Christ the King - Cycle B
Sacred Scriptures

Daniel 7:13-14
Psalm 93
Revelation 1:5-8
John 18:33-37
The Solemnity of Christ the King is the final Sunday of Ordinary Time.  The following Sunday the Church begins the season of Advent, a time of expectation and preparation.
    Today's celebration of Christ the King is the last Sunday in Ordinary Time.  The Church Year is quickly drawing to a close - the end is near!  Next week we will gather to begin the time of watching and waiting, the time of Advent.  Today's readings leave us with a challenging image and a challenging call.  Instead of calling us to share in the power and majesty of a king, the lord in the scriptures is calling us to share the weakness and abandoment of the faithful witness, Jesus our Christ and our king. 
     The gospel places us with Jesus on trial before being sent off to die.  Hie friends have abandoned him, he is under the power of another, he has given over hhis fate to the hands of people who are going to put him to death.  In so many ways, this is a king that many of us can relate to.  We have all gone through, or are going through, times in our lives when everything seems to be out of control.  We might feel like we are alone even though we are srurrounded  by family and friends.  In the midst of these times, Jesus shows us that we have to keep faith as painful as that can be at times.  When life seems out of control, when we ahve to hand over our lives and give up our quest to control every aspect of life, we have to also resign ourselves  to the presence of God in our lives.  God is never distant, though at times it may feel that way. Jesus witnesses to that Divine Presence as he prepares to give himself completely for our redemption.  He gives of himself, he gives his life in a death that he freely accepts to become for us a witness of the power of God's love in our lives.  The weakness of our King, the abandonment of Jesus' will, of our wills, to the Father, reveals the resurrection.  The resurrection then is not a triumph of a mighty king.  It is for Jesus, and for us, the promise that when all seems lost, when God seems distant and our world seems out of control, our Father is with us and raises us up if we remain faithful witnesses to God's loving eternal presence in each moment and season of life.  We cannot give up on God and we know, through Jesus, that God never gives up on us.
     As we are moved through prayer and action to respond to our calls to married life, to priesthood and religious life, and to the single life - to faithfulness - let's pray that we can, like Jesus, be the faithful witnesses to the reality of God's love and salvation by our fidelity to our vocations, to Our Father, who is the source of our vocations, and to each other.
Peace,
Shaun Lowery
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