Weekend Wisdom - Solemnity of Christ the King, 2024
Solemnity of Christ the King
Church Year Endings & Beginnings
This is the final weekend of our church liturgical year and we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King. It’s a beautiful feast, but what does it mean for your and my daily life?
When we are baptized we are baptized into the life of Jesus. We are baptized into Jesus’ priestly ministry, his prophetic ministry, and his kingly ministry. Each and every one of us is called by our baptism to live out these roles.
Jesus‘ kingly ministry may seem a little strange to us - we don’t have much familiarity of kings outside of history and world figureheads. Most people in Jesus’ time expected a much different kind of kingly ministry too! Jesus’ kingly ministry was focused less on ruling over people and more on serving people. This can be seen from the very beginning of his life when he didn’t come as a mighty political ruler as many expected the messiah to be, but as a helpless infant in need of care.
There are two key ways in which we can live out Jesus’ kingly ministry.
We rule with Jesus as king by allowing Jesus to rule our lives. This might look like:
starting our morning with a short prayer that Jesus would rule our day
setting an alarm on our phone to remind us to take moments in our day to stop and look at God’s world around us
prioritize the gift of rest and sustenance found in weekend Mass
We serve like Jesus did as a king - humbly and with our whole lives. This might look like:
having patience with those moving slowly in our lives - children, parents, other drivers
connecting with a local service project, effort or collection
giving time on the weekends to serve in a role at Mass
When we profess our creed every weekend it is something we DO, not just something we SAY. We are claiming our baptism and our role in Jesus’ priestly, prophetic and kingly ministry - all which point us back to the love of Jesus - the true role of good king. Ultimately, as St. Thomas Aquinas said, “To love is the conscious choice to will the good of the other.”
With Advent just around the corner, when we are preparing our hearts for Jesus’ first arrival, let us own our baptismal call to the Gospel love and protection of all God’s creatures.
Peace friends,
Fr. Mike