11/25 - Lord Jesus, Christ the King

Dear Parish Family,

On this last Sunday in the Liturgical Year we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King. It is a good time to reflect on this most unusual king and his kingdom. The proclamation of the coming of the Kingdom dominated the preaching and teaching of Jesus. He taught his disciples to pray, “Thy Kingdom come.” (Matt. 6: 10) He told them to “Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all of these things will be given to you besides.” (Matt. 6: 33) He handed on this purpose to the apostles, “Jesus said to his apostles: ‘As you go make this proclamation: The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matt. 10:7)

What is this Kingdom of God? We hear and read this expression many times and seldom stop to think what it really means. The Kingdom of God is described for us in the first chapter of the Book of Genesis. It is a kingdom of holiness, justice and peace. Man is the Lord and Steward of this creation. Made in the image of God, man has an intellect and free will and is at peace with God, with himself and with all of creation. But this peace-filled creation scene is short-lived. Man is not satisfied … he wants to be like God and so exercises this absolute independence and is banished from the Kingdom.
God does not give up on humankind, rather brings good out it in a costly way. So in the fullness of time God sends his only Son, Jesus Christ to restore and usher in a new the Kingdom of God, a kingdom which is not of this world. The kingdom begins in this world but finds it completion in the next world. Since this Kingdom of God is not of this world Jesus describes it in worldly images understandable by human experience, in parables. Since we know spiritual things indirectly through our knowledge of material things, the parable goes from the known to the unknown, from the material to the spiritual. The parable is a story describing some ordinary occurrence. But it is a story that is told to convey to the hearer a higher, spiritual truth. In other words it is an “earthly story with a heavenly ending.” It is this heavenly ending which is the real meaning the teacher intends.

Here are some parables of the Kingdom: The sower and the seed (Matt.13:3-23) the mustard seed (Matt. 13:31-32) the growing seed (Mark 4:26-29) the wheat and the weeds (Matt. 13:24-30) the pearl of great price (Matt. 13:45-46) the unforgiving servant (Matt. 18:23-35) the workers in the vineyard (Matt. 20:1-16) the wedding feast (Matt. 22:2-14) the rich fool (Luke 12:16-21) the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-30)
 
Jesus is the King of this Kingdom. But He is a most unusual King; he is a crucified King. And from his royal throne on the cross he extends his royal invitation to his subjects. “If anyone will come after me he must pick up his cross daily and follow me.” In Baptism we have accepted this invitation. There are no states in this Kingdom that are more perfect than any other. Everyone is called to reach the potential that he has been given. It is a most unusual kingdom. The greatest in the Kingdom are the childlike. The weak conquer the strong, the foolish confound the wise and a camel gets through the eye of a needle, we add by subtracting and multiply by dividing because nothing is impossible with God and there is only one law: Love God and love others as Jesus loved. What a wonderful WORLD!
 

Fr. Tom Kunnel. C.O.