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.
From Arlene B. Muller
ReplyDeleteI agree that we need to be reminded to live in accordance with the lordship & kingship of Our LORD JESUS CHRIST over every aspect of our lives & allow our lives to reflect what we always pray in the Our Father/LORD'S Prayer: "THY KINGDOM COME, THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN." Our faith is not just one segment of our lives reserved for our prayer time & our weekly (or even daily) attendance at Mass, but our relationship with Our LORD & the principles based on the GOSPEL, the rest of Sacred Scripture & the teaching of the Church needs to permeate every aspect of our lives.
I see too much evidence of people forgetting about GOD'S ways & following the ways of this world. People often say "Times have changed", but GOD HAS NOT CHANGED. Where is our moral compass? Where is the moral consensus by which not only Catholics but other Christians & even Jewish people & people of other faiths & even little faith lived or at least tried to live.
We need a recommitment to the primacy, the lordship, the kingship of JESUS CHRIST & to seeking to live by GOD'S will & to our citizenship in the Kingdom of heaven as we live in the secular world in our earthly countries.
Then when Our LORD, Who is the Alpha & Omega returns at His Second Coming we will be able to be in full accord & confidently celebrate at the fulfillment of the words in the Book of Revelation that we sing in the HALLELUJAH CHORUS of HANDEL'S MESSIAH: "THE KINGDOM OF THIS WORLD IS BECOME THE KINGDOM OF OUR LORD AND OF HIS CHRIST. AND HE SHALL REIGN FOREVER."