Sunday Readings

The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe Last Sunday in Ordinary Time November 24, 2024 *The Readings: Daniel 7.13-14; Revelation 1.5-8; John 18.33-37* ALMIGHTY AND EVERLIVING GOD, WHOSE WILL IS TO RESTORE ALL THINGS IN YOUR BELIVED SON, THE KING OF THE UNIVERSE, GRANT, WE PRAY, THAT THE WHOLE CREATION, SET FREE FROM SLAVERY, MAY RENDER YOUR MAJESTY SERVICE AND CEASELESSLY PROCLAIME YOUR PRAISE. THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, YOUR SON, WHO LIVES AND REIGNS WITH YOU IN THE UNITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, GOD , FOR EVER AND EVER. MAKE ALL THINGS NEW IN YOUR SON JESUS CHRIST, THE KING OF THE UNIVERSE —from the Opening Prayer at this Sunday’s Liturgy. This Sunday marks the end of the Church Year. The word, “end,” has the sense that we don’t go any farther. “End” can also mean the state of completion in the sense that this state of completion is what the whole process intended. So the end of the line means also that this is the point where the whole line was leading in the first place. This feast at the end of the Church Year means that this is the END for which the whole universe was set in motion at the very beginning. Everything exists for this END: Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. Jesus is King in the sense that He is the Reason for All Being. The END of all existence is that state in which all beings, all things, all human beings will be completely, absolutely, in perfect relationship to Jesus Christ, as Lord, as the END of all creation and history either in glory or in condemnation (if there are any condemned in the final judgment—only God knows.) The word “perfect” used in the last sentence means that something has reached its END, the end for which it was created. Again the collect: “Almighty and merciful God, you break the power of evil and make all things new in Your Son Jesus Christ, the King of the universe. May ALL in heaven and earth acclaim your glory and never cease to praise you.” Our life is now in Christ Jesus, the Resurrected Lord and END of all creation. We live, however, in a broken and fallen world. Our own human nature shares in this fragmentation. The anguish of our hearts is that as we experience greater union in grace we also see more clearly the evidence of evil. The human family and creation have not yet reached their END. In the Gospel we see this graphically. The One for Whom all things were made stands before the religious and civil authority as One Condemned. This sad event seems inevitable. It had to be. The reality of our fallen world could not accept Him Who is Truth, Who is All-Perfect Reality. “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not. He came to his own home, and his own people received him not (John 1.10-11).” The reason for this rejection is given by Jesus in the Gospel: “My kingdom does not belong to this world¼As it is, my kingdom is not here.” Jesus is saying that my kingdom is not here, that is, the kingdom has not yet fully arrived; the Kingdom has not come to its END. The END is the Reality of Jesus all in all, fully manifested, fully one with all the elect in His Mystical Body. Jesus has no other END than that He be King of the Universe. “It is you who say I am a king. The reason I was born, the reason why I came into the world, is to testify to the TRUTH. Anyone committed to the truth hears my word.” The truth in this context is the Reality of all being, how all will be in its FINAL condition, that is, when all things achieve their END—Final, the Latin word for end is finis. Pilate is cynical about truth, “What is truth?” The truth is Jesus in Himself, the Incarnate Word, living and true, present in the simplicity and hiddenness of His divinity and humanity, standing right there before you. We cannot receive Jesus as King, as the END unless we are willing to listen, to hear: “Anyone committed to the truth hears my word.” For this reason we follow the contemplative path and practice contemplative prayer. The fullness of Christian mysticism is union with Christ Jesus, the Resurrected Lord, in every fiber of our being through faith, hope and love. Consciousness of this reality is a grace; the reality of union is all grace. For this reason we are contemplative so we can hear the Word. The Word is one with the unfolding of Sacred Scripture as it becomes the very substance of our waking lives and is one with the Unknowing in the state of sharing in the divine love of the Triune God. Our union with God is one with our union in the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, “the fullness of Him Who fills all things [because He is the END of all things!]” We celebrate the visibility of this fullness in the Sacrament of the Church. The Church itself is the Prime Sacrament of the Reality of Christ. In the First Reading, the prophet Daniel is the exemplar contemplative. It was in the silence of the night that he prayed and centered into Revelation. He was thrown into a culture completely hostile to his faith but he remained faithful. He maintained his singleness of intention in the midst of all the pluralism of his times. A respectful and kind man, he never, however, fell into the false path of syncretism and relativism. As a contemplative, faithful to the Revelation, he is given the full vision: *“As the visions during the night continued, I saw One like the son of man coming on the clouds of heaven¼.When he reached the Ancient One* ¼ *He received dominion¼Peoples of every language serve him¼His kingship shall not be destroyed.”* As we practice silent, interior prayer in the cloud of unknowing let us remain in the vision that is ours through the “eyes of the heart.” It is in love that we consent, surrender to the *“Alpha and the Omega, the One who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty!”* (the Second Reading). “Omega” is the last letter in the Greek alphabet. It means, therefore, the END. “Alpha” is the first letter, therefore, it means the beginning. Jesus is the Beginning, the Alpha, and He is the END, the Omega. And our prayer of quiet, of repose, in the night of unknowing, is gently, simply, “SO BE IT! AMEN!!!”

The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe
Last Sunday in Ordinary Time

November 24, 2024

The Readings: Daniel 7.13-14; Revelation 1.5-8; John 18.33-37

ALMIGHTY AND EVERLIVING GOD, WHOSE WILL IS TO RESTORE ALL THINGS
IN YOUR BELIVED SON, THE KING OF THE UNIVERSE,
GRANT, WE PRAY,
THAT THE WHOLE CREATION, SET FREE FROM SLAVERY,
MAY RENDER YOUR MAJESTY SERVICE AND CEASELESSLY PROCLAIME YOUR PRAISE.
THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, YOUR SON, WHO LIVES AND REIGNS WITH YOU IN THE UNITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, GOD , FOR EVER AND EVER.
MAKE ALL THINGS NEW IN YOUR SON JESUS CHRIST, THE KING OF THE UNIVERSE
—from the Opening Prayer at this Sunday’s Liturgy.

This Sunday marks the end of the Church Year. The word, “end,” has the sense that we don’t go any farther. “End” can also mean the state of completion in the sense that this state of completion is what the whole process intended. So the end of the line means also that this is the point where the whole line was leading in the first place.

This feast at the end of the Church Year means that this is the END for which the whole universe was set in motion at the very beginning. Everything exists for this END: Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. Jesus is King in the sense that He is the Reason for All Being. The END of all existence is that state in which all beings, all things, all human beings will be completely, absolutely, in perfect relationship to Jesus Christ, as Lord, as the END of all creation and history either in glory or in condemnation (if there are any condemned in the final judgment—only God knows.) The word “perfect” used in the last sentence means that something has reached its END, the end for which it was created.

Again the collect: “Almighty and merciful God,
you break the power of evil
and make all things new
in Your Son Jesus Christ, the King of the universe.
May ALL in heaven and earth acclaim your glory
and never cease to praise you.”

Our life is now in Christ Jesus, the Resurrected Lord and END of all creation. We live, however, in a broken and fallen world. Our own human nature shares in this fragmentation. The anguish of our hearts is that as we experience greater union in grace we also see more clearly the evidence of evil. The human family and creation have not yet reached their END. In the Gospel we see this graphically. The One for Whom all things were made stands before the religious and civil authority as One Condemned. This sad event seems inevitable. It had to be. The reality of our fallen world could not accept Him Who is Truth, Who is All-Perfect Reality.

   “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not. He came to his own home, and his own people received him not (John 1.10-11).”

The reason for this rejection is given by Jesus in the Gospel: “My kingdom does not belong to this world¼As it is, my kingdom is not here.” Jesus is saying that my kingdom is not here, that is, the kingdom has not yet fully arrived; the Kingdom has not come to its END.   The END is the Reality of Jesus all in all, fully manifested, fully one with all the elect in His Mystical Body.

Jesus has no other END than that He be King of the Universe.

“It is you who say I am a king. The reason I was born, the reason why I came into the world, is to testify to the TRUTH. Anyone committed to the truth hears my word.”

The truth in this context is the Reality of all being, how all will be in its FINAL condition, that is, when all things achieve their END—Final, the Latin word for end is finis.

Pilate is cynical about truth, “What is truth?” The truth is Jesus in Himself, the Incarnate Word, living and true, present in the simplicity and hiddenness of His divinity and humanity, standing right there before you.

We cannot receive Jesus as King, as the END unless we are willing to listen, to hear:

“Anyone committed to the truth hears my word.”

For this reason we follow the contemplative path and practice contemplative prayer. The fullness of Christian mysticism is union with Christ Jesus, the Resurrected Lord, in every fiber of our being through faith, hope and love. Consciousness of this reality is a grace; the reality of union is all grace. For this reason we are contemplative so we can hear the Word. The Word is one with the unfolding of Sacred Scripture as it becomes the very substance of our waking lives and is one with the Unknowing in the state of sharing in the divine love of the Triune God. Our union with God is one with our union in the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, “the fullness of Him Who fills all things [because He is the END of all things!]” We celebrate the visibility of this fullness in the Sacrament of the Church. The Church itself is the Prime Sacrament of the Reality of Christ.

In the First Reading, the prophet Daniel is the exemplar contemplative. It was in the silence of the night that he prayed and centered into Revelation. He was thrown into a culture completely hostile to his faith but he remained faithful. He maintained his singleness of intention in the midst of all the pluralism of his times. A respectful and kind man, he never, however, fell into the false path of syncretism and relativism. As a contemplative, faithful to the Revelation, he is given the full vision:

“As the visions during the night continued, I saw One like the son of man coming on the clouds of heaven¼.When he reached the Ancient One ¼ He received dominion¼Peoples of every language serve him¼His kingship shall not be destroyed.”

As we practice silent, interior prayer in the cloud of unknowing let us remain in the vision that is ours through the “eyes of the heart.” It is in love that we consent, surrender to the
“Alpha and the Omega, the One who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty!” (the Second Reading).

“Omega” is the last letter in the Greek alphabet. It means, therefore, the END. “Alpha” is the first letter, therefore, it means the beginning.   Jesus is the Beginning, the Alpha, and He is the END, the Omega. And our prayer of quiet, of repose, in the night of unknowing, is gently, simply, “SO BE IT! AMEN!!!”