On the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the King

We recently celebrated, in the reformed calendar of Pope Paul VI, the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the King, marking the end of the Liturgical Year.

Matt Doyle has an excellent and comprehensive post on this. I recommend that you go read it.

I just want to add this little reflection.

We can confess with our lips that Christ is Our King till the cows come home, but, practically, how far does God’s Kingship truly extend in our lives? Is Christ King over us in Church only? Is He King over us only when we pray? Is Christ King only over the parts of our lives that we allow Him to be King over or is He truly Sovereign? Does Jesus truly reign over our whole lives, every aspect of it?

At the end of the Liturgical year, and as we move on towards Advent and in the expectation of Christ’s 2^nd Coming in Glory, it’s a good time for us to reflect on this. Is the Lord Jesus Christ our King when we are at work, at school, at home, in the privacy of our bedrooms? Is Christ King over our minds? King over the thoughts we think, the movies we see, the things we say, the music we listen to?

Is Christ King over our bodies as well? Is Christ King over the way we dress, how we treat out bodies, the living Temples of the Holy Spirit, how we display our bodies, what we do with our hands and feet, where we go?

A King will be embarrassed if His subjects act in an unbecoming way, embarrassed to claim them as His own. Do we too embarrass our God and King by our behaviour? Will Christ be ashamed of us?

Let me be the first to confess that it sure ain't easy letting Jesus rule over me, over every aspect of my life. There are certain parts of my life that I'd rather keep private, thank you very much. But I know that Christ is either King over me fully and totally or He is not King over me at all. He's no partial part-time King. Its hard, very very hard, I can tell you that. But I am still striving and though I want to say that its gets easier as time passes, it really does not. Every day is a struggle to master myself and to conform myself to Christ my Lord. Prayer plays an important part is discipleship, so disciplined and consistent prayer does help. So does fasting and corporal mortification, for the greater glory of God.

To acknowledge Christ’s Kingship and to profess to do His will is to know His will. We can’t do what we don’t know.

To freely confess that Christ is King is to say, ‘Thy will O Lord is my command’. But how can we do God’s will if we don’t know it? Jesus says “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice”. Do we listen to Him and allow His Word, revealed in the Sacred Scriptures and resounding through the living Magisterium of the Catholic Church to guide and govern us?

Lets strive to do His will, and lets strive to know His will. And for this, we must strive to know and study God’s Word. As the great St. Jerome once said: “Ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ”.

Temptations do come and temptations will come. And we can be sure that we will fall. But by the grace of God, and through the Sacraments of the Church, we can be forgiven and restored in our relationship with Him. So long as we repent and acknowledge our creatureliness before our Creator, we can be assured that, as the words of absolution are spoken over us, that we are forgiven.

In all things however, lets abandon ourselves to God through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary for by ourselves, we are nothing and all our efforts and in vain if the Spirit does not animate it. But if God is with us, who can be against us?

To Him, Our King, be all glory for ever and ever.

Amen.