Next Thursday, across this great land of ours, we celebrate Thanksgiving: a special time to be grateful to God for so many blessings -- family, friends, colleagues, opportunities. The hymn America The Beautiful captures the Day’s significance. Happy Thanksgiving!
Renowned Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes was once asked, “What has been the secret of your success?” He replied,
“I discovered early on I was not God.” Imagine if people throughout history realized that lesson.
Today, we celebrate the Feast of Jesus Christ the King of the Universe, to whom we pledge our ultimate allegiance, Jesus the image of the invisible God, the crucified and risen Christ through whom we have a relationship with God, the Good Shepherd who leads us to eternal life.
In the aftermath of the first World War, Pope Pius XI was convinced that new dictators were emerging who would deny people their basic human rights. He wanted to point them to the one true God. That’s why we have the Feast of Christ the King.
The word of God takes us back to the 2nd century before Jesus. The author of the Book of Daniel describes a visionary experience where the forces of good and evil will engage in a final apocalyptic struggle.
Then there appears the figure of a mysterious “son of man,” upon whom God bestows the kingship of the universe. The early Christians saw in this mysterious “son of man” Jesus, gloriously alive in our midst, especially in the sacramental life of the Church, the people of God.
The verses from the Book of Revelation speak to Christians who are enduring hardships because of their faith in God. Jesus once dead, now gloriously alive, the author proclaims, is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, the One who is and was and will come, the Almighty One.
In the Gospel, Pilate asks whether Jesus is heir to the throne of Israel and possibly a threat to Rome. But Jesus turns the table on Pilate, saying His kingdom is neither political nor despotic.
Jesus’s kingdom is within and beyond us. He challenges us to begin building up this kingdom of truth and justice and love and freedom until he comes again with great glory and power at the end time.
Many people today beg for a livable, viable society built upon truth, justice, love and freedom, virtues we too should strive to embody.
Truth is a powerful word in our Catholic heritage. What we say ought to be in sync with what is. Yes, truth is essential. To be severed from the true is to be cut off from reality.
Justice is another powerful word. Communities -- economic, social, political -- have rights and duties. Justice is an essential ingredient. To treat others unfairly, to take from others what is their due, is unjust.
A third powerful word is love. Love recognizes that every human being is made in the image of God and reflects the likeness of God, no matter what their appearances. Love compels us to go out of ourselves and in reaching out to others, we reach up to the Other, God himself who is love and loves all of us unconditionally.
Unfortunately, many limit their love: to their “own kind” however they define. It is unfortunate because love is essential to life. Love gives hope. It's wishing the other person well, helping others, if we can, to be their best selves.
A fourth powerful word is freedom. Freedom has two facets: freedom from, and freedom for. God became one of us in Jesus to free us from all that keeps us from an authentic relationship with God, one another and the universe. And as St. Paul wrote, “You were called to freedom...to be servants.” Yes, we are free for service. All around are people with hungers. Only a society based upon truth, justice, love and freedom can satisfy these hungers.
Christ the Shepherd-King calls us to embrace his mindset: to realize that among the many blessings we have from God is the gift to share what we have with others.
In doing so, we are building up the kingdom of God: a kingdom of truth, justice, love, freedom, and THANKSGIVING.
May we always strive to embody these virtues and embrace the opportunity to do all the good we can, by all the means we can, to all the people we can, as long as ever we can.
