Feast of Christ King of the Universe Read more
Feast of Christ King of the Universe
First Reading
Daniel 7,13-14
I was gazing into the visions of the night, when I saw, coming on the clouds of heaven, as it were a son of man. He came to the One most venerable and was led into his presence. On him was conferred rule, honour and kingship, and all peoples, nations and languages became his servants. His rule is an everlasting rule which will never pass away, and his kingship will never come to an end.
Psalmody
Psalm 92 (93)
Antiphon
O Lord let your kingdom come soon.
The Lord is king, with majesty enrobed;
the Lord has robed himself with might,
he has girded himself with power.
The world you made firm, not to be moved;
your throne has stood firm from of old.
From all eternity, O Lord, you are.
The waters have lifted up, O Lord,
the waters have lifted up their voice,
the waters have lifted up their thunder.
Greater than the roar of the mighty waters,
more glorious than the surgings of the sea,
the Lord is glorious on high.
Truly your decrees are to be trusted.
Holiness is fitting to your house,
O Lord, until the end of time.
Second Reading
Revelation 1,5-8
and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the First-born from the dead, the highest of earthly kings. He loves us and has washed away our sins with his blood, and made us a Kingdom of Priests to serve his God and Father; to him, then, be glory and power for ever and ever. Amen. Look, he is coming on the clouds; everyone will see him, even those who pierced him, and all the races of the earth will mourn over him. Indeed this shall be so. Amen. 'I am the Alpha and the Omega,' says the Lord God, who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.
Reading of the Gospel
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Yesterday I was buried with Christ,
today I rise with you who are risen.
With you I was crucified;
remember me, Lord, in your kingdom.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
John 18,33b-37
Jesus replied, 'Do you ask this of your own accord, or have others said it to you about me?' Pilate answered, 'Am I a Jew? It is your own people and the chief priests who have handed you over to me: what have you done?' Jesus replied, 'Mine is not a kingdom of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, my men would have fought to prevent my being surrendered to the Jews. As it is, my kingdom does not belong here.' Pilate said, 'So, then you are a king?' Jesus answered, 'It is you who say that I am a king. I was born for this, I came into the world for this, to bear witness to the truth; and all who are on the side of truth listen to my voice.'
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Yesterday I was buried with Christ,
today I rise with you who are risen.
With you I was crucified;
remember me, Lord, in your kingdom.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Homily
Today we celebrate Christ, the king of the universe. Truly, his reign is not of this world! The Gospel, in fact, speaks of a very weak man, stripped of everything, poor, whose life depends entirely on others. How can one think that a man in such a state could be the king of anything? He does not have any appearance of power. In our world, where what counts is appearance, how can we trust such a man, who shows exactly the opposite of strength? Even bystanders deride him so much so that, now that he is condemned to death they throw his failure at him, crying, "Save yourself!" We look for the strong, we court them, and we easily know everything about them (and maybe we do not know anything about our neighbour!) because we think the powerful give us protection, success, security, recognition, and a sense of wellbeing. This is why someone like Jesus cannot satisfy us. Instead, we avoid him because he reminds us of our weak humanity. How can he be king? And yet, he says to Pilate, "You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world." Jesus is king because he serves and loves. He is king because, in reality, only love rules and has true power over creation, only love can understand it and not spoil it. He is king because he is the son. He is king, not over all or against all, but together with and for all. He is king because nothing can resist love. And for this reason, he is in reality the alpha and the omega, the first and the last, as it is written in the Book of Revelation.
His power, the only one that counts and lasts, comes from love. For this reason, it is the most powerful on the earth; for this reason, he is king of the universe. He also asks us to trust in the power of lovingnot to empty it of feeling, intelligence, and heart. He asks us not to give up because of fear, and not to think that it is too little. Jesus, weak, meek, and humble of heart, is king so that all of us who are weak and in need, who are small, may defeat evil, the enemy of life and of love. We too can be his. His reign passes throughout this world, throughout our hearts. Those who do not belong to the Lord end up being slaves to the logic of kings or are seduced by power or the sword. Belonging to him is beautiful and sweet because in his reign of love, all is ours without limits: "Love and do what you want." The power of love, the prophet Daniel said, lasts forever, it never fades. All the kings of this world end and slip away like their power. They reveal themselves as ignoble, fallen, vulgar, and filled with obsession. The reign of God does not end. Lord, king of the universe, come quickly to wipe away the tears of men and women, to free them from evil, from hatred, from violence and war. May your reign of peace and justice come quickly. Teach us to belong to you, not to be afraid, but to be strong and free in love; weak as we are, weak as you are, Lord, you who weak are king and have defeated evil. Yours is the glory and the power, from age to age. Amen.
Prayer is the heart of the life of the Community of Sant'Egidio and is its absolute priority. At the end of the day, every the Community of Sant'Egidio, large or small, gathers around the Lord to listen to his Word. The Word of God and the prayer are, in fact, the very basis of the whole life of the Community. The disciples cannot do other than remain at the feet of Jesus, as did Mary of Bethany, to receive his love and learn his ways (Phil. 2:5).
So every evening, when the Community returns to the feet of the Lord, it repeats the words of the anonymous disciple: " Lord, teach us how to pray". Jesus, Master of prayer, continues to answer: "When you pray, say: Abba, Father". It is not a simple exhortation, it is much more. With these words Jesus lets the disciples participate in his own relationship with the Father. Therefore in prayer, the fact of being children of the Father who is in heaven, comes before the words we may say. So praying is above all a way of being! That is to say we are children who turn with faith to the Father, certain that they will be heard.
Jesus teaches us to call God "Our Father". And not simply "Father" or "My Father". Disciples, even when they pray on their own, are never isolated nor they are orphans; they are always members of the Lord's family.
In praying together, beside the mystery of being children of God, there is also the mystery of brotherhood, as the Father of the Church said: "You cannot have God as father without having the church as mother". When praying together, the Holy Spirit assembles the disciples in the upper room together with Mary, the Lord's mother, so that they may direct their gaze towards the Lord's face and learn from Him the secret of his Heart.
The Communities of Sant'Egidio all over the world gather in the various places of prayer and lay before the Lord the hopes and the sufferings of the tired, exhausted crowds of which the Gospel speaks ( Mat. 9: 3-7 ), In these ancient crowds we can see the huge masses of the modern cities, the millions of refugees who continue to flee their countries, the poor, relegated to the very fringe of life and all those who are waiting for someone to take care of them. Praying together includes the cry, the invocation, the aspiration, the desire for peace, the healing and salvation of the men and women of this world. Prayer is never in vain; it rises ceaselessly to the Lord so that anguish is turned into hope, tears into joy, despair into happiness, and solitude into communion. May the Kingdom of God come soon among people!
For the sick, in memory of the dead, for peace
