this I have come into the world: to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice ”.
Comment
The solemnity of Jesus Christ King of the universe concludes the liturgical year and opens us to a new one, which will begin with the first Sunday of Advent. The Church’s liturgy, which goes far beyond rites and festivals, reveals throughout the year the mysteries of Christ, from which the life of Christians, the life of each one of us, is illuminated. Our faith, centered on Jesus, celebrates him in the liturgy constantly seeking communion with him in order, from him who is Life, to clarify the mystery of our lives. In the liturgy we do not only celebrate feasts or saints… we celebrate Him first, whose maximum closeness is expressed in the sacrament of his Body and of his Blood, which is the Eucharist.
Today we celebrate Christ in the reality in which he dwells in the present moment, in communion with the Father in the Spirit, in his divinity and in his humanity, as Lord of heaven and earth, King of the Universe. Conqueror of sin and death, risen, he has been exalted and glorified at the right hand of the Father and from there we believe that one day he will come triumphant and glorious to judge the living and the dead, to bring his creative and salvific work to its fullness. More than a coming of Him towards us, we could understand that it will be a going of creation and the whole of humanity towards Him, towards the eternal Easter, towards the parousia, towards the final fulfillment of everything created, including each one of us.
The how and when he is not within our reach. They don’t matter that much either.
He awaits us because he has given us life and has called us by name to be his friends, to share God’s life with him and from him. No one is a stranger to him, neither distant nor unknown.
Today’s Word of God presents us with this Christ, King of the Universe, as the Son of Man, who has come, who is coming and who will come at the end of time. In Him all time, past, present and future converge. His power is eternal and his kingdom will not end. He has received it from the Father as the fruit of his obedience until his death and death on the Cross. He is the faithful witness, the first-born among the dead, the Alpha and the Omega of the universe, that is, the beginning and the end. In Him is the origin of everything and towards Him everything walks.
During his public life, Jesus announced on many occasions the arrival of the Kingdom of God; he even he became personally identified with the Kingdom. The messianic expectation of the Jews led some to understand such a reign in a sociopolitical way only, to which Jesus reacted by showing another deeper and more transcendent meaning. Even Jesus himself had to withdraw from the crowd on occasion when they wanted to make him king. So, what does the kingdom of God through Jesus consist of? What does the expression Kingdom of God mean? How to understand that Jesus is King? Today’s Gospel gives us the answers.
Pilate asks him, just before condemning him to death, if he was king. To which Jesus responds affirmatively, adding: “but my kingdom is not of this world.” The reign of Jesus effectively does not mean submission or oppression from above but quite the opposite, that is, service and surrender from below … He is the King who washes the feet of his disciples, who has not come to be served but to serve and give life in ransom for many. He is a King who does not oblige but seduces, who does not impregnate but invites, who does not conquer territories but hearts, who does not rely on earthly power but on the subtle force of his Spirit. His reign seeks peace.
Jesus links his birth and his coming into the world with witnessing the truth. He has come to bear witness to the truth, and all of us who are of the truth will hear his voice. In the continuation of today’s Gospel text, Pilate asks Jesus: “And what is truth?” To which Jesus responds with silence because He himself had defined himself as the Truth and the Life.
This solemnity of Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, invites each of us Christians to live in the light of truth and not in the darkness of lies, to be luminous witnesses of it and not slaves of deception and falsehood. Because, as Saint Paul says, the truth sets us free. The Kingdom of God consists in making the Truth of God a reality.
Living in the truth and being a witness to it has never been easy and perhaps much less in today’s world, plagued by malicious structures that prevent us from seeing reality as it is, constantly invited to self-deception from ideologies whose discourse is riddled with fallacious axioms. , flooded by consumer propaganda that clouds the noblest of the heart of every human being anywhere in the world. Living in the truth and being a witness to it cost Jesus the sacrifice of his own life on the Cross. Living in the truth and being witnesses to it will also be a challenge for each of us and will imply a risk that we can only assume from our firm decision to imitate Christ to the last consequences, being his witnesses, feeling accompanied by him in the construction of a better world, which little by little makes the great project of the Kingdom of God come true.
Prayer
To sing to you, my Lord Jesus, King of the universe,
How I would like to have the eyes of an eagle, the heart of a child, and a tongue polished by silence!
Touch my heart, Lord Jesus Christ; touch it and you will see how dreams buried in human roots from the beginning of the world awaken.
All our voices crowd at your doors.
All our waves die on your beaches.
All our winds sleep on your horizons.
The most hidden desires, without knowing it, claim you and invoke you.
The deepest longings look for you impatiently.
You are starry night, diamond music, vertex of the universe, flint fire.
Wherever you put your sore plant, there the planet burns with blood and gold.
You walk on the sound currents and on the snowy peaks.
You sigh in the secular forests. You smile in the myrtle and the broom.
You breathe in the algae, fungi and lichens.
Throughout the vastness of the mineral and plant universe, I feel you being born, growing, living, laughing, talking.
You are the pulse of the world, my Lord Jesus Christ.
You are the One who is always coming from distant galaxies, from the fiery center of the Earth and from the depths of time;
You have always been around, for millions of Light-Years.
The fate of the world shines on your forehead and the fire of the centuries is concentrated in your heart.
My heart dazzled by so much wonder, I bow to tell you: You will be the king of my territories.
For You it will be the fire of my blood.
You will be my path and my light, the cause of my joy, the reason for my existence and the meaning of my life, my compass and my horizon, my ideal, my fulfillment and my consummation.
Outside of you there is nothing for me.
For You it will be my last song.
Glory and honor forever to You, King of the Ages!
(Father Ignacio Larrañaga, Meeting 1)
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