Nov. 21st - Solemnity of Christ the King
(Dn 7:13-14; Rev 1:5-8; Jn 18:33b-37)
Because God’s ways are not our ways, so God’s Kingdom is not like the kingdoms of the earth. While those of his time may have expected a king of strength who crushes his political enemies, Jesus instead comes as an infant child, and then suffers and dies on the Cross, which was the most heinous form of punishment in those days. Jesus suffers so that we may enter into his very suffering and through his death, experience the Resurrection of the Dead and everlasting joy.
Many of us want the Kingdom without the suffering and death on the Cross. The Lord takes no delight in our suffering, but through uniting our sufferings with his on the Cross, we can overcome our temptations and attachments. Our sufferings do not disappear when we meet Jesus; rather, they become the source of our communion with him. To enter the Kingdom of God, we must enter into Jesus’ death and resurrection. In our lives, this practically occurs through daily conversions of heart toward greater holiness. Every conversion is a little death to self that brings new life to us.
That is how we can bring God’s kingdom here even now before heaven: through every little conversion and every little death to self, his kingdom comes, and his will is done on earth as it is in heaven. Also, God’s Kingdom exists already here on this earth, through the grace of Christ in His sacraments, which have been given to the Church. Through these sacraments, especially the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, we can begin to experience heaven on earth.