Latest / Catholic Spirit Radio / Good News #196 112225: Christ the King: Choosing a Sovereign for Our Lives

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Good News #196 112225: Christ the King: Choosing a Sovereign for Our Lives · Catholic Spirit Radio

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Welcome to Good News on Catholic Spirit Radio, a program for teens and almost
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teens to better understand that the gospel of Jesus Christ is relevant in their
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lives, and it's a place where your questions about faith and religion can be answered.
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And now, here's your host, Deacon Al.
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Good evening, and welcome to Good News on Catholic Spirit Radio.
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I am your host, Deacon Al Lundy, a permanent deacon of the Peoria Diocese,
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and happy to be talking with you, and not just the folks in the Peoria Diocese,
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but also up in Joliet and down in Decatur and over now in Macomb.
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We're just all over the place with Catholic Spirit Radio Network,
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and so pleased that you're listening to us.
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We're here every Saturday and Sunday evening from 8 to 8.30,
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but listen to Catholic Spirit Radio all the rest of your day and every day of the week.
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They're here Monday through Sunday from 24 hours a day. I was going to say from
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7 in the morning till 7 in the morning, right, 24 hours a day with great programming.
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And we also have a wonderful website with all kinds of information about the
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various parishes throughout the five dioceses that we serve.
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So we hope you'll check us out at catholicspiritradio.org.
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And thank you again for being here tonight. On Good News, we're going to look
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at the readings from this weekend's Mass, which is, of course,
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the last Sunday of ordinary time. Who would have thought it would come up this
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fast? I mean, next week is Advent.
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That's incredible. That's like a race car going by.
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So, this is the last Sunday. This is known as the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ the King.
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And it's one of the newest, a lot of people don't realize this,
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this is one of the newest celebrations in the calendar of the Catholic Church.
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It's only been around 100 years.
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That's really, I mean, for a 2,000-year-old organization, 100 years is pretty much nothing.
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So, yeah, it's very, very new. And it's funny because the reason why it exists,
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that reason still exists today.
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We'll talk about that in a little bit. I find it fascinating.
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History doesn't change. People don't change. Calendars change.
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People don't change. And we'll look at that in just a few minutes.
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But first of all, I want to apologize.
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I've been gone for a couple of weeks. John's been running some of the not worst
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of programs of good news to make up for that. And I apologize for not being here.
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It's been really, really hectic.
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A lot going on these last couple weeks. I went to a retreat.
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Believe it or not, I went to a silent retreat.
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I know people look at me like I said, you were silent for 72 hours.
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It's a beautiful retreat house down in St. Louis called White House.
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It's run by Jesuit priests.
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I know, but I love the Jesuit charisms. I really do. I can really relate to them.
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I don't know why, because I'm not as smart as a Jesuit.
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So anyway, there's these two priests arguing, Benedictine and a Franciscan,
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about who has the best order.
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And they're arguing back and forth, and they decide, you know what,
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we're just going to let God decide.
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So they write a letter to God asking them to work out this problem.
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Who has the best order, Benedictines or Franciscans? And they take that note,
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and they burn it with some incense, and they let it rise before the throne of
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Christ, and they wait for a response.
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And a few minutes later, another piece of paper comes floating down from the sky.
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And they open it up, And it says, my sons, do not argue like this.
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Let there be no anger between you.
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You're both fine orders. And it was signed, God, SJ.
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So I love Jesuit jokes. So anyway, there aren't too many out there,
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but the ones that are out there, I thought that was very good.
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Those of you who understand the Catholic orders got that joke and you're laughing
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greatly right now, the rest of you are going, SJ, SJ, God, SJ, what's that all about?
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So anyway, I was at a retreat for three days. I did that.
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I did a Cursillo weekend. I was the assistant spiritual director for Cursillo, Women's Cursillo.
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We had a fabulous time. It was really, really great.
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A lot of, I don't want to say conversion, a lot of inspiration,
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a lot of inspiration from the Holy Spirit took place and lives were changed.
