Today, on this last Sunday in our Church year, we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King. This celebration gives us an opportunity to contemplate a most central and fundamental truth – that Jesus Christ is Universal King and Judge of all humanity.
While this feast makes a statement about Jesus’ identity as King, it also makes a statement about our own identity – that we are God’s chosen and privileged children invited to be a part of His kingdom and to share in His life by allowing Jesus, our King, to reign in our hearts.
In fact, in the gospel of today’s Mass we hear this invitation. Jesus invites all of us, all of His faithful people with these words: “Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34).
Today we can stop and reflect on how blessed we are to have such a gracious and benevolent King, such a personal and loving God, a God who deserves a response of love and obedience from each of us.
And we are not only invited into God’s kingdom, we are called to take an active part in God’s kingdom, to help God’s kingdom break through into our world.
And how do we do this?
We do this whenever we make God’s presence manifest. We do this by doing what Jesus asks us to do, what Jesus Himself did – living a life of love. We do this by living lives of humility, kindness, tolerance, forgiveness, and charity. We do this by modeling ourselves after Jesus – living selflessly, putting others before ourselves, attending to those in need, bearing each other’s burdens.
Jesus came to reveal God’s love and to initiate a kingdom of love right here on earth, a kingdom that will attain its definitive fullness at the end of time. We are privileged with the opportunity to help further God’s kingdom, an opportunity that, if embraced, allows each of us to achieve our own fullness as children of God.
Today is the last Sunday of the year for us. Next Sunday – the first Sunday of Advent – is the first day of our New Year. So in some ways we can view this entire week as our New Year’s Eve. And as is the custom on New Year’s Eve we can make our New Year’s resolution – we can resolve to get closer to Jesus this year, to deepen our relationship with Him, to ask Him to help us live the lives we are called to as faithful members of his Kingdom.