Christ the King Sunday

Today we have a recurring guest blogger:  Fr. Arthur F. Rojas, pastor of PRESENTATION OF THE B.V.M CHURCH, PORT EWEN AND SACRED HEART CHURCH, ESOPUS. For more information on this parish, check out their website at Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary & Sacred Heart Churches - Port Ewen - Esopus, NY (presentationsacredheart.org) 

          

 Item for the blog of Dcn. Thomas Tortorella for Christ the King Sunday, 11/24/24 

© All Rights Reserved personally by Rev. Fr. Arthur F. Rojas, Nov. 20, 2024 ©

¡Viva Cristo Rey! (Or in English, “Long live Christ the King!”) is a Catholic exclamation in Spain and Latin America.  In the United States, we are seeing and hearing “Jesus is King” or even the Spanish original phrase recently.  At our parish, Christ the King Sunday is celebrated twice a year, whether today this year in the Ordinary Form or via Extraordinary Form this year on October 27th.  In the Ordinary Form, Christ the King Sunday is celebrated on the last Sunday of the liturgical year - otherwise it would be the 34th Sunday in Ordinary Time - to remind us that Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Alpha and Omega, per Revelation 1:8 and 22:13.  As we move to a new liturgical year on the First Sunday of Advent, our frame of reference for time (and everything) is Christ. Thus, Christ the King Sunday orients us to Our Lord in terms of salvation and His second coming.  In the Extraordinary Form, which observed Christ the King Sunday last month, the emphasis is on the lordship of Christ the King in human history whilst Pope Pius XI aimed in 1925 to rebut the pretensions of the Bolshevik Revolution and its bloody persecution of Christians. 

 

            The harmony and complementarity between both Forms of the Mass at our parish has been and is a carefully nurtured distinction of our parish.  As your pastor and spiritual father attending to both forms and their spirituality, I encourage all our parishioners not to oppose the emphasis of one form to the other regarding Christ the King but to join the two emphases as we strive, each and all, to follow better Jesus our King as His disciples.  Our lived Catholic identity is meant for this life and for the hereafter.  By our words and deeds, you and I communicate to Our Lord as well as to the people around us whether we truly want to be with Christ forever after this life and how seriously in this life we follow God’s ways as persons, families, and communities.   As His disciples, what are we willing to give up to follow Christ the King more faithfully?  As His disciples, what more are we willing to do (such as prayer, study, charitable works, and/or witness) to follow Jesus our King more faithfully?  What does it mean in today’s America to have Jesus Christ first in our daily lives?  “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to My voice.” (John 18:37).  Whether on October 27th, today, or every day of the year, may our words and deeds show proof of our faithful attention to Our Lord and Savior!  VIVA CRISTO REY and a happy Thanksgiving in advance.

“My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves.”

 

Scripture readings for this reflection can be found at Memorial of Saint Cecilia, Virgin and Martyr | USCCB

In our gospel today we see the righteous anger of Jesus towards those buying and selling things in the temple area. These were people that were ignoring the fact that they were on sacred ground and should be focusing on the praise and worship of God. They were more interested in making a profit at the expense of the temple while ignoring the fact that they should be focusing on God and His presence there.

What are our intentions as we enter church each time we come for Mass or prayer? Is it for true worship of God, or are we more concerned about other things in our lives? It’s good to bring our cares and concerns to place at the foot of the altar for the Lord to help us through whatever difficulties we may be facing. But we need to remember that we are at church also for the worship and praise of God. Are these distractions from outside taking our attention away from God? Are we making them to be more important than our praise of God? We need to remember that once we enter church we are on sacred ground and are in the presence of our creator.

As we enter church, we need to be ready to place our minds and attention on worshiping God. We need to take time to quiet our minds from all distractions from outside that may take our attention away from Him who loves us. We need be still in the presence of God and prepare for our encounter with him through the reading of scripture and in Holy Communion. Silent prayer and reflection on the scripture that is to be read at mass is a good way to get us into the right frame of mind in worshiping God.

