Solemnity of Jesus Christ KING of the UNIVERSE November -- Year A

First: Ez 34:11-12.15-17; Second: 1 Cor 15:20-26.28; Gospel: Mt 25:31-46

THEME of the READINGS

Jesus Christ, the king and judge of history and of the universe: this is the great ending of the liturgical year and of the history of salvation which we have traced back over this year. Christ is the king and judge of all nations and of each and every individual (Gospel). He is the king-shepherd pre-announced by the prophet Ezekiel to replace the bad kings who abuse the flock (First Reading). He is the King who, having subjected everything to himself, will deliver the kingdom to his Father in order for God to be all in all (Second Reading).

DOCTrinal MESSAGE

The consummation of the kingdom, in the plan of God. We do not know when the universal kingdom of God will reach its historical and last realization, but we firmly believe that it will happen. At the end of time, Christ will consummate his kingship, a kingship which is eternal like him, for he is God, and which is messianic from the time in which he came into this world and was anointed as the Messiah by the Holy Spirit. The consummation of the kingdom will take place with the consummation of history and the universal conflagration, with which God will constitute, according to his secret plans and infinite might, new heavens and a new earth in which justice will reign. Christ the king and judge, in his judgment will simply recognize and accept the good or ill use that individuals have made of their freedom, for which they lovingly subjected themselves to his kingdom or for which they rebelled against him and put themselves at the service of another king. In the kingdom of God, people will no longer have to worry about eating or drinking, as we do in this world, for it will be a kingdom of truth and grace, justice, love and peace. It is a kingdom built for individual and common freedom, as a thanksgiving to our king and lord.

Different attitudes may be adopted before this mystery of faith on our part. There are those who take on a skeptical attitude: "Too good to be true," they normally say. Or one of lack of concern, for they feel that there are too many things to worry about on earth to be thinking about something "unknown" and out of our reach for now. There are also those who consider the notions of Christ as king and judge, and the final judgment, as being something "mythical", old-fashioned and outmoded. Isn't it true that such unchristian attitudes can be found even in Christians? What happens to the Christian faith in the Day of Judgment, in hell, in purgatory, in heaven? The Feast of Christ the King is an important time to polish up such ancient and ever original truths, so full of surprises! The Christian attitude and faith are taught to us in the Second Reading: "After that will come the end, when he will hand over the kingdom to God the Father, having abolished every principality, every ruling force and power;" and in the Gospel: do deeds of mercy, both bodily and spiritual, for the king-judge will judge us according to our love for our brothers and sisters, motivated by our love for God.

PASTORal SUGGESTIONS

Be careful of the subjectivization of the Church! Obviously, the Christian must personalize his faith, incarnate it in his own subjectivity, but he must personalize and incarnate the objective faith of the Church, as it is presented to us in the Creed, in the sacraments, in the commandments and in the Our Father, as the believer's prayer. Without this objective base, subjectivism will not mean making faith something personal, but inventing it. Without this base, each one will "manufacture" a personal faith, thus losing the doctrinal unity of Christians. In a not very distant past, the objectivity of faith was emphasized, to the detriment of its personalization. Today, perhaps, we are at the other extreme: in excessively emphasizing the subjectivity of faith, we lose sight of its objective reality, as it is conveyed to us by the Church. We must be careful, for subjectivism fits in perfectly with the democratic mentality that pervades us all, and with the significant degree of individualism that characterizes contemporary society. The kingdom of Christ, here and now in history and later in eternity, is something objective, which is not at the mercy of subjectiveness. It is clear that eternity is not something that was made up, a figment of human imagination or creativity; it has the austere yet firm and sure objectivity of faith.

The kingdom of God is also a temporal and historical reality. God reigns over the cosmos, for it was created to be at the service of a divine plan for humanity. God especially reigns in the Church, as it is the privileged, though certainly not unique, place in which he exercises his kingship. He reigns in people, when truth, justice, innocence, solidarity, and holiness of life reign in them .... It is important for us Christians to recognize and promote the kingdom of Christ in humanity, in the Church, in the cosmos. We are all urged by Christ himself to work to extend and expand the internal (those that exist inside each person) and external (spatial and temporal extension) borders of the kingdom. It may be beneficial for Christians to celebrate with great solemnity this last feast of the liturgical year: by means of a good preparation in order for people to participate in and experience the feast with greater consciousness and intensity of faith, through the memory of many men and women who died, in Mexico for example, crying out, "Long live Christ the King!", by means of a greater awareness that the kingdom of God is a kingdom of love, justice and peace.

Source: http://www.clerus.org/clerus/dati/2004-05/21-13/CICLOA.html by P. ANTONIO IZQUIERDO L.C. (1948-2013)

[참고: 이 파일은 저서명 "가톨릭 교회의 말씀 전례에 따른 성경공부 해설서"(엮은이: 소순태, 출판사: 가톨릭출판사)의 각주의 연장으로 마련되었습니다].