The Solemnity Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe
Lectionary: 162
A Reading for the Gospel according to Luke
Lk 20:27-38
Some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection,
came forward and put this question to Jesus, saying,
“Teacher, Moses wrote for us,
If someone's brother dies leaving a wife but no child,
his brother must take the wife
and raise up descendants for his brother.
Now there were seven brothers;
the first married a woman but died childless.
Then the second and the third married her,
and likewise all the seven died childless.
Finally the woman also died.
Now at the resurrection whose wife will that woman be?
For all seven had been married to her.”
Jesus said to them,
“The children of this age marry and remarry;
but those who are deemed worthy to attain to the coming age
and to the resurrection of the dead
neither marry nor are given in marriage.
They can no longer die,
for they are like angels;
and they are the children of God
because they are the ones who will rise.
That the dead will rise
even Moses made known in the passage about the bush,
when he called out ‘Lord,’
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob;
and he is not God of the dead, but of the living,
for to him all are alive.”
Salesian Sunday Reflection
Christ the King
Today we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King. St. Francis de Sales encourages us to place ourselves under the Kingship of Christ:
Bees are restless while they are without a queen. But when their queen is born, they gather round her and follow her desires. In the same way our senses ceaselessly wander about, drawing our interior self after them, wasting time and creating restlessness and anxiety in us. All shatter the peace that is so necessary for our human spirit. Our senses and our mind and will are like mystical bees. Until they have a ruler, that is, until they have chosen our Lord for their king, they are restless.
Yet, when we have chosen our Lord for our king, we ought to place ourselves under Him. Our Majesty is sovereignly good in exercising both mercy and justice. God’s mercy makes us embrace what is good while God’s justice makes us shun evil. Our Lord uses mercy and justice to uproot whatever prevents us from experiencing the effects of His goodness. Our Majesty’s justice may sting our conscience with insights. Yet they create movements that lead to our well-being. Letting go of our old self may cause us to suffer as our new self in Christ is formed. But Our Lord’s unrivaled mercy opens our hearts, and restores our health through the Holy Spirit, who floods our heart with sacred love.
Wherever Our Lord is the Master, there is peace. To preserve our peace let us have a pure intention of willing God’s glory in all things. Let us do the little we can for that end, and leave to God the care of all the rest. May we have the fidelity to keep ourselves submissive to our King’s desires as the bees do with their queen, so we might begin in this life what, with the help of God’s love, we shall do eternally in Heaven. Live Jesus!