Each time we enter church, let us reflect on Psalm 46, verse 11, Be still and know that I am God!

AMBASSADORS FOR CHRIST

 

We have a guest blogger today. Arlene B. Muller (Arlene Clare Muller, OFS) is a lector and EM at St. Pancras Church in Glendale, NY, a singer in the choir at St. Margaret's Church in Middle Village, NY, a professed Secular Franciscan & Formation Director at St. Adalbert's Secular Franciscan fraternity in Elmhurst, NY & an itinerant speech/language therapist who works with preschool children with delayed language development. In addition to her ministries & work she seeks to promote the GOSPEL & the GOSPEL OF LIFE, especially in writing & frequently on FACEBOOK.

On Election Day as I worried & prayed about the outcome of this election, I was reminded that, like all my brothers & sisters in CHRIST, I am a woman of dual citizenship.

As Lee Greenwood wrote in his famous song "GOD BLESS THE USA", "I'm proud to be an American where at least I know I'm free..." & very loyal to being a law-abiding citizen of the USA, exercising my right to vote.

But as St. Paul wrote in his epistles, "our citizenship is in heaven". So, we are BOTH citizens of heaven, first & foremost, & THEN citizens of the USA. And, as St. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5, we (meaning ALL CHRISTIANS & not just St. Paul & his ministry companions, which I had confirmed by the priest who presided at the 9AM Mass at St. Adalbert's on Election Day) are "AMBASSADORS FOR CHRIST, God, as it were, appealing through us" to exhort people to be reconciled to GOD.
We need to take our dual citizenship in HEAVEN AND in the USA AND our role as an AMBASSADOR FOR CHRIST very seriously, & regardless of the outcome of elections we must always live as dual citizens & as ambassadors for CHRIST.

In the LORD'S PRAYER/OUR FATHER, which we probably pray countless times, sometimes with full consciousness & sometimes by rote, we pray "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."  Although until Our LORD JESUS returns to set up the Kingdom of heaven on earth at His Second Coming, Our LORD'S Kingdom will still be, as He told Pontius Pilate, a kingdom "not of this world", & we will still need to live in an earthly country that is NOT a theocracy & NOT a Catholic country, & we will have to respect the religious freedom & religious pluralism that is part of the rights of others in the USA as well as our own rights to be protected, as Christians (and even more so as Catholics), we still need to demonstrate what it means to live IN the world BUT NOT OF the world, and that is how we must live our lives & provide good examples of living as citizens in the Kingdom of heaven by our behavior, actions and words & our very character and in our voting decisions as well.

Hopefully as we live in the tension of dual citizenship we can have a positive impact on our country & help promote values that make our world more closely align with & resemble heaven until the day dawns when Our LORD returns & we can rejoice in singing the familiar words from the Book of Revelation put to music by George Frederick Handel in the HALLELUJAH CHIRUS from Handel's MESSIAH: "The kingdom of this world is become the Kingdom of Our LORD & of His CHRIST, & He shall reign forever and ever."

Let us love one another

 

Scripture readings for this reflection can be found at Friday of the Thirty-second Week in Ordinary Time | USCCB

As we come to the close to the end of the Church year, the gospel readings that we’ve been hearing have been focusing more so on the end times when the Lord will come back in all his glory. The Lord in today’s gospel tells us, “Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses it will save it.” (Luke 17:33) What the Lord is calling us to do here is to remain focused on love and service of God. We are to place our whole life into the loving hands of God.

Further, we are not to make worldly things more important than that of our service and love of God. There will always be things that happen in the world that will take our focus away from God’s presence in our lives. There will always be wars, there will always be crime and poverty in our country and around the world, and there will always be political debates that divide us as we recently heard with the hatred and attacks going back and forth between the candidates and their followers. These are things that the Lord is not pleased to see and hear. It is in these political fights that takes our focus from the love God has for all of us.

