REFLECTIONS ON THE READINGS OF CHRIST THE KING

November 22, 2020

Ezekiel 34, 11-17;

 Psalm 23;

 1 Corinthians 15, 20-18;

 Matthew 25, 31-48.

By +Guy Sansaricq

Today we are closing the Liturgical year. Pope Pius XI when he instituted this feast of Christ the King wanted to shout to a confused and secularized world that there is a FESTIVE ENDING to human history, that Christ is not the man of the past but the HERO of the present and of the future. Yes, at the end of time, Christ will come again to fulfill the work he began, to reap what He sowed.

1925 was a time when man proud of his progress in science, technology and finance pretended that he no longer needed God.  Yet, when God is discarded from human life, the world like Pilate no longer knows what the truth is. Happiness is described simply in terms of bodily earthly satisfaction. When DEATH is viewed as the ultimate end of human history, human dignity is devalued.

Jesus the MOUTHPIECE of GOD gives clarity, direction and meaning.  He teaches a message at once sublime and down to earth. You love and serve God then love and serve your neighbor! Prayer far from turning away the soul from the world actually enhances the commitment to good deeds. Jesus said “Whatever you do to the least in your midst, you do it to me.”The Gospel summons us to love the neighbor and to serve him wholeheartedly. Mother Teresa used to say that Jesus is present in our midst “in the disguise of the poorest of the poor.” Rejecting the poor is rejecting Christ. Jesus’ return will be a day of judgment. Only those who LOVED in truth will pass the test and enjoy admission into the festive banquet of eternal life. The proud, the arrogant, the deceiver, the wicked and the selfishsoul will be relegated to an eternity of darkness and despair for during their earthly life they stubbornly rejected God and his mandate of LOVE. Hopefully this is not your case! Long live Jesus! Through labors of love we joyfully hasten His GLORIOUS RETURN!