CHRIST THE KING OF LOVE ON CALVARY

Another Church Year with Our Lord and the members of His body, the Church, closes this year on November 25. It coincides with the end of another year of our life in this world.

It began a year ago on the First Sunday of Advent in 2006 when we began again to live more in the life of Jesus. Like every Church Year we remembered Jesus and his life and listen to his Word so we could become more and more sons and daughters of God. We allowed Jesus to rule in our minds and hearts.

Our Church year reaches its fullness in the Solemnity of Christ the King. Christ is the center of the Christian life and His Kingship in us is the motivation and summation of each Year of Grace. Christ's Kingship in us is our final goal and glory.

The Bible offers familiar and useful models to keep us in each Year of Grace. These graphic and dramatic images are ways to envision our following of Christ. The most familiar is the 'JOURNEY'. In fact 'journey' is at the heart of the Bible and depicted in many ways. Luke's Gospel is Jesus' journey to Jerusalem. Our life in Christ is a journey in time to the Heavenly Jerusalem.

The Bible often tells of 'CLIMBING' mountains. On December 2, the First Sunday of Advent, we begin the new Church Year. We will hear God's Word in the Reading from Isaiah, "Come, let us climb the Lord's mountain - that he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths".

What is the summit of our year long climb? What is the goal of our year long journey? It is - the Kingship of Christ! The Kingdom of God!

The 'summit' or 'goal' is the heart of the Church Year from start to finish. If it were not present to attract and move us, we would never begin. The Kingship of Christ and God's Kingdom is WHY we climb and journey each year. Each year, by grace and our goodwill the Kingship of Christ increases in us.

What kind of King is Christ? What is his Kingship about? The answer is clear in the Gospels of the Solemnity of Christ the King. In them at the end of the Church Year is the summation of the Year of Grace and the centerpiece of our Christian Life.

The Gospels for Christ the King and the end of each Church Year seem surprising at first, but they are just right! In Year 'B' and this Year 'C' (ends November 25) we are with Christ on GOOD FRIDAY.

The coming Year 'A' (starts December 2) with Christ the King of LOVE and all humanity at the Last Judgement. Those who have loved like Christ will hear: "Come! As often as you did for one of my least brethren, you did it for me".

This year's Gospel (November 25) takes us to Good Friday. One of the two crucified criminals meets the crucified King of Love. He is the last person to speak to Jesus. He is the first person to accompany Jesus to paradise.

Bishop Sheen (+1979) writes in 'Life of Christ': "It was the thief's last prayer, perhaps even his first. He knocked once, sought once, asked once, dared everything and found everything. When even the disciples were doubting and only one (John) was present at the Cross, the thief acknowledged Jesus as Savior".

Yes, the first one 'home' is a thief, a convicted criminal. He encountered the fullness of love, mercy and forgiveness in the crucified Christ.

John Paul II elevated many of our contemporaries to Sainthood. Like all saints, they too took up the Cross of Christ and became disciples.

One of them, St. Jose Maria Escriva (+1975) and canonized on October 6, 2002, writes: "The Cross is no longer a gallows. It is the throne from which Christ reigns".

From his total gift of self unto death, even the death on the Cross, flows an endless stream of infinite love. The crucified Lord on the Cross tells us how much we are loved and how we are to love others.

On the Solemnity of Christ the King in 2006, Pope Benedict spoke of Christ as King of Love on Calvary: "On this last Sunday of the liturgical year we are celebrating the Solemnity of Christ the King. Today's Gospel proposed to us anew part of the dramatic questioning to which Pontius Pilate subjected Jesus when he was handed over to him, accused of usurping the title, "King of the Jews".

Jesus answered the Roman governor's questions by declaring that he was a king, but not of this world (Jn 18:36). He did not come to rule over peoples and territories but to set people free from the slavery of sin and to reconcile them with God. And he added: "For this I was born and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears my voice" (Jn 18:37).

But what is the "truth" that Christ came into the world to witness to? The whole of his life reveals that God is love: so this is the truth to which he witnessed to the full with the sacrifice of his own life on Calvary.

The Cross is the "throne" where he manifested his sublime kingship as God Love: by offering himself in expiation for the sin of the world, he defeated the "ruler of this world" (Jn 12:31) and established the Kingdom of God once and for all. It is a Kingdom that will be fully revealed at the end of time, after the destruction of every enemy and last of all, death (cf. I Cor 15:25-26). The Son will then deliver the Kingdom to the Father and God will finally be "everything to everyone" (I Cor 15:28).

The way to reach this goal is long and admits of no short cuts: indeed, every person must freely accept the truth of God's love. He is Love and Truth, and neither Love nor Truth are ever imposed: they come knocking at the doors of the heart and the mind and where they can enter they bring peace and joy. This is how God reigns; this is his project of salvation, a "mystery" in the biblical sense of the word: a plan that is gradually revealed in history.