Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

Jan 16 2025

Scripture Study for

The image of the good shepherd aptly characterizes God’s concern and personal intervention in the shepherding of the flock. The first reading describes how God fulfills the role of shepherd primarily in two ways: by caring for the sheep and by separating the good from the bad. Those who were responsible for the sheep failed to carry out their responsibilities. They were not attentive to their charges and so the owner of the flock steps in to shepherd the flock personally. The rest of the oracle of salvation confirms this. The final scene is one of judgment, an appropriate theme for the last Sunday of the liturgical year.

Paul brings together several of his most treasured themes: the effectiveness of Christ’s resurrection, human solidarity in Adam and in Christ, the sequence of events surrounding the end of time, the victory of Christ, and the ultimate reign of God. The reading carries us back through time to the primordial period of beginnings, and then forward to the end of time and the eschatological age of fulfillment. Every aspect of these events is grounded in the resurrection of Christ. At the final consummation, God will be all in all. All came from God; all returns to God. At the end, all purposes will be realized. All reality will have come home.

The scene of the Last Judgment as it unfolds before us today is both sobering and surprising. It is a scene of apocalyptic splendor and majesty, a scene of separation of the righteous from the unrighteous, a scene of reward and punishment. The image of the shepherd separating the sheep from goats would have been quite familiar to Jesus’ original audience. What is surprising is the reason given for the judgment. It is not the accomplishment of some phenomenal feat. Rather, people are judged on whether or not they meet the very basic human needs of others. The scene is sobering because one gets the sense that there is no way of escaping it.

Jan 12 2025

Transformed by Glory

On this the last Sunday of the liturgical year, many tongues will sing, “Christ Jesus Victor, Christ Jesus Ruler, Christ Jesus Lord and Redeemer.” For the Son of Man is coming in his glory and all his angels will be with him. He will sit on his glorious throne, and all peoples will come before him. Let the trumpets sound!

On this day, we do not look at the little ways in which the Holy Spirit speaks—through the smell of popcorn, the labor of climbing a mountain, or the planting of onions. This feast lifts us to the majestic, toward the awesomeness of God. All those who await us in heaven have vibrated with this glory. They have seen Christ the King.

Have you gotten a taste of that glory—in a dream? On the edge of a song? In the radiance of a sunset? In the joy of a meal? We don’t believe based on nothing. God has spoken. God has spoken to us.

The One we celebrate was so tiny at the beginning of this adventure. Today, he is grand as Christ the King. It is as though the coo of a newborn baby has swelled into the Hallelujah Chorus; the silence of a grain of sand has become the roar of the Pacific Ocean; the whisper of a gentle breeze has become the rumble of an earthquake. Rejoice!

In gathering the nations, the King wants our wholehearted “yes!” Have we been so completely changed into the person of Christ that we act as he acts, forgive as he forgives, and reach out as he reaches out? Have we given a cup of water to a little one? Have we fed the hungry? These actions are not just a garment thrown over our grubbiness. The trumpet blasts to transform our whole being.

Consider/Discuss

Teresa of Ávila called her beloved in prayer “Your Majesty.” Try using that invocation as you enter into a moment of silence and contemplate the grandeur of God. Have you seen God’s glory? Tasted it? Heard it? Felt it? Share the story of that glory with a fellow traveler on the pilgrim road.
As we ponder the sovereignty of Christ, it is an act of our will to obey and follow, to serve as he serves, to love as he loves, and to give as he gives. What one grace can I ask for today to solidify my will to serve my King?

Living and Praying with the Word

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, thank you that we are not alone. Thank you for the fellow pilgrims who have walked with us this year. Thank you that we walk with the saints on earth and the hosts of heaven. Secure in that solidarity, we turn ourselves toward the light of the new liturgical year. We do not know what lies ahead. We do not know what will be. But we do know that the alleluias of the heavens will hold us, for with them, we too will to glorify you with our lives.

Jan 12 2025

Scripture Study for

The reading from Ezekiel comes from a passage that focuses on the failure of Israel’s leaders, who have not shown solicitude for the socially and spiritually vulnerable but instead have been negligent or even taken advantage of God’s flock for their own gain. Now, God says, I will do myself what you did not do. In God’s care, the neglected, abused, or those who were allowed to “go astray” will be cared for properly; “the sleek and the strong” who took advantage of them will receive their judgment. Yet even among the flock will be found the faithless, whom God will seek out. But some of them will resist, proving themselves not part of God’s flock, but goats and rams.

