Bottom line: As we come to the end of the liturgical year 2019 that's our challenge. Do we recognize Jesus' universal kingship?

This Sunday we celebrate Christ the King. This year it coincides with something that will happen only once: commitment weekend for Called to Serve as Christ. I ask you to make a response in context of today's Feast.

We've arrived at this Feast after five months travelling with Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem. Now we've reached the end our journey where Jesus faces the torture and humiliation of the cross. On the way of the cross the Romans carry a sign announcing his offense. It doesn't say "thief" or "murderer". Instead it reads "This is the King of the Jews".

The Romans mock Jesus because they see him as the lowest, most miserable man in Jerusalem. But they are wrong. Soon St. Paul would say this about Jesus: "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation."

Jesus is not only King of the Jews; he is King of the Universe. Paul continues:

"For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things were created through him and for him."

As we come to the end of the liturgical year 2019 that's our challenge. Do we recognize Jesus' universal kingship? Or at least glimpse it? And that he will come in glory? The dying thief has given us a good prayer, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom". Amen.

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