Psalm 93 is our responsorial psalm today: “The LORD is king, in splendor robed; robed is the LORD and girt about with strength.” There were other images for God in Hebrew Scripture, like shepherd and rock. But the image of king best captured how the Hebrews thought of God. For a king ruled over or ordered life, and he defeated threats to his subjects. This power was attractive! Yet Jesus (our Gospel) does not let Pilot label him “King.” He says his power lies in testifying to truth, and he speaks instead of his “kingdom” being “not of this world.” Kingdom is the image Jesus used to speak about our true place, both here on earth during our historical existence, and our true place after death.
Kingdom is a place that mirrors the goodness, truth and beauty of God. It is a place where all are at one with one another and with the Lord, and so it is peace. Spreading the good news of this kingdom is the mission Jesus gives his followers, including us. Living by the virtues of the Kingdom is the kind of moral life Jesus taught his followers to live, including us. Today’s feast day ends our liturgical year, and also opens the week of our U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. Both feasts pull us out of ourselves and our day-to-day concerns. In the opening prayer for today’s solemnity, we pray “that the whole creation … may render your majesty service and ceaselessly proclaim your praise.” That “whole creation” is already 14.6 billion years old and is still expanding. So today we meditate on Christ whose kingdom is more than this world — the universe. We meditate on Christ who will be with us until “the end of time,” billions of years from now. We meditate on a Christ who in Jesus is revealed to be present in this universe, injecting it with sacrificial love, thus creatively transforming history and reconciling everything with the Father. We meditate on the risen Christ bringing the universe into the fullness of beauty and harmony of which it is capable. For us U.S. people, as we step back from present time and look at our country’s history, flawed though it is, we can see even in our lifetime that things have changed for the better. When we look at our own lives, our personal history, we can see with gratitude how something greater than ourselves has been at work. We give thanks, and we acknowledge the power of Christ is in each of us, as we do our small part in His transforming work.
— Blog entry by Sister Mary Garascia
The post November 24, Solemnity of Christ, King, Kingdom: a Sunday Scriptures blog first appeared on Sisters of the Precious Blood.