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And I love that about Cursillo.
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You ought to check out Cursillo. See if you have one in your home parish, in your home diocese.
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It's a terrific program. It's
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only a weekend long, but man, the things you learn and the things, the,
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The gifts that you get out of it are really incredible.
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And we saw some women have their lives changed over the course of a weekend.
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And I just love to see that.
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So check out Curcio. So I did that. I got old. I got old, John.
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I had a birthday while I was gone. 70.
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70. That is old. John looks at me and says, oh, man, that's really old.
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So, yeah, I felt old for the day. I went to confession while I was on this retreat.
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And I the priest I went to really really old priest I thought he'll have a lot
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of wisdom right really really old priest so I'm sitting in there with confession
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and we get done but it was a good confession,
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and there's no one scheduled after me and we have like 20 minutes before dinner,
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I just happened to be walking by his office as I was leaving my room and I saw
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no one was with him and I looked at his sign in board and no one was registered
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to meet with him so I just popped my head and said Father, can we have a confession? So we did.
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And so now we're just chatting afterwards.
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And I said, so how long have you been retired? Now, a Jesuit priest retires at 75.
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I'm at this point two days away from turning 70.
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And I say to the priest, so how long have you been retired? And he says, I'm not retired.
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So I thought Jesuits retired at 75.
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I'm not 75. I'm going to turn 69 in a few weeks.
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That's when I felt old. That was, boy, that was a spirit of the heart, man.
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So, yeah, that's when I felt old. But anyway, I had my 70th birthday. It was very nice.
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My wife's family are very funny. So on the 70th, and I should have seen this
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coming, they get things that are 70 for you.
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Like when my in-laws turned 70, we all pitched in and we got 70.
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At that time, remember the dollar coins?
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Is it Sacagawea? The dollar coins? So we got them 70 of those gold coins, right?
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But then we also got them like 70 Oreo cookies. And so I got,
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I got a, a journal with 70 pages in it.
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I got, what else? Oh, I got 70 crocuses to plant in my garden.
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Yeah. Yeah. I got a 70 Frito chips cause I like Fritos.
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So anyway, it was all 70 stuff. It was, it was quite funny. So anyway,
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that was, that was my birthday party was a bunch of 70 stuff.
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And on the, on the downside, I guess it's up and down and you have to look at
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It depends on how you look at it from a Catholic point of view.
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I lost a friend. A good friend of mine died. Many know him. It was Monsignor
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Doug Hennessy. He went by Father Doug.
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Father Doug is the pastor emeritus of the parish that I serve.
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And he was there for many years. But he was born in Bloomington,
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raised in Bloomington, went to Bloomington Catholic schools,
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went to the Bloomington Catholic High School, went to Notre Dame for a short
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time before he entered the seminary.
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Just a really nice, nice man, 87 years old, just a sweetheart,
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and unfortunately died very suddenly and missed him greatly.
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But we had his funeral mass.
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And I got to tell you, there are some things Catholics do really well. Funerals is one of them.
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We do funerals great. I've been to other funerals, and they're very...
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They're very solemn and very hopeless, I guess is the word I want to use,
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where the Catholic funeral mass is focused on hope and joy and eternal life
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and spends very little time about the sadness of losing someone you love and
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focuses more on what that person has now gained,
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And I think that's beautiful. And this Mass was a very hopeful, joyful Mass.
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And wow, over 800 people. Over 800 people for the Mass. I mean, that's an Easter Mass.
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Or a Sunday, I mean, a Christmas Eve Mass.
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But I've never seen a crowd like that for a funeral. Not even for a priest's
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funeral. It was celebrated by our bishop.
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There were, gosh, I would guess 70 to 80 priests there, all in the same diocesan
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vestments. Very beautiful.
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And probably, I would guess there were 15 or 20 deacons vested.
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It was just a beautiful, beautiful Mass. The entrance procession,
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my gosh, took minutes, several minutes, because we had so many priests coming
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in, and then the bishop and his entourage.
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So it was just a gorgeous mess. So we had that. So I had two retreats,
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a birthday, a funeral mess for a friend.
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It's just been busy, just been busy. And then, of course, trying to get my gardens
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ready for winter, that took quite a bit of time.
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It's still not done. I don't know what I'm going to do. I got my first batch
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of leaves done, and then my trees decided, we're not done. We got more to shed.
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Yeah, so now I've got to go clean up the yard again.
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My lawnmower, so I think I told you this, I got a robot lawnmower, right?
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And it's pretty cool. It works pretty well. But I evidently,
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I bumped the antenna tower the other day, and I tried to straighten it back up.
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But evidently, something is amiss, because the last time it ran,
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it started while I was asleep.
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6.30 in the morning, it started. So at 7, I've got my neighbor who's out for
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a run, knocking on my door, ringing my doorbell.
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My lawn door is out in the street. It's not supposed to be there.
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There's not much in the street for it to do. And it's supposed to be in my yard
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mowing. And it hopped the curb.
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And I think it's because my antenna wasn't exact. It has to be exactly in the
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same place where you have to recalibrate.
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And so it lost its calibration. and Mo, as we call him, wandered out into the street.
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Luckily, he picked him up and put him back in the yard where he just sat and
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waited for me to come fetch him.
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So I guess it's time to retire. Oh, and here's something. If you're thinking
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about getting a robot mower, know this, they don't mulch.
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See, I used to just wait for my leaves to fall and just mulch with a lawnmower and not rake them.
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This mower does not mulch because it has no suction. It doesn't pull anything
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up. So when it goes over the leaves, it just goes over the leaves.
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And if there's grass sticking up around it, it'll mow that. But it'll just press
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the leaf down and go over it.
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So I had to keep my old mower just to mulch in the fall when the leaves fall.
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Anyway, life is tough. I shouldn't complain that I have a machine that mows
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for me and doesn't do it all the time.
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But for the most part, it works out fine. So anyway, that's me.
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That's where I've been the last couple weeks, what I've been up to,
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a lot of yard work, a lot of retreats, a big funeral, a birthday,
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which I should be grateful wasn't a funeral.
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But life goes on even after 70.
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So, okay, that's me. Tell you what we're going to do. We're going to take a short break.
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When we come back, we're going to go over the readings from this Sunday,
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the last Sunday of ordinary time. I cannot believe that.
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Stay tuned for more good news on Catholic Spirit Radio. Stay tuned.
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Prayer for the Canonization of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, written by Monsignor Richard Sosman.
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Heavenly Father, Source of all holiness, you raise up within the Church in every
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age men and women who serve with heroic love and dedication.
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You have blessed your Church through the life and ministry of your faithful
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servant, Archbishop Fulton J.
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Sheen. He has written and spoken well of your Divine Son, Jesus Christ,
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and was a true instrument of the Holy Spirit in touching the hearts of countless people.
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If it be according to your will, for the honor and glory of the Most Holy Trinity
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and the salvation of souls, we ask you to move the church to proclaim him a saint.
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We ask this prayer through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
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And welcome back to Good News. I am Deacon Al Lundy.
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You're listening to Catholic Spirit Radio. And we're heading into,
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or we are into now, the 34th Sunday of Ordinary Time.
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This is the last Sunday of Ordinary Time this year. We begin a new church year with Advent next week.
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So that means we're like four weeks away from Christmas. Is that possible?
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That is disturbing. John's got this look on his face like, no, not yet.
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It's just right on top of us. The weather wouldn't tell you that because we've
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had a little bit of cold, but for the most part, we've had beautiful, sunny, warm weather.
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This late into the month is just incredible. And now we're about to jump into Christmas.
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I was driving back from St. Louis, and as I got towards Springfield,
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there is a radio station that I picked up because I tried for Catholic Spirit
15:46
Radio and I couldn't get it yet, but we were really close, really close.
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I got it pretty soon after that, but I was able to pick up an all-Christmas.
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Now, the all-Christmas station is all Christmas all the time,
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not just like after Thanksgiving to New Year's, all-Christmas music.
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This is like all Christmas music, every single day of the year, 24 hours a day.
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Now, I got to tell you, I love Christmas music.
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I cannot listen to this station. I just can't.
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I mean, every day of the year, 24 hours a day, listening to silver bells and
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jingle bells and too many bells, just too many bells.
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Anyway, yeah, Christmas is right on top of us already. So coming up fast.
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So, we have for our readings for this, the solemnity of our Lord Jesus Christ, the King.
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We have a reading from the book of Samuel.
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We've got the second reading is Paul to the Colossians. And then our gospel
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is wrapping up Luke, pretty much.
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So, let's dive in and see what it has to say about Christ being our King.
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So, a reading from the second book of Samuel. In those days,
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all the tribes of Israel came to David in Hebron and said, Here we are,
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your bone and your flesh.
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In past days, when Saul was our king, it was you who led the Israelites out and brought them back.
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And the Lord said to you, You shall shepherd my people Israel and shall be commander of Israel.
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When all the elders of Israel came to David in Hebron, King David made an agreement
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with them there before the Lord, and they anointed him king of Israel.
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So that just gives you a little brief history of how David came to be king.
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Kind of interesting that Saul and David and most kings of that time were selected
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not because of their wisdom, but because of their military valor.
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In our second reading, this is from Paul to the Colossians.
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Brothers and sisters, let us give thanks to the Father who has made you fit
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to share in the inheritance of the holy ones in light.
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He delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom
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of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
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He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
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For in Him were created all things in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible.
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Whether thrones or dominions or
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principalities or powers, all things were created through Him and for Him.
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He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
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He is the head of the body of the church.
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He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He Himself might be preeminent.
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For in Him all the fullness was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile all things for Him,
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making peace by the blood of His cross through Him, whether those on earth are
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those in heaven. The word of the Lord.
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So what we're learning from Paul is really the difference between being under
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the reign of God or the reign of man.
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Mankind tends to be corrupt and corrupted by the world around them,
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where having God as our king, we have an incorruptible king,
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one whose only concern is about us.
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In a reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke, Luke writes.
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The rulers sneered at Jesus and said, He saved others, let him save himself,
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if he's the chosen one, the Christ of God.
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Even the soldiers jeered at him. As they approached to offer him wine,
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they called out, If you're the king of the Jews, save yourself.
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Above him there was an inscription that read, This is the king of the Jews.
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Now one of the criminals hanging there reviled Jesus, saying,
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Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us.
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The other, however, rebuking him, said in reply, Have you no fear of God?
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For you are subject to the same condemnation.
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And indeed, we've been condemned justly, for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes.
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But this man has done nothing criminal.
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Then he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
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He replied to him, Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise. The gospel of the Lord.
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So in today's gospel, we're meeting up with Christ on the cross,
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with the good thief and the bad thief on either side of him.
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And they represent us, those of us who reject God and Christ for being God,
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and who accept Christ as our Savior and who ask forgiveness for what we've done
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wrong and try to live whatever length of life we have left in the shadow and the image of Christ.
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This is a fairly new celebration in the Church, the Solemnity of Christ the King.
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It was established just a hundred years ago, as I mentioned before, by Pope Pius XI in 1925.
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He did so to remind us that Christ's authority surpasses all earthly rulers,
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and that unlike worldly government of any type, Christ's kingdom is eternal.
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The Pope called for individuals and nations to place their allegiance in Christ,
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hoping to promote peace by encouraging people to live under Christ's rule and teaching.
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He did this responding to the growing secular and atheistic culture that was
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developing in the world.
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So think about that. A hundred years ago, the Pope called us to accept Christ
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as our ruler because of the growing secular and atheistic culture that was beginning
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in the world. And a hundred years later, it's continuing.
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It's only gotten worse.
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And so once again, we're reminded by the church, every year for the last hundred
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years, put your trust in Christ as your leader and not in worldly leaders.
