34th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Feast of Christ the King
 
Dear parish family and friends of St. Julia,

Here we are, the last Sunday of Ordinary Time.  This weekend we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King.  The Feast of Christ the King was given papal recognition by Pius XI in 1925 with the calendar celebration set as the last Sunday in October.  In 1960 when the liturgical calendar was revised, the Feast was moved to the last Sunday of the Year before Advent.  

I pose a simple yet profound question for all of us.  Is Jesus the King of your life?  This is the question that we are to ponder this Sunday.

Bishop Barron sees the Liturgical Year as kind of a grand procession, at the end of which comes the most important person, Jesus Christ, the Lord, the King of the Universe.  The Latin word for “Lord” is “Dominus”.  It is a good word because it invites us to ask ourselves whether or not Jesus is the dominant influence in our lives.  If we say anything other than Christ is the King, then we need to revisit what Christianity really means.  If we only think of Jesus as a good, kind person, that is not enough. If we let him into only one or two rooms of our house, we are playing games. This is not real Christianity.  He should be the King of every room.  That is the real challenge of this Feastday.

My canon law professor put it this way:  In your personal life you should feel comfortable having Jesus sitting next to you while you are doing whatever you are doing.  If you try to hide from God, even if no one else knows about what you are doing, then Christ is not the King of your life.  Acknowledging Christ as King means that you are in steady contact with the Lord, so that all we do is dedicated to him.

Jesus must be the “Dominus,” the dominant influence in our lives.

May God bless each of you and those that you love, and I look forward to seeing you at mass this weekend as we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King.

Fr. Greg