From the Pastoral Team
From Our Deacon
Today we close the liturgical cycle with the celebration of Christ the King, a celebration that serves as a bridge between the end of the current cycle and the next. The key to this liturgical celebration lies in the understanding and interpretation that we have of this title of Christ as King, as this understanding will mark our perspective of what we have experienced as Christians throughout the previous year and will also mark our expectations regarding the future that awaits in the new cycle.
In today’s Gospel, Luke raises two points: the rejection of triumphalist messianism (“he has saved others; let him save himself if he is God’s Messiah, the Chosen One”); but mainly the acceptance of the messianism of the suffering Servant, showing us Jesus, the Just One, enduring torture; the acceptance of a messianic kingdom that does not correspond to this world: “Jesus, remember me when you come to your kingdom. […] Amen, I say to you: today you will be with me in Paradise”).
This explicit allusion to the kingdom as “paradise” reminds us of two ideas. In the first place, it suggests to us of eschatology, that is, the end of times inaugurated by Jesus, that the Messiah awaited at the end of times will bring his kingdom. And indeed, Christianity interprets the death of the Just one as the inauguration of new times: initially, it did so imminently, and then later, as we await the second coming of Jesus as King, Lord, and Judge of Creation. (In this sense, the Advent period opens)
Following this line, the second idea, closely linked to the previous one, is that of the New Creation: all things are recreated in Jesus Christ (Cf. 2Cor 5,17) and brought to their fullness. It is, therefore, a new Genesis that completes the seventh day of creation (Ev Jn).
This recreation, this new Genesis “fulfilled”, is precisely what is interpreted in the letter to the Colossians, today’s second reading. It is a reconciliation between God and his Creation, that is, with all beings, those of heaven and of earth “making peace by the blood of his Cross” (an approach that can only be understood from the messianic perspective of the suffering Servant). In this consists the messianism of Jesus Christ, according to the Pauline teaching: in his condition as Lord and Judge of the Universe, as King who reigns and judges from his cross.
Peace and good,
Br. Salvador Mejia, OFM
Pastoral Associate
Mission San Luis Rey Parish
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