In our first reading, Saint John is teaching us something that the Lord Jesus Christ has always emphasized: Let us love one another. (2 John 1:5) John goes on to say that we need to “walk according to the commandments.” (2 John 1:6) As Jesus has always pointed out, the commandments are broken down very simply: Love God with your whole mind, heart and soul; and love your neighbor as yourself. Loving our neighbors is not always an easy thing to do, especially when we allow political bickering to interfere with our love for each other.  By living out our lives with the love of God and love of neighbor, we will then have nothing to worry about when the time comes for the Lord’s return whenever that may be. The Lord will see our love of God and love of neighbor and bring us to the glories of heaven.

As we approach the Blessed Sacrament, let us put aside all hatred and animosity that we may have towards other people, and ask the Lord to help us to love all people as He loves us.  

If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.

Scripture readings for this reflection can be found at Memorial of Saint Martin of Tours, Bishop | USCCB

In our gospel for today Jesus is pointing out the obvious regarding human nature: "Things that cause sin will inevitably occur..." (Luke 17:1) There's always temptation that may lead us to sin. We need to realize that when we do sin, we should be ready to turn back to the Lord and seek forgiveness from Him and from those we may have hurt by our sinfulness. The Lord is always there to grant us love and forgiveness. 

The challenging part of this gospel is where the Lord asks us to be always ready to forgive those that sin or hurt us. "And if he wrongs you seven times in one day and returns to you seven times saying, 'I am sorry,' you should forgive him." (Luke 17:4) I don't know about you, but I find that difficult to do. But this is what the Lord is calling us to do. Does that mean we keep going back to that person who hurts us in order to get hurt again? I don't think the Lord is asking us to do that. But He is asking us to be ready to be always forgiving. I think that it's okay to maintain our distance from those who do hurt or sin against us. 

For our own spiritual and mental well-being, I think the Lord will understand us keeping our distance from them. In the act of contrition, which we say when we go to the priest for confession, we include the phrase, "And to avoid the near occasion of sin." If being with someone that constantly hurts us leads us towards the sin of resentment and a lack of forgiveness for that person, I'm sure the Lord will understand keeping distance from them. Praying for them and forgiving them is what the Lord is calling us to do but keep your distance from them.

In conclusion, pray for those we have difficulty in forgiving and pray for ourselves to do what the Lord is calling us to do: to love God with our whole heart, and to love and forgive others and Jesus is asking us to do.

"There will be rejoicing among the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

 

Scripture readings for this reflection can be found at Thursday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time | USCCB

In our gospel for today we see the Pharisees and scribes, as usual, judging those who are attempting to turn back to God and repent of their sins. The Lord, in his love and mercy, is reaching out to those who have fallen away from the faith. He was accepting them and their repentance to turn back to love of God. The Lord was judging not their appearance, but rather was judging their hearts. Unfortunately, these were people that the Jewish people and leadership looked down upon. 

The tax collectors were the ones that were collecting the taxes for the Roamn government, and thus had turned away from their faith in God. Then there were those other sinners who, for whatever reason, stopped their practice of living out their Jewish faith according to the laws of Moses. The Pharisees and scribes condemned them and showed them no mercy.

With God there is love, mercy and forgiveness. We all know people that have turned away from the practice of their faith. The reasons vary from person to person. We need to pray for them that they may turn back to a loving relationship with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We also should try to encourage them to come with us to church with open arms and a loving heart. We are not to judge them by their appearance or the way they may have lived in the past, but rather we need to show them the love and acceptance that God has for them. Jesus is calling us to love them and be as accepting of them as He is of them. God's love and mercy is for all people, not only for those who show up each week at church. The Lord Jesus is always waiting with an open heart and open arms offering love and forgiveness for all people.

Further, let us not be like the Pharisees and scribes complaining about those returning to the practice of their faith. Rather, let us rejoice when someone returns into relationship with God and seeks forgiveness. Let us be as merciful to them as Jesus is.

Let us rejoice with the angels over those who are repenting of their sins and returning into a loving relationship with God.