Reflection on the Readings at Mass for the 34th Sunday of Ordinary Time (The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe) – Year A. The Liturgical Sense of the Scriptures Podcast, by Catholic Author and Theologian David L. Gray. READINGS: Ezekiel 34:11-12, 15-17, 1 Corinthians 15:20-26, 28, Matthew 25:31-46.
The Solemnity of Christ the King, established by Pope Pius XI in 1925, celebrates the sovereignty of Christ Jesus over all creation. It was a way to counteract the rise of secularism and modernism that threatened to undermine the Christian faith and values. The Apostle Paul proclaimed that Christ is the creator and sustainer of everything, visible and invisible, and that He has supremacy over every power and authority. He also affirmed that Christ is the head of the church and the firstborn from the dead, meaning that He has conquered death and sin and opened the way to eternal life (Cf. Colossians 1:16-18). Other passages of Scripture also testify to the kingship of Jesus Christ and His eternal rule over all things, such as 1 Timothy 6:15, where He is called “the King of kings and Lord of lords,” John 18:36, where he declares that His kingdom is not of this world, Revelation 1:5, where He is described as “the firstborn of the dead and ruler of the kings of the earth,” and Revelation 17:14, where He is victorious over His enemies as “the Lord of lords and king of kings,” and where those who are with Him are called “the chosen and faithful.”
The Solemnity of Christ the King was initially celebrated on the last Sunday of October before the Second Vatican Council changed it to the last Sunday of November to coincide with the last Sunday of the liturgical year. This change emphasizes the connection between the feast and the Advent Season, when we await the coming of Christ in glory. The feast reminds us of the universal and eternal reign of Christ Jesus over all creation, especially at a time when many people have turned away from God and embraced the mantra of atheism that there is nothing greater than myself, and I will act as such. Today, many people trust more in human institutions, such as government, science, technology, and money, than in God’s providence. They act as if they were their gods, deciding matters of life and death, rejecting their God-given identity as male and female, engaging in unnatural sexual acts, and committing many other evils that stem from the mantra of atheism.
In response to the atheist proclaiming that there is nothing greater than me and that I will act as such, the Catholic sings that Christ is my Eternal King, and I will act as such. Our song is not based on faith alone but on faith and a divine mountain of evidence throughout salvation history that Christ our King provides for us in every way and takes responsibility for having created us. He takes responsibility for our life as a shepherd for his sheep, as He proclaimed in today’s First Reading from Ezekiel 34:11-12, 15-17, saying, “I will look after and tend my sheep. As a shepherd tends his flock when he finds himself among his scattered sheep, so will I tend my sheep. I will rescue them from every place where they were scattered when it was cloudy and dark. I myself will pasture my sheep; I myself will give them rest, says the Lord GOD. The lost I will seek out, the strayed I will bring back, the injured I will bind up, the sick I will heal, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy, shepherding them rightly.” Therefore, why should we place our faith in things that do not have our best interest, nor take responsibility for us as God does?
Our life is the rejection of the atheist mantra that there is nothing greater than myself, and I will act as such because, according to today’s Second Reading from 1 Corinthians 15:20-26, 28, everything that the atheist puts their trust in and rely on is a fake sovereignty and enemy Christ who will be destroyed, saying, “Then, at his coming, those who belong to Christ; then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to his God and Father when he has destroyed every sovereignty and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death. When everything is subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to the one who subjected everything to him, so that God may be all in all.” Therefore, why should we put our faith in a thing that will be destroyed?
Christ Jesus is the greatest king of all because He alone became fully human like us; as Hebrews 2:17 says, “He had to become like his brothers in every way so that he could be a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people.” Christ Jesus did not isolate Himself from us, but He embraced our human condition, and He continues to live with us through His word, His priests, His sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, and through each one of us. Because Christ shared our humanity and lives in us, He knows us so well that He says that when we serve each other, we serve Him. This is the message of today’s Gospel Reading from Matthew 25:31-46 about the judgment of nations where He identifies Himself with the thirsty, naked, hungry, ill, and imprisoned, saying, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”
Christ Jesus is the greatest of kings because he not only cares for us as a good king cares for his people and his servants, but instead of giving us commands and laws to obey as a king would, Christ the King also assists us with the grace and helps we need to obey Him. He is the worthiest king to follow because He is an eternal king, and where He leads us is eternal life. He is a loving king because He invites us to love as he loves by giving ourselves for others, and He shows us how to love through the liturgy of the Mass, where He offers Himself on the altar of sacrifice. He not only calls us to love sacrificially but teaches us through the liturgy of the Mass the way to love by orienting all of our faculties, senses, passions, and desires to the altar of sacrifice so that the one bread that is broken may be shared through us to those in need and that the one cup that is poured may seep out of us and into those in need. Being made by Christ into a Eucharistic people is how the communion of the kingdom of God is shared and how His sacrificial love is spread over the earth by those who share in His sacrifice of the altar.
This is just one way how the readings at Mass this Sunday connect to the Liturgy and how the Liturgy is forming us how to live our lives in the world. Be in the world what you have received through the Liturgy.