At least some of the Corinthian Christians denied the resurrection of the dead, yet had apparently accepted Paul’s teaching on Christ’s role in God’s redemption. Paul points out that if there is no resurrection, and Christ was not raised from the dead, the gospel message is meaningless and false because they are still in their sins and have no hope beyond this life. The gospel is that Christ was raised from the dead, and because of this the baptized have received life in and through him and will be resurrected too at his second coming. Christ alone will be sovereign, the only authority, and all powers will be subject to him, including and especially the power of death.

The final judgment scene must be understood against the background of Jesus’ consistent teaching, found throughout Matthew’s Gospel, on the great difficulty of entering “the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” One must completely reform one’s life, starting at the level of thought, attitude, and interpretation of reality. Thus the sheep have not made their way easily into the kingdom simply by a few “works of mercy.” Their actions represent a fundamental disposition toward God that is manifested in their actions on behalf of others. These are the members of the flock who denied themselves, took up their crosses, and thus became followers of Christ. The goats represent those who never did deny themselves or take up their crosses, and thus never really lived for anyone but themselves.

Jan 06 2025

Reigning from the Cross

A good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. For this reason the image of a shepherd become connected to the kingly role in the Old Testament. Good kings, like good shepherds, provided for and guarded their flock. As a boy David went from safeguarding sheep to defending his people, going up against Goliath. Later, as a king, he brought together all the tribes of Israel, uniting them as one people.

Jesus spoke of the good shepherd who left the ninety-nine to go out after the one lost sheep and bring it back. We see him do this even from the cross in his last moments. One criminal calls to Jesus to save himself and them, but the other recognizes Jesus is the innocent one who is passing over into his kingdom. When he asks that Jesus take him there, Jesus gently promises to do so.

As we approach the end of the year, we are reminded that our own end will come one day. Let us have the confidence of that criminal we commonly refer to as the “good thief” and make his request to the Lord our own. And whenever that day comes, we can learn from Jesus how to face it: by extending forgiveness to any who have hurt us, by being compassionate up to our final moment, and by handing over our spirit in trust to our Father in heaven. The king will then surely come, gather us up in his arms, and take us with great joy into the Kingdom.

Consider/Discuss

Does today’s image of Jesus on the cross help you to appropriate the image of Christ as king?
What does it mean when we hear that by baptism we are part of a royal people?

Responding to the Word

Lord Jesus, remember us. Give us a share in the spirit of forgiveness you so generously expressed from the cross, the spirit of generosity that enabled you to turn from your own sufferings to comfort another, and the spirit of trust in your Father expressed in your last words.

Jan 06 2025

Scripture Study for

Although it was the people who anointed David as their king, they believed that it was really God who had chosen him. They acknowledged the intimate bond that they shared with this new king. They were his bone and his flesh, his very kin. As king, David is characterized as a shepherd because shepherds were familiar with and personally concerned about their flocks. He is also seen as a commander or captain, one who leads the people. Both images represent the king as a leader for the people, not one who is removed from them, expecting only to be served by them.

The hymn from Colossians extols the divine character of Christ rather than his human nature. Paul characterizes Christ in several ways, each reference adding a significant dimension to our understanding of him. He is a visible manifestation of the invisible God. He enjoys priority in time and primacy in importance. He is the agent through whom all was created, and he is also the goal of all creation. He holds all things together. He is the agent of reconciliation. The sacrificial death of the human Jesus becomes the means through which the cosmic Christ reconciles all of creation with God.

Jesus claimed to be the chosen one, the Christ of God, the King of the Jews—all messianic titles. In the unsettling fashion that so often characterizes the gospel story, Jesus was ridiculed for being who he really was. What the people did not realize was that he was indeed the Messiah, the one for whom they longed; their error was in their messianic understandings and expectations. The inscription on the cross, “King of the Jews,” is significant. Jesus was indeed the King of the Jews, even though his manner of ruling did not conform to the standard of the day. True to the paradox of the gospel, what was intended as a sign of derision actually became a proclamation of faith.