“My kingdom does not belong to this world.” Today, our last Sunday of Ordinary Time for this liturgical year, we celebrate Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. So how can we understand Christ’s Kingdom?

History of Christ the King: This Solemnity of Christ the King was instituted by Pope Pius XI 99 years ago in 1925, during a wild time that was called ‘The Roaring Twenties.’ Pope Pius wrote about the Liturgical Year blessings in his encyclical Quas Primas:

“The Son of Man coming in the clouds' with great power and glory” (Mk 13:26).

Today we are in the second-to-last Sunday in Ordinary Time for this Liturgical Year B, when we have studied St. Mark’s Gospel.

In these darker days, we are with Jesus on the Mount of Olives and we are overlooking the City of Jerusalem just before that great Feast of the Passover. Jesus tells us of the “End Times” where there will be tribulation and the powers in the heavens be shaken.

God Does The Most With The Least:

Set in Holy Week, we see that Jesus has entered triumphantly into Jerusalem. He taught in the Temple area to the visiting crowds. Part of the deal was to make a show of your offering to the Temple to help with the cost of the Passover Feast. We see time and time again how God loves the poor and widows and always puts them first.

You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31).

November is the great Month of Thanksgiving and the month of Giving. It is the perfect time to reconsider these two of Jesus’ “greatest commandments” - love of God and neighbor. They relate to three major aspects of the heart of every serious Christian steward’s life, day in, day out. The practice of using time, talent, and treasure is called stewardship, which is a way to live a life centered on Christ. The goal is to use these gifts to bring glory to God and to proclaim the name of Jesus.

“Master, I Want To See.”

These famous words of Bartimaeus, the Blind Man of Jericho, ring in our ears today. We all want to know the truth. Jesus is The Way, The Truth and The Life.

We are so often blinded by the world. We are blinded by lies and hate. The world wants us to be silent. We must be hopeful and excited about calling out to God in prayer. We are all blind beggars calling out to God all the more. We cannot and must not stay silent. We all want to see, literally and spiritually.

A Homily based on Isaiah 53: 10-11

It seems that conflict has become the norm these days. Well, many centuries ago, the prophet Isaiah faced much conflict as well. The details in his time were different, of course, but the conflict was just as threatening. And he struggled with “What am I to do?” The conviction he came away with was that he was to hold on to truth, press on, and “he shall see the light in fullness of days” (Is 53:11a).

It is very obvious that Our Lord speaks to the two big issues in our state and country today.

One of our moral theology professors in seminary, Fr. Jerome Young, a Benedictine monk, once quite startlingly and honestly told us that in our world today, the 10 Commandments have been basically reduced, boiled down to two commandments. It is a sobering reality:

The Family Is Our Connection To God

The start of the first book of the Bible, the Book of Genesis, always reminds us that it was God who created man. Then God made woman as a partner for man.

When Adam sees the woman he says, “This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one shall be called ‘woman.’” Logically, God desires that man and woman should become one. They are made complementary, made suitable to each other. In this union of God’s love, the Sacrament of Marriage, that man and woman work together to bring their family to Heaven.