When all the elders of Israel came to David in Hebron, King David made an agreement with them there before the LORD, and they anointed him king of Israel. (2 Sam 5: 3)
Writing about the saints of the Old Testament, Archbishop Fulton Sheen says that “David was the forerunner of Our Lord’s Kingship.” After presenting David’s strength and abilities, he says that the king was not “a telescope of sublimities nor a microscope of littleness” but rather “a kaleidoscope in which the phases of the life of a man appear.” His sins are known to us. But the core of the message I would like to convey today, after our celebration of the Solemnity of Christ King of the Universe is this:
There was one region in which David was not king, and that was in the palace of his heart. He peers out of the Old Testament with the message that the psychological forces of our own nature are not sufficient to make us good. His mission was to proclaim the heart’s need of God.2
Saint Paul, in the letter to the Colossians, chapter 1, which is the second reading of the solemnity, presents the figure of Christ thus:
For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile all things for him, making peace by the blood of his cross through him, whether those on earth or those in heaven.
To Ponder
All this made me think: at the closing of the liturgical year, looking at Christ, King of the world and King of our souls, we can make some simple questions, followed by simple but profound answers.
Is Christ my King? Does it make any sense to me to look at Him in the image of kingship? Or using the Scriptural language: is He the Spouse of my soul, the one who has dominion over me, over all my thoughts and actions, emotions, and projects? Is there a region in my heart where He is not the king?
Will the graces of the celebration of Christ the King at the end of cycle C carry me over to the beginning of cycle A? Will it be a bridge between the evangelical waters of Luke and Matthew so that I can begin the new liturgical year having been conquered by my King, Master, and Savior? Am I ready to be his subject? Am I His? Is He mine? Do I believe when I pray, Thy kingdom come? Not a political kingdom, but his royal presence in my heart, in my job, in my community, in my family, in my country…? Or like David, there is a region within me in which Christ does not reign yet, of which I am not in command?
May our Blessed Mother, Queen of Heaven and earth bring her Son, Christ the King, to our souls.
God bless you all.
1 Image from https://www.pliniocorreadeoliveira.info/ES_5101_Cristo_Rey_del_Universo.htm, accessed November 15, 2022. 2 Fulton Sheen, Those Mysterious Priests, (New York: Doubleday & Co., 1974), 204. Emphasis mine.
