Greetings on this The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe
Readings: EZ 34:11-12, 15-17; PS 23:1-2, 2-3, 5-6; 1 COR 15:20-26, 28; MT 25:31-46
Notes: Last week of the liturgical year! Make it a good one!
Summary
The celebration of Christ the KIng established by Pope Pius XI in 1925 was a direct response to those who wield unjust earthly power over man and to reorient us to the true King/Sovereign and to live in true justice.
In today’s gospel portion, Jesus invokes the imagery of final judgement from the prophet Ezekiel’s Parable of the Shepherds.
As to the false shepherds – to the leaders and powerful, Ezekiel says – Was it not enough for you to graze on the best pasture, that you had to trample the rest of your pastures with your hooves? Or to drink the clearest water, that you had to pollute the rest with your hooves? Thus my flock had to graze on what your hooves had trampled and drink what your hooves had polluted. Because you push with flank and shoulder, and butt all the weak sheep with your horns until you drive them off (Ez 34:18-19, 21).
The difference between Ezekiel’s Parable of the Shepherds and the gospel’s The Judgment of the Nations is this. The meaning of the word Sheep. For Ezekiel the sheep are those who are abused by the powerful. There is but one reference that Jesus is essentially expounding upon as a reference: I will judge between one sheep and another, between rams and goats (EZ 34:17b). A Ram – one who leads or acts properly. The goat – one who leads or acts poorly.
Jesus goes further. What did you do? What did any of us do?
For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, ill and you cared for me, in prison and you visited me (MT 25:35-36).
As to those who imitate the divine will – ‘Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.’
Reflection
From the foundation of the world the LORD desired to gather us to himself. All those who rule with poor intentions will be swept away. The Good Shepherd will reign and the difficulties of life will cease. Life becomes all it was meant to be from the foundation of the world. Yet the litmus test is the ram v goat comparison. It isn’t those in Washington, D.C. who alone must answer the question. It is each of us. All of us. What did we do? Do we not remember the first questions the LORD had for Cain?
Then the LORD said to Cain: Why are you angry? Why are you dejected? If you act rightly, you will be accepted; but if not, sin lies in wait at the door: its urge is for you, yet you can rule over it. [later] God then said: What have you done? Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground (Gen 4:4,10)!
The conflict within us is the failure to master ourselves or move to our excellence for we are made in the image and called to the likeness of God! Be like God.
Personal Reflection
Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, marks the end of the liturgical year. A very exciting transition for me. A new ‘turning toward the LORD’. Entering into our personal Advent, receiving the Incarnate LORD anew, and walking with him once again in Galilee and entering Jerusalem. It gives me courage and strength to remember, that this very day the LORD knew and still his promise is secure for me from the foundation of the world.
First Reading
Thus says the Lord GOD: I myself 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.
Responsorial
The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want.
Second Reading
Brothers and sisters: Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through man, the resurrection of the dead came also through man.
Gospel Acclamation
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is to come!
Gospel
Jesus said to his disciples: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will place the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
Peace be with you,
Deacon Gerry