November 24, 2024: Solemnity Sunday of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

We acclaim Christ as a great King on this last Sunday of the liturgical year.

As the readings make clear, especially the Gospel, He is a different kind of King.

He doesn't follow the typical ideas of an earthly King, like what Pontius Pilate has in mind when he questions Jesus.

Furthermore, Christ transcends the idea of an earthly King.

He entered into our humanity to show us the reign of God's love by dying for us on the Cross.

Now He lives and reigns on High as the Mighty One, the Alpha and the Omega, holding all time in His hands.  He spreads that love to all the world, because through the Cross, Love has triumphed, as His Kingdom shows.  The reading from Daniel describes how the Son of Man comes on the clouds, imagery of God's revelation.

We have the opportunity to advance the Kingdom of God by opening our hearts so God may reign in us, and cooperate with His grace as we live to honor Him Who shed His blood for us so we could enter that Kingdom and be priests to serve our God. This Kingdom will not end, in the spirit of the words from the first reading in Daniel, because it stands for Who God is, characteristics that are timeless.

One notable person who did so much to advance the Kingdom of God in the Western Hemisphere was San Padre Junipero Serra, who founded several missions up and down the California coast.

Cardinal Cupich has done much to serve the Kingdom of God in the course of 10 years since his installation as Archbishop of Chicago on November 18, 2014.

Holy Name Cathedral celebrated its 175th anniversary on November 18, 2024, and the occasion is a great opportunity to reflect on how this cathedral parish community has advanced the Kingdom of God through worship and service.  It was splendid to attend a special Mass celebrated by Caridnal Cupich at the Cathedral today to celebrate this milestone.

20 years ago, on the eve of Christ the King Sunday, I attended my Confirmation Enrollment Mass.  The liturgy gave me the opportunity to be aware of how by my Confirmation, I would live more fully in the Kingdom of God, to show God's timeless characteristics, especially His Love, to the world.

Indeed, as I reclaimed the 2nd reading today, from the ambo, I gazed upon Christ the King in the rose window at the other end of Church, flanked by Alpha and Omega.  He Who was once dead, now is alive and rightly rules.