The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe
November 20, 2016
First Reading: 2 Samuel 5:1-3
Responsorial Psalm: 122:1-2, 3-4, 4-5
Second Reading: Colossians 1:12-20
Gospel: Luke 23: 35-43
(#2365) Fidelity expresses constancy in keeping one's given word. God is faithful. The Sacrament of Matrimony enables man and woman to enter into Christ's fidelity for his Church. Through conjugal chastity, they bear witness to this mystery before the world.
St. John Chrysostom suggests that young husbands should say to their wives: I have taken you in my arms, and I love you, and I prefer you to my life itself. For the present life is nothing, and my most ardent dream is to spend it with you in such a way that we may be assured of not being separated in the life reserved for us. . . . I place your love above all things, and nothing would be more bitter or painful to me than to be of a different mind than you. (Homily on Ephesians)
Rest assured that Heaven is the fulfillment of all happiness; I pray the happiness of every marriage here on earth will be lifted up in God's eternity. Fr. Matt
2825 "Although he was a Son, [Jesus] learned obedience through what he suffered." (Hebrews 5:8) How much more reason have we sinful creatures to learn obedience - we who in him have become children of adoption. We ask our Father to unite our will to his Son's, in order to fulfill his will, his plan of salvation for the life of the world. We are radically incapable of this, but united with Jesus and with the power of his Holy Spirit, we can surrender our will to him and decide to choose what his Son has always chosen: to do what is pleasing to the Father. (John 8:29)
Consider how Jesus Christ] teaches us to be humble, by making us see that our virtue does not depend on our work alone but on grace from on high. He commands each of the faithful who prays to do so universally, for the whole world. For he did not say "thy will be done in me or in us," but "on earth," the whole earth, so that error may be banished from it, truth take root in it, all vice be destroyed on it, virtue flourish on it, and earth no longer differ from heaven. (St. John Chrysostom, Hom. in Mt. 19,5:PG 57,280.)