Daily Gospel Reflection
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November 21, 2021
Pilate said to Jesus,
“Are you the King of the Jews?”
Jesus answered, “Do you say this on your own
or have others told you about me?”
Pilate answered, “I am not a Jew, am I?
Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me.
What have you done?”
Jesus answered, “My kingdom does not belong to this world.
If my kingdom did belong to this world,
my attendants would be fighting
to keep me from being handed over to the Jews.
But as it is, my kingdom is not here.”
So Pilate said to him, “Then you are a king?”
Jesus answered, “You say I am a king.
For this I was born and for this I came into the world,
to testify to the truth.
Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
Several of my best friends and I do a rosary walk to a local parish for daily Mass each sunny summer morning. This time is precious to us every year as we enjoy time with friends, the beauty of summer in Minnesota, and shared prayer.
Each day of the rosary we pray together focuses on a particular set of mysteries. On Tuesdays and Fridays, along with people from all over the world, we focus on the Sorrowful Mysteries. As we walk, we offer our intentions, praying with each mystery.
The third mystery, the Crowning with Thorns, is the one that connects me to today’s gospel. As we begin our prayer, we reflect on the irony that drips from this scripture—the world’s misunderstanding of what it means to call Jesus king.
We meditate on the scripture and ask that Jesus will be the king in our hearts and lives. We pray that our lives will show that the kingdom Jesus proclaimed and ushered into this world is our priority, like the merchant searching for the pearl of great price. We pray that Jesus, as St. Paul says in his letter to the Philippians, will be the one to “take possession” of us—our hearts and our lives—every day.
The Church ends our liturgical year with this reading. It’s a section of John’s Gospel so important that it will be read again on Good Friday.
Today let us ask, “What do we need to move aside for Jesus to be king of our hearts?” May we also acknowledge that the grace to allow Jesus to take that place comes from Christ himself.
Prayer
God the Father, Lord of Heaven and Earth, free us from worldly desires and bind us ever more closely to the kingdom of your Son, Christ the King. We acknowledge how quickly we lose sight of your presence in our lives, how easily we drift from the faith that gives us life and purpose. Make us true servants of your Son, Lord God. Help us to hear his voice and, with him, testify to the truth. Release us from the corruption of this world, and make us subjects of his Kingdom, where he reigns now and for ages unending. Amen.
Saint of the Day
Today’s feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, is a recent addition to the Catholic liturgical calendar. Pope Pius XI instituted this feast in 1925 to help the Church respond to rising secularism and atheism in the world.
In his papal encyclical, Quas Primas (In the First), in which Pope Pius XI inaugurates the feast of Christ the King, Pope Pius wrote, “Oh, what happiness would be ours if all people, individuals, families, and nations, would but let themselves be governed by Christ!” Pope Pius XI cites the precedent for introducing new feast days into the liturgical calendar: the Church sees a pressing need for the culture around it to be reminded of some particular aspect of the Catholic faith. The feast of Corpus Christi was instituted when devotion to the Eucharist was waning. "So, too," Pius XI notes, "the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus was instituted at a time when men were oppressed by the sad and gloomy severity of Jansenism, which had made their hearts grow cold, and shut them out from the love of God and the hope of salvation."
Pius XI cites his reasons for establishing the feast of Christ the King as the widespread prevalence of relativism and anti-clericalism. He desires to remind the world that Christ—and his Church—are truly Lord over all. As Catholics wrestle with the crisis of leadership in our church hierarchy and episcopacy today, this feast day can perhaps serve as a testament of our own faith in Christ as the leader of our church in whom we can place our trust completely. Christ, as the ruler of the universe, will guide his Church with his providence, and the human leaders of our church ought to model themselves after his example.
The feast of Christ the King always falls on the last Sunday of the church year—a new liturgical year begins next Sunday with the start of Advent. This feast is a fitting way to send us into Advent, the season of preparing our hearts to better recognize and receive God who comes to us in the person of Jesus. Today, we remember that Jesus will come to us at the end of time to usher in the fullness of God’s kingdom, and it reminds us to recall that Jesus comes to us every day as well.
The Gospel readings for this feast in the three year Sunday lectionary cycle always serve to subvert our understanding of kingship from the perspective of earthly power. In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus reminds us that we will be judged based on how we serve–or fail to serve–those in greatest need. In John's Gospel, Jesus tells Pilate, "My kingdom does not belong to this world," as he prepares for the way of the cross. In Luke's Gospel, Jesus hangs on the cross and mercifully promises salvation to the common criminal crucified next to him. These readings show us that the kingship of Christ overturns the systems of power, wealth, and force which rule over the world. The kingship of Christ belongs to the Kingdom of God which he inaugurates through his self emptying love.
Our featured image is of a statue of Christ the King, which stands atop the tower of the Eck School of Law. The reliquary chapel in Notre Dame’s Basilica of the Sacred Heart contains pieces of the crown of thorns worn by Jesus during his passion, as well as pieces of clothing that he wore during his life.
On this feast of Christ the King, let us allow Christ to reign in our minds, our wills, our hearts, and our bodies!