Since today is the Feast of Christ the King, all the readings point only to one thing, the Kingship, Majesty and Dominion of God over all the earth. Today’s 1st reading is taken from the Book of Daniel which is written even before the time Jesus was born. This passage which speaks of the Son of Man refers to Jesus. This I’ve learned from our bible study and since then I have come to discover and appreciate better a lot of things in the bible more than I used to. Especially the relevance of the scriptures in the Old Testament to the New Testament and the overwhelming connection to each other which is shown in the gradual but steady building up of the realization of the ancient prophecies in Jesus. All the prophecies of the Old Testament are fulfilled in Jesus. In today's 1st reading, God is described as coming, on the clouds of heaven and gave an impression of great power. It takes us to another aspect or level of understanding of the majesty of our God. We ought to be glad and rejoice that we have a God who is Almighty and Immortal that no one or nothing can ever be over and above Him. Whenever we hear the word kingship then we immediately paint a picture in our minds about royalty, highness and being on top of everything. This is all true when we speak of God. Although we may never be able to fully visualize God, the Ancient One sitting on the throne, it reminds us of the truth that He is King of kings and Lord of lords. We just can’t put the right words into our mouth when we speak of God’s majesty. God is almighty and all powerful. He is beyond words! It is a consolation to know that we have a God whom we can depend on especially at times when we experience the downside of life. When we are about to lose hope and succumb to loneliness and despair it would really help us to visualize this scenario being depicted in today's 1st reading in order for us not to lose track of this reality and truth that we have a God for all seasons. Whatever season of our life we are in right now it would and can never change the fact that He is God and in control. Amen. Hallelujah!
Daniel 7:13-14
13 As the visions during the night continued, I saw One like a son of man coming, on the clouds of heaven; When he reached the Ancient One and was presented before him, 14 He received dominion, glory, and kingship; nations and peoples of every language serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not be taken away, his kingship shall not be destroyed.
Death is not a respecter of age nor of health. A person could be young or old, healthy or sick and the worst part we can never tell when it's coming. Only God knows the length of our days and to Him alone do we entrust everything. God is powerful and we can surely be at peace with Him. We have confidence in a God who chose to step down from His throne and became a helpless baby for our sake. Though, an infant He holds the world in the palm of His hands. He alone is King. We have an Infinite and Almighty God and no words are enough to describe Him. Thus we can only translate those that go beyond words into the spiritual. The spiritual is real although not material or physical. We have our free will which is immaterial and thus fall into the spiritual. It makes perfect sense that we unite our will to God. It may seem an impossibility to be holy and pure and at all times. For man it is, but not for God. We can trust God to supply us with all that we need to do whatever it takes to be worthy of His kingdom. If we believe that God calls us then He can surely and absolutely equip us for the work and plan He has for us. The uniformity of the message in today's readings from the 1st, Psalm, 2nd and gospel can not be denied. God constantly and persistently send us occasions and opportunities that will always remind and confront us of this great attributes of God which are all better than life itself. It is very important to call on God in prayer at all times. He is Christ the King. Amen. Hallelujah!
P S A L M
Psalm 93:1. 1-2. 5 (1a)
R: The Lord is king; he is robed in majesty.
1 The LORD is king, in splendor robed; robed is the LORD and girt about with strength. (R) And he has made the world firm, not to be moved. 2 Your throne stands firm from of old; from everlasting you are, O LORD. (R) 5 Your decrees are worthy of trust indeed holiness befits your house, O LORD, for length of days.
If we truly believe in what the 2nd reading tells us then there is no reason for us to fret no matter what situation we are in right now for as long as we hold on to the Alpha and Omega of our life. Amen. Hallelujah!
Revelation 1:5-8
...“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “the one who is and who was and who is to come, the almighty.”...
We are commemorating now the Feast of Christ the King. There is none like Jesus. When we go through difficulties and trials in life we must always think of Jesus Christ who is King of kings. Just think of what He had to go through for this love and yet we complain at the slightest hint of inconvenience when we do not have things our way. We must be aware that God knows exactly what we are going through with perfect precision and He will not let us through it without seeing us through it, all we have to do is completely trust His will for us. Look at Jesus, who willingly obeyed the will of God the Father when He took the form of man and allowed Himself to be subject to everything that a human being goes through even to the point of extreme suffering, humiliation, pain and death in the cruel hands of His very own people, the Jews whom He had chosen and loved very dearly. He had the option not to go through that but He had to show us the perfect example of obedience to the will of God and there can never be a greater sacrifice than this and it's all because of His great love for us. Whatever we are going through right now is not even an inch close to what He had to go through who is Christ the King. Whatever it is that is bothering us we must keep in mind that our King has already won the battle for us and victory is in our hands. God the Almighty has the power and final verdict over all things. Let us just trust God to allow things to happen in our lives whatever He deems best for us. Listening, reading and watching about His story over and over again should make us really feel and experience it in our own lives. Let us make a decision to really make it personal in our lives. If there were so many lies, deception, violence, betrayal, denial, injustice and the like during the time of Jesus' death then let us not despair for He has won it all when He died on the cross. We may still be in a situation that is like Good Friday but there is no doubt to the truth that up ahead and soon enough what follows after is Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. He has already paid the price for our sins and we are now free. Everything that has been said and foretold about Jesus is fulfilled. Let us not just look at the here and now but trust that God can do more and beyond what we are able to comprehend. I have always been amazed at how some things unexplainable as it may seem, came to be. I am sure this is true for most of us who in one way or another has encountered an incident that left us in awe and wonder of a surprising revelation and discovery in our lifetime. Some of them we can not even put together right away or may linger on for quite some time before we can put some light on and make sense out of it. If we are still groping for answers and still do not see any light in our path then we can only hold on to Jesus whose Perfect Divinity and Humanity has put all questions to rest and already stood the test of time. Today's gospel is full of the High Christology characteristics that are well known of the Book of John. John's gospel focuses so much on the Divinity of Jesus and eternal life. All the words in the scriptures from of old have been fulfilled in Jesus as it was written. He can make all things happen. He is indeed without a doubt, the God and King of yesterday, today and tomorrow. Amen. Hallelujah!
John 18:33b-37
Pilate said to Jesus, “Are you the King of the Jews?” 34 Jesus answered, “Do you say this on your own or have others told you about me?” 35 Pilate answered, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me. What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants [would] be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not here.” 37 So Pilate said to him, “Then you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
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