23 November 2025 #ponderingtime
Happy New Year’s Eve! It’s the final Sunday of the liturgical year… next week we start a new cycle of readings. Goodbye Luke, hello Matthew! But in the meantime, given that last week we were all over the end-times, today we are reminded that JESUS CHRIST IS KING of the UNIVERSE.
Now, I get it. The word “king” has political colors these days. For those of you who know me, I am a-political. I follow the Gospel, not a political party. Yes, I vote. No, no one – alas – meets my Gospel criteria to protect the vulnerable, nurture and support all peoples from conception to natural death, and actions that consistently demonstrate ‘do unto others as you would do unto yourself’ perfectly. The only person to fully meet those three criteria is Jesus, and since he’s not running for office here in these United States, I will always have to settle for second best. Besides, no politician can save, nor rule, the world… nor save souls. That’s Jesus’ role.
He transcends the politics here in our first world country. In every country, to be honest. And the thing is… it doesn’t really look like he’s at the top-of-the-polls. It looks more like we’re back in Luke’s Gospel with Jesus’ image in tatters on the cross, his disciples not doing what ought to be done, and a guy mocking him on one side and adoring him on the other. Isn’t the state of the world at present? Everyone on one-side-or-the-other when it comes to belief in Jesus and no one really wanting to do everything he talked about and modeled… just the sound-bite and proof-texting policies ideologies. And there hangs Jesus in the balance, bloodied and bantered about by who ‘we’ want him to be and what ‘we’ think he should do.
It's a good thing ‘we’ do not have a say in the matter.
It’s gotta be hard being Jesus. He knows what he wants his kingdom to look like, but he needs us to cooperate to make that happen. And we are, by our fallen nature, uncooperative.
If you get to read this column before Mass, pay attention to the Preface prayer that begins with, “It is truly right and just…” [after the creed and prayer over our offerings]. It’s our prayer to God the Father, acknowledging His Son Jesus’ spotless sacrifice in return for our redemption so that Jesus “might present to the immensity of your majesty an eternal and universal kingdom, a kingdom of truth and life… of holiness and grace… of justice, love, and peace.”
As a follower of Jesus – an apprentice/disciple - how is this one going for you? When you present your life to His Majesty, will you present a life of goodness, truth, and beauty? A life of holiness and grace? Of justice, love, and peace?
That’s a pretty big pondering question, worthy of some end-of-year contemplation. Are there any changes you want to make in the way you live your life, so that when this earthly journey is at an end and you’re presenting a life to your King, he says, ‘Well done, my good and faithful steward.”? #ponderingtime