Sunday Reflection - November 20, 2022: The Feast of Christ the King

What are your New Year's resolution?

The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe marks the end of the liturgical year, with next Sunday being the first Sunday of Advent. This often overlooked solemnity is important for two reasons: 1) it reminds us of the distinctive factor of our faith 2) it prepares us to enter the season of waiting.

Some of you may know that every mass there is a scriptural verse in between each "alleluia." For those of you that went to mass this weekend and those of you that didn't, here was that verse:

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!

The verse underscores the importance of the solemnity: Jesus is the king of the universe and he comes in the name of God. This unwraps a whole other discussion on the trinity. That is a long conversation but simply it is important to know a few things. God is a trinity, a perfect relationship of love between three divine persons: The father, the son, and the holy spirit. Jesus is God and was always God, but became man through the power of God. He didn't cease to be God, meaning he had two natures: Divine and Human.

That is important to remember for this solemnity: Jesus was always King of the world, he remained King of the world when he was on Earth, and will forever be King of the world.

Now let's get back to that important essential question. As I said, this is now the end of the liturgical year, so it is important to think about important changes you can make to your prayer life and relationship with God you can make over the next year. There is one thing I want to try to make better for myself so I will also offer it as a suggestion to you: Realize What Jesus Demands of Us.

Jesus is literally the most powerful person to ever live -- we say that a king is extremely important and powerful, so imagine how powerful the King of the Universe is, but despite this, he still loves us and wants to spend eternity with us. But spending eternity with him isn't easy. Jesus demands a lot of us and we have to recognize that, and he told us it wouldn't be easy to go to Heaven, but if we make it our mission to understand his kingship, and put him first, above everything else in our life, no matter how difficult that will be, we can get closer to following him.

So here are the takeaways:

• Jesus is God, was always God, and will always be God. He is the most powerful person ever.

• Jesus came to the world to save us such that we could spend eternity with him. Therefore we must live in such a way that we can return to him.

• Let us use this new liturgical year to discover the path to Jesus.