Today is the Feast of Christ the King, also known as the Last Sunday after Pentecost. It was instituted by Pope Pius XI in 1925 to counter the destructive forces of the modern world by proclaiming the kingship of Christ. We live in the vicissitudes of history and experience rulers coming and going. Even in the period after Pius XI instituted the Feast of Christ the King, the world experienced the rise and fall of fascism, Nazism and communism.
None have finality.
In North America, the kingdoms we build are found in our investments, and our loyalties are to our attention to our bodies and their comforts. These are the questions today's lesson pose for us. Our readings today point us to God's ultimate conquest through his Christ of all that stands against his reign of peace, justice, truthfulness. The readings project a vision of a humane kingdom that shall supersede all beastly ones, point to a faithful witness who testified to the truth against the politically powerful, and proclaim a violated one who shall come again to be vindicated. Today's Gospel is all about truth, about admitting, facing and accepting the consequences of truth.