CHRIST THE KING
November 26, 2023: A Reflection for the 34th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A
Matthew 25:31-46
Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
(Mt 25:29)
“In the evening of life we will be judged on love alone.” So says the great Spanish mystic John of the Cross. The past few Sundays, the Church has been focusing our attention on Jesus’ Gospel message: the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom he came to inaugurate through his incarnation and life lived among us. Today’s celebration of Christ the King is Jesus’ blueprint for living in this Kingdom of his Father. The blueprint is on every page of the Gospel. If we espouse to have Christ as our King, then it only makes sense that we live by the rules of our King. And that rule can be summed up in one word: love.
Jesus spent his entire life explaining by word and example just what is the love of which he speaks. In today’s Gospel, he makes explicit how to live this love he is talking about. “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.”
If we want to express our love for Christ our King, if we want to be citizens of the Kingdom of God, we need look no farther than one another. THERE is Jesus. And he tells us how to express our love for him: really care about the other person, so much so that we serve them.
Sometimes it is easy to see the face of Jesus in another person. And thank heaven we see God easily in them. But many times, the face of God in another is not attractive to us or asks too much of us, and so what we did not do for one of these least ones, we did not do for Christ.
Love in the Kingdom of God is prodigal, it is joyful, filled with faith, humility, and kindness. In Christ the King’s realm, the cross is the expression of the free, non-self-seeking love that we are called to express, each in the way they are called to live. It is not about getting love, but about giving love/caritas. To quote John of the Cross again: “Where there is no love, put love and you will find love.” Why? Because the important thing is that we reach out in love. God will take care of the rest.
So, we have a choice about whose Kingdom we wish to embrace. If it is Christ the King, then we will one day hear: “Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Viva Cristo Rey!