Feast of Christ the King
November 21, 2021, last Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Rev. Pablo Martin
(translated from Spanish)
+ Hail Mary!
Dear brothers, in the feast of Christ the King it is painful to see that He still does not reign on earth, because his Kingdom is not known for what it really is and therefore it is not yet life in those to whom it has been announced, because the kingdom of human will and sin offers a fierce resistance. In this great fight of Kingdom against Kingdom, Jesus and Mary make us strong in Faith and in the Divine Will +
My dear brothers, the Gospel of Saint John (Jn 18,33-37) today says that "Pilate entered the Praetorium again and calling Jesus, he said: "Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus answered: "Do you say that on your own or have others told you about Me?" Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your people and the high priests have handed you over to me; What have you done?” Jesus answered: “My kingdom is not of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have fought so that it would not be handed over to the Jews; but my kingdom is not from here below.” Then Pilate said to him, "So you are a king?" Jesus answered: “You say so; I am King. For that I was born and for that I have come into the world: to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”
Dear brothers and sisters, this Sunday, when the Church celebrates the feast of Christ the King, is the culmination of the entire liturgical year. All the truths of the Faith, all the facts and the Mysteries of the life of the Lord ‒ his Incarnation, Christmas, Holy Week, the Resurrection, Pentecost, the Ascension, Corpus Christi‒ that is, everything, has as the purpose to celebrate the fulfillment and triumph of his Kingdom. That is the purpose, the goal of his life. "I am King, for that I was born and I have come into the world” the Lord has said.
The Son of God became incarnate, he became a creature because of the "competition of Love" between the three Divine Persons, the ineffable Mystery of the intimate Life of God. And he became a man with a triple purpose:
1st - To preside over Creation: "All things have been created through him and in view of Him. He is before all things and all subsist in him" (Col. 1,17). “… (To carry out) the project of recapitulating in Christ all things, those in Heaven as well as those on earth” (Eph. 1,10).
2nd - To carry out Redemption: "Jesus Christ has come into the world to save sinners, and I am the first of them" (1 Tim. 1,15). "The Son of God has come to destroy the works of the devil" (1 Jn. 3,8).
3rd - In order to have his Kingdom, we have heard him today: "I am a King, for that I was born and I have come into the world to bear witness to the truth" (Jn. 18,37). The Angel told the Blessed Virgin Mother: "The Lord God will give him the throne of David, his father, and he will reign forever in the house of Jacob and his Kingdom will have no end" (Lk. 1,32-33). "For He must reign until he puts all his enemies under his feet" (1 Cor. 15:25).
But where is the Kingdom ...? Because it is enough to open our eyes to realize that others are the ones who dominate us. "We know that we are of God, while the whole world lies under the power of the evil one" (1 Jn. 5,19), notwithstanding the Redemption. “God having submitted everything to him, he has left nothing that is not submitted to him. However, today we still do not see that all things are subject to him” (Heb. 2,8).
Therefore, Jesus Christ is King of a Kingdom "that is not of this world" (Jn. 18,36), and that has yet to come in this world, as we ask in the Lord's Prayer. “I have come to bring the Fire to earth, and how I wish it was already lit!" (Lc. 12,49). His coming as King will be the manifestation and triumph of his Kingdom. Indeed, we read in the Gospel of Saint Luke, 19,11-27: “… Jesus added a parable, because they were already near Jerusalem and they believed that the Kingdom of God was about to appear. He said therefore: A man of noble lineage (himself) went to a distant country (on the day of his Ascension) to receive the title of King and then return (...) But his fellow citizens hated him and sent a legion after him saying: We do not want you to reign over us. When he returned after receiving the title of King, he called his servants… ”, etc.
That title was finally given to him by the Church in 1925, with the institution of the feast of Christ the King, and thus this word of the Lord has been fulfilled: the Church has given him a "green traffic light" for his glorious coming. However, if it is not yet manifested, it is because, on the one hand, its Kingdom is not yet known as what it really is and therefore it is not yet life in those to whom it has been announced, and on the other hand, because the kingdom of the human will and sin offers a fierce resistance.
One hundred years ago, on December 3, 1921, the Lord explained to the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta, “the little Daughter of the Divine Will”, the relationship between Redemption and his Kingdom and announced his Coming as King:
“You must know that the greater is the work I want to do, the more preparations are needed. How many prophecies, how many preparations, how many centuries did not precede my Redemption? How many symbols and figures did not anticipate the conception of my Celestial Mama? Then, after Redemption was accomplished, I had to strengthen man in the goods of Redemption; and for this I chose the Apostles as the strengtheners of the fruits of Redemption, in which, with the Sacraments, they were to seek after the lost man and lead him to safety. So, Redemption is salvation - it is to save man from any precipice. This is why I told you another time that making the soul live in my Will is greater than Redemption Itself - because being saved by living a life in the middle, now falling and now standing up, is not so difficult after all. And this was impetrated by my Redemption, because I wanted to save man at any cost; and this I entrusted to my Apostles, as depositories of the fruits of Redemption. So, having yet to do the lesser, I left out the greater then, reserving other times for the fulfillment of my high designs.
Now, the living in my Will is not only salvation, but is sanctity which must rise over all other sanctities, and which must carry the mark of the Sanctity of its Creator. Therefore, minor sanctities were to come first, as cortege, bearers, messengers, preparations for this Sanctity, fully divine. And just as in Redemption I chose my incomparable Mama as link of connection with Me, from which were to descend all the fruits of Redemption, so I chose you as link of connection from which the Sanctity of living in my Will was to have Its beginning; and having come out of my Will to bring Me the complete glory of the purpose for which man was created, It was to return along the same step of my Will, in order to return to Its Creator. What is your wonderment then? These are things established ab æterno, and no one will be able to move them. And since the thing is great – it is to establish my Kingdom in the soul also on earth - I have acted like a king when he must take possession of a kingdom. He does not go there first, but first he has his royal palace prepared; then he sends his soldiers to prepare the kingdom and to dispose the peoples to his subjection; then follow the guards of honor, the ministers – and the last one is the king. This is decorous for a king. So I have done: I had my Royal Palace prepared, which is the Church; the soldiers have been the Saints, to make Me known to the peoples; then came the Saints who have sowed miracles, as the most intimate ministers.
Now I Myself come to reign as King; therefore I had to choose a soul in whom to make my first dwelling, and to found this Kingdom of my Will. So, let Me reign, and give Me full freedom.”
And this he now says to each one of us: may his Will give him life and reign in us, may his Will be ours and ours be his, so that we can say to him and with him to the Father: Mine is yours, and all that is yours is mine ”(Jn 17), moreover,“ I am all yours and You are all mine!”
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