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But we didn't listen, did we? Here we are a hundred years later,
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we see the world around us continuing to grow in this selfish,
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secular, atheistic manner.
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This should sound familiar to us because of the scriptures, the Israelites.
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They wanted to be like other nations and felt that they needed a human ruler
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in order to lead them in war and to judge them.
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This request was seen by God and by the prophet Samuel as a rejection of God's own rule and a sin,
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But God granted their request, warning them that a king would take their land,
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take their property, and take their sons.
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And hasn't every ruler since then done that?
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Hasn't every government of any country?
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Taxes, they're taking your property. Home rule, I hate it when I see home rule
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enacted and someone's property just taken by the government for their own purpose.
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We're still doing that. And that all started, that all started in Scripture.
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That all started in the time of Saul.
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It's just, we don't learn. So Saul was chosen because he was a great warrior.
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There's more important things than war.
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And they didn't take the warning that God gave them. So upon Saul's death,
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they looked for another king, a better king.
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And now that's why we hear in our first reading why they chose David.
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David was another war hero, right? his defeat of the Philistines.
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Our first reading talks about that happening, that people still want a human
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king to have authority over them when they had the best possible king already
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in God, the creator of the universe.
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Now, David, for all his personal flaws, is still considered one of the great
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rulers in all of history because he tried to rule as God rules with a loving and forgiving heart.
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And that's the difference. That's the difference between having God in the center
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of your life as opposed to having any other government entity as the ruler of your life.
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God's interest is in you. He rules out of love for you.
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Where governments ruled by human beings are going to have human faults.
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They're going to be moved by greed, by lust for power or money or property.
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And God isn't affected by that. And yet we choose to make these human leaders
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the center of our lives rather than trusting in the Almighty God.
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The Israelites already had that in God Himself.
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We still have a ruler who loves us in Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity.
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And yet, how often do we reject Him as being our sovereign?
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God who loves us over all of creation. That's what Pope Pius wanted to remind
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us a hundred years ago and what we're reminded of today.
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Christ's absolute kingly reign over all mankind is the best that could happen for us.
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In our gospel today, we remember the most evil act possible,
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the killing of Christ Jesus by the men he created.
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Jesus has been arrested, beaten, falsely accused, tried, tried secretly under
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the cover of darkness, scourged, paraded like a criminal, condemned, and nailed to a cross.
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But even in this horrific evil, the kingship of Christ is ironically proclaimed
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by those who murdered him, and Christ exercises his kingship.
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Standing at the foot of the cross, the scribes and Pharisees showed no compassion for a dying man.
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Their evil and inhuman leadership and the Roman soldiers mocked the suffering
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Christ, challenging him to save himself.
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And ironically, despite being full of evil, they speak truth.
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They call Jesus the King of the Jews by their own words, with a written sign hung above his head.
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And even dying on a cross, a skeptical criminal, suffering without faith,
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without hope, without repentance, mocks Jesus, ridiculing him for not saving them all.
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And through all that, Jesus remains silent. The good thief, traditionally known as St.
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Dimas, rebukes the bad thief for their crimes and defends Christ's innocence.
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Contrite for his sins, Dimas has faith in Jesus, professes he will come into
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his kingly power and asks Jesus to remember him.
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Christ, confirming his kingship, judges and grants Dimas his salvation,
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promising him he will join Christ in paradise that very day.
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May our personal commitment to God as the ruler of our lives,
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not sin or wealth or fame or pride or power, but the risen Christ,
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lead us to that same reward.
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Every Mass, we pray the Lord's Prayer. We ask to remember that proclaiming our
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belief in the kingdom of God, and we recognize that Jesus Christ is the King of the universe.
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And that is what we celebrate today in the life of the Catholic Church.
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May Almighty God bless you, protect you from all evil, and bring you to everlasting life.
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Good night. You've been listening to Good News on Catholic Spirit Radio,
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a program for teens and almost teens to better understand that the gospel of
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Jesus Christ is relevant in your life.
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Submit your questions to Deacon Al