{"id":3035,"date":"2019-11-24T11:48:02","date_gmt":"2019-11-24T16:48:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=3035"},"modified":"2019-11-24T11:48:02","modified_gmt":"2019-11-24T16:48:02","slug":"our-lord-jesus-christ-king-of-the-universe-year-c-homily-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/our-lord-jesus-christ-king-of-the-universe-year-c-homily-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Year C – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Year C<\/a>
2 Samuel 5:1-3
Psalm 122:1-2, 3-4, 4-5 (see 1)
Colossians 1:12-20
Luke 23:35-43
November 24, 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today we\nbegin the last week in Ordinary Time before we start a new liturgical year next\nweek.  To mark this point in the year, we\ncelebrate this Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a\nsolemnity that calls us to reflect on who Jesus is.  We call him \u201cking\u201d but what does that\nmean?  And why do we call him not just\n\u201cking\u201d but \u201cking of the universe<\/em><\/strong>\u201d? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ll address\nthe second question first.  Why\n\u201cuniverse\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When one\nspeaks of earthly kings, or in our case elected government officials, we speak\nof kings who are in charge\/represent a finite geographic region.  For kings, it would be a \u201ccountry\u201d but there\nare also villages, towns, counties, and states with elected officials in our\ncountry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No matter\nwhat size region they serve, the area they serve is finite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is not\nthe case with Jesus.  God\u2019s Kingdom is in\nHeaven but really it is everywhere.  Writing\nto the Colossians, Paul uses the word \u201call<\/em>\u201d\neight times to stress how all things belong to Christ.  It is \u201cin\nhim all the fullness was pleased to dwell and through him<\/em>\u201d all things are\nreconciled.  As king over all, Jesus is\nthe King\nof the Universe<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even our\nprayers today carry this theme.  Our\nopening prayer (Collect) and the Prayer after Communion refer to Jesus as \u201cKing\nof the universe<\/em><\/strong>\u201d.  The Prayer\nover the Offerings speaks of \u201call<\/em><\/strong> nations\u201d.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again, Jesus\nis king of all.  Now, what does it mean\nto call him \u201cking\u201d?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the Jews,\nDavid was the great king.  There were\nmany kings after him but he was the greatest. \nHe was anointed king first as chosen by God<\/em><\/strong> and then\nacclaimed by the people.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a good\nking, he was not just an administrative leader. \nHe was a \u201cshepherd\u201d to the people. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus is\nacclaimed as king but He was not the type of king the Jews were expecting.  They expected a great earthly king like David\nto set them free from the Romans.  He did\nnot do that.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because He was called a king but did not win earthly battles, He was \u201csneered<\/em>\u201d by the rulers and \u201cjeered<\/em>\u201d by the soldiers on the Cross.  They mocked him saying, \u201cHe saved others, let him save himself\u2026save yourself.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In mocking\nhim, they even hung a sign over him on the Cross \u2018that read \u201cThis is the King\nof the Jews.\u201d\u2019  When you see a Crucifix\nwith the letters \u201cINRI\u201d above Jesus, this is the scripture passage it points\nto.  The letters \u201cINRI\u201d represent the\nLatin words for Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a\nsolemnity honoring Jesus as king, one might expect a passage from the Bible\nthat displays Jesus as a glorious king. \nYet, in today\u2019s Gospel we hear of his Crucifixion.  To non-believers, this would hardly be\nglorious.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For us who\nbelieve, it points to what Jesus does for us as our king.  He dies for our sins.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some people\nrecognize Jesus for who He is.  Some\ndon\u2019t.  We see this in the two criminals\ncrucified alongside Jesus.  One joins the\nothers who mock him.  The other does\nnot.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact the\nsecond criminal first admits his own sins, saying, \u201cwe have been condemned justly<\/em>\u201d but recognizes Jesus\u2019 innocence as\nhaving \u201cdone nothing criminal.<\/em>\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is also\nthis criminal who recognizes that the heart of Jesus\u2019 kingdom lies beyond this\nworld with his words, \u201cJesus, remember me\nwhen you come into your kingdom.<\/em>\u201d  It\nis also a plea for mercy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus is the\none who delivers \u201cus from the power of\ndarkness<\/em>\u201d and transfers us to the true kingdom.  He is the one who \u201ccreated all things in heaven and earth, the visible and invisible<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the\nkingdom of God like?  Our Preface for\nthis solemnity that comes at the beginning of the Eucharistic Prayer describes\nspeaks of it as \u201ca kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace,\na kingdom of justice, love and peace.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jesus wants\nus to be in his kingdom.  That why He\ndies for us on the Cross.  Jesus does not\ncome to have us serve his needs.  How\ncould we ever do that?  He comes to serve\nour needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knowing this,\nknowing his love for us, we can trust in what He teaches us.  Because of his love, we should be willing to\nobey his commands.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We should\nmake time for him.  Christmas is\ncoming.  Can you give a little time to\nJesus?  Can you make one extra hour for\nhim?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, in our humanity, we can be weak.  We sin.  Jesus died so that our sins might be forgiven.  We have the Sacrament of Reconciliation for this.  You will find in today\u2019s bulletin an insert listing both the regular times for confession during Advent and some extra times we are making available.  I encourage you to examine your conscience<\/a>.  If you find you have sinned, confess your sins to embrace the gift of God\u2019s forgiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second\ncriminal admitted his sins to Jesus and asked Jesus to remember him.  What was Jesus\u2019 response?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToday you will be with me in Paradise.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For help on how to confess your sins check out – http:\/\/www.renewaloffaith.org\/reconciliation.html <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Year C2 Samuel 5:1-3Psalm 122:1-2, 3-4, 4-5 (see 1)Colossians 1:12-20Luke 23:35-43November 24, 2019 Today we begin the last week in Ordinary Time before we start a new liturgical year next week.  To mark this point in the year, we celebrate this Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Year C – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82,68],"tags":[663,662],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-MX","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3035"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3035"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3042,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3035\/revisions\/3042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}