A reflection on the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Year B. The readings are Daniel 7:13-14; Psalm: 93; Revelation 1:5-8 and John 18:33b-37.
On a July Sunday morning, 13 years ago I was at Downsview Park in Toronto waiting for Pope John Paul II to arrive for the final Mass of WYD 2002. The WYD Choir was singing selections from Handel’s Messiah, “and He shall reign forever and ever…” and it was raining like it’s never rained in Toronto. I remember thinking, “he is raining forever and ever!” I was thinking of that day as I was preparing for today’s Feast of Christ the King, because even though I’ve heard that song dozens of times, I’ve never made the connection that the reason why He reigns is because He’s a king! We celebrate this feast – the Solemnity of Jesus Christ King of the Universe every year and still I have a real hard time picturing Jesus as king – that’s not an image that works for me. I suspect it’s because I have not had many great models of kings in my life. I mean, what do you think of when you think of kings? Game of Thrones? I remember learning about King Henry XVIII. Not the best examples of kingly behaviour. These are men who are more concerned about their own pleasures and desires and for their need to hold on to their power than their duty to serve the people.
Today we have three readings and three qualities of the Kingdom of Jesus that are very different than those kingdoms of earth.
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A reflection for the 30th Sunday, Ordinary Time, B. The readings are Jeremiah 31:7-9; Psalm 126; Hebrews 5:1-6 and Mark 10:46-52.
You don’t have to see something to know that it exists. We can’t see the CN Tower right now, but we know it exists. I’ve never seen a $1000 bill but I’m told they exist. I don’t have any reason to believe they don’t exist. Just because I can’t see or understand something doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist or that it isn’t true. There are some things that we can’t prove, but they exist. Our ability to see sometimes has to do with how open our hearts are. You go to Mass to worship God and to meet Christ in the Eucharist, but you can’t see him. You’ve been told that He’s there, but we can’t see him.
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A reflection for the 23rd Sunday, Ordinary Time, Year B. The readings are Isaiah 35:4-7; Psalm 146; James 2:1-5 and Mark 7:31-37.
When the Cardinals were in Conclave three years ago, the story goes that when the cardinal from Buenos Aires, Argentina, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio had the majority of votes, his Brazilian friend, Cardinal Claudio Hummes leaned over and whispered to him, “remember the poor.” Pope Francis, says that up to that point everything was a bit of a blur, but at that moment he thought of St. Francis of Assisi, Il poverello, “the poor one” and knew that would be his name, “Francis.” It’s pretty clear today that his papacy has put not just the poor at the front, but all who are marginalised, the people he calls, “the throways.” But I’ve always wondered why Cardinal Hummes said that. Why ‘remember the poor’? Had the Church been neglecting the poor? I don’t think so.
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A reflection for the 22nd Sunday, Ordinary Time, year B. The readings are Deut 4:1-2, 6-8; Psalm: 15; James 1:17-18, 21-22, 27 and Mark 7, 1-8, 14-15, 21-23.
Maybe some of you are going to university this week, or have children going to university. One of the things about going to university, especially if you move out of the house, is that all those rules you had growing up – you don’t have to follow them anymore. You can stay up all night, sleep in, miss class, drink orange juice out of the container in the fridge; you don’t have to wash your hands before you eat… That’s the way it is. When I was young, I didn’t want to be told what to do; I wanted to figure it out by myself. I didn’t mind doing the things I was being told to do, but I wanted to do them because I wanted, not because I was being told.
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deacon pedro 