Click here to read the Sunday readings from the USCCB website.

Today we celebrate The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, or more just the Feast of Christ the King.  It is clear in scripture that there is a Kingdom, the Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, and Jesus Christ is the King.

In a world so caught up in politics and countries with presidents, prime ministers and kings, it is easy to lose sight of the true king, Our Lord Jesus.  

Unlike those world leaders who we will likely never have the opportunity to meet, Jesus is accessible to us and wants a personal relationship with us, even seeking us out, loving us first.

Unlike those leaders whom we have a tendency not to trust, Jesus gains our trust through his life, death and resurrection, which frees us from our sins and brings us back into the sheepfold when we go astray.

Unlike world leaders who seem cold and distant, Jesus shows us his love by coming to us in the seven sacraments, and most especially the sacrament of His love, the Eucharist, at every Mass.

The first reading from Ezekiel gives a prophecy of his arrival, saying, “I myself will pasture my sheep; I myself will give them rest, says the Lord GOD. The lost I will seek out, the strayed I will bring back, the injured I will bind up, the sick I will heal, ... shepherding them rightly.”

Think about that for a second, if someone did any of those things for you, wouldn’t you love them? At some level, wouldn’t you owe something to them, if even just owing them a little bit of your love and affection?

Christ the King shows us His love by doing those things for us, and continues to do them, He shows us His love, so we return that love in the small ways that we can, especially through our praise and worship here at Mass.

But we also show our appreciation and our love in how we treat people, how we treat our neighbors. 

It is interesting how Jesus gives us the image of sheep and goats.  Sheep, for the most part, will follow the shepherd, they trust in the shepherd’s love and care for them, they are typically docile and go where they are led.  

Goats on the other hand, tend to be mean and go wherever they want.  They do things “their way” - I think of the song “My Way” made popular by Frank Sinatra - this probably isn’t the best song to have sung at a funeral, “I did it my way”, ya know, as followers of Jesus, we should really be looking to do things “His Way.”

So what is “His way" or "God's Way"? It is through love, loving Him and loving our neighbors, which we see today is really loving Him.  We heard in the Gospel:

Then the king will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food,
I was thirsty and you gave me drink,
a stranger and you welcomed me,
naked and you clothed me,
ill and you cared for me,
in prison and you visited me.’

When the righteous question when they had done this, the King said “'Amen, I say to you, whatever you did for one of the least brothers of mine, you did for me.’”

“God’s Way” is doing these Corporal Works of Mercy.  There are lots of ways to do this, but this shows God that we are his sheep, that we love Him because we do these works of mercy for our brothers and sisters, and in so doing, we do them for the King, our Lord Jesus Christ.

The King is asking us to show our love and gratitude for what He has done for us by sharing that love with others.  How have we done that in the past?  How are we doing that now?  How can we do more of these works of mercy in the future?

Like we heard last weekend, we have all received gifts and talents which are unique.  Please consider how you can use them to better share God’s love in this world, and by so doing, we will be invited to inherit the Kingdom prepared for us, being in the presence of Christ the King forever.