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Scripture Readings
First Ezekiel 34:11-12, 15-17
Second 1 Corinthians 15:20-26, 28
Gospel Matthew 25:31-46
1. Subject Matter
Pope Pius XI instituted the Solemnity of Christ the King in 1925. Pope Paul VI transferred its
celebration to the 34th and final Sunday of the liturgical year in 1969. This move served to
highlight the eschatological significance of the feast.
What kind of king is this? The proper Preface for the Mass describes the kingdom over which
he reigns: “an eternal and universal kingdom, a kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom of
holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love, and peace.”
2. Exegetical Notes
First Reading: The Shepherd of Israel and his Flock. The Lord says that he will judge one
sheep against another. “This theme is not present in any of the other prophets and may be
considered a concrete application of the principle of individual responsibility” (JBC) found in
today‟s Gospel.
Second Reading: First fruits means more than being first temporally; it is a Jewish cultic term
that denotes the symbolic dedication of the whole harvest to God. “So the resurrection of
Christ involves the resurrection of all who are in him” (JBC). The passage goes on to refer to
the end, i.e. the consummation of time when Christ, having fulfilled his mission, hands
everything over to the Father. Thus this reading adds to the eschatological thrust of the
whole feast.
Gospel: The parousia when Christ comes in glory to judge the whole world. Christ comes and
judges not by faith alone, but by the transformative effect of that faith in the life of the
individual. “One could paraphrase by saying that man is judged entirely on his behavior
toward his fellow man” (JBC).
“The separation of the sheep and the goats can be easily observed in modern Palestine
when the time comes to transfer the animals to other pastures; sheep and goats feed
together, but they are moved separately” (JBC).
3. References to the Catechism of the Catholic Church
786 The People of God share in the royal office of Christ. He exercises his kingship by
drawing all men to himself through his death and Resurrection. Christ, King and Lord of the
universe, made himself the servant of all, for he came “not to be served but to serve, and to
give his life as a ransom for many.” For the Christian, “to reign is to serve him,” particularly
when serving “the poor and the suffering, in whom the Church recognizes the image of her
poor and suffering founder.” The People of God fulfills its royal dignity by a life in keeping
with its vocation to serve with Christ.
908 By his obedience unto death, Christ communicated to his disciples the gift of royal
freedom, so that they might “by the self-abnegation of a holy life, overcome the reign of sin in
themselves.”
655 The risen Christ himself is the principle and source of our future resurrection . . . The
risen Christ lives in the hearts of his faithful while they await that fulfillment. In Christ,
Christians have tasted the powers of the age to come and their lives are swept up by Christ
into the heart of divine life, so that they may live no longer for themselves but for him who for
their sake died and was raised.
544 The kingdom belongs to the poor and lowly, which means those who have accepted it
with humble hearts. Jesus is sent to “preach good news to the poor”; Jesus shares the life of
the poor, from the cradle to the cross; he experiences hunger, thirst and privation. Jesus
identifies himself with the poor of every kind and makes active love toward them the condition
for entering his kingdom.
1041 The message of the Last Judgment calls men to conversion while God is still giving
them “the acceptable time, . . . the day of salvation.” It inspires a holy fear of God and
commits them to the justice of the Kingdom of God. It proclaims the “blessed hope” of the
Lord's return, when he will come “to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at in all who
have believed.”
2447 The works of mercy are charitable actions by which we come to the aid of our neighbor
in his spiritual and bodily necessities. Instructing, advising, consoling, comforting are spiritual
works of mercy, as are forgiving and bearing wrongs patiently. The corporal works of mercy
consist especially in feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, clothing the naked, visiting
the sick and imprisoned, and burying the dead. Among all these, giving alms to the poor is
one of the chief witnesses to fraternal charity. It is also a work of justice pleasing to God.
2443 God blesses those who come to the aid of the poor and rebukes those who turn away
from them: "Give to him who begs from you, do not refuse him who would borrow from you";
"you received without pay, give without pay." It is by what they have done for the poor that
Jesus Christ will recognize his chosen ones. When "the poor have the good news preached
to them," it is the sign of Christ's presence.
1397 The Eucharist commits us to the poor. To receive in truth the Body and Blood of Christ
given up for us, we must recognize Christ in the poorest, his brethren.
“The way to reach this goal [of coming into the kingdom] is long and admits of no short cuts:
indeed, every person must freely accept the truth of God's love. He is Love and Truth, and
neither Love nor Truth are ever imposed: they come knocking at the doors of the heart and
the mind and where they can enter they bring peace and joy. This is how God reigns; this is
his project of salvation, a „mystery‟ in the biblical sense of the word: a plan that is gradually
revealed in history.”
“It is not simply – as one might expect – God, the infinite, the unknown, the eternal, who
judges. On the contrary, he has handed the judgment over to one who, as a man, is our
brother. It is not a stranger who judges us but he whom we know in faith. The judge will not
advance to meet is as the other, but as one of us, who knows human existence from the
inside and has suffered. Thus over the judgment glows the dawn of hope; it is not only the
day of wrath but also the second coming of our Lord.”
“This, then, is God‟s kingship – a rule of love that seeks and finds man in ways that are
always new. For us, this means a trust that cannot be shaken. God rules as king over us still
and, what is more, he rules over each one of us. None of us should be afraid and none
should capitulate. God can always be found. The pattern of our own lives should also be like
this – we should always be available, never write anyone off, and try again and again to find
others in the openness of our hearts. . . . The feast of Christ the King is therefore not a feast
of those who are subjugated, but a feast of those who know that they are in the hands of the
one who writes straight on crooked lines.”
7. Other Considerations
In the Preface, we pray to the Father: “You anointed Jesus Christ, your only Son, with the oil
of gladness as the eternal priest and universal king.” One might, then, explore the
relationship that exists between Christ‟s priesthood and his kingship.
When Pius XI instituted this feast, he wrote: In doing so, he wrote: “If We ordain that the
whole Catholic world shall revere Christ as King, We shall minister to the need of the present
day. . . . The empire of Christ over all nations was rejected. The right which the Church has
from Christ himself, to teach mankind, to make laws, to govern peoples in all that pertains to
their eternal salvation, that right was denied. Then gradually the religion of Christ came to be
likened to false religions and to be placed ignominiously on the same level with them . . . We
firmly hope, however, that the feast of the Kingship of Christ may hasten the return of society
to our loving Savior. It would be the duty of Catholics to do all they can to bring about this
happy result. . . . This state of things may perhaps be attributed to a certain slowness and
timidity in good people, who are reluctant to engage in conflict or oppose but a weak
resistance; thus the enemies of the Church become bolder in their attacks. But if the faithful
were generally to understand that it behooves them ever to fight courageously under the
banner of Christ their King, then, fired with apostolic zeal, they would strive to win over to
their Lord those hearts that are bitter and estranged from him, and would valiantly defend his
rights.”
Recommended Resources
Pope Pius XI, Encyclical Letter Quas Primas, On the Feast of Christ the King.
Pope Benedict XVI, Benedictus: Day by Day with Pope Benedict XVI (Yonkers: Magnificat,
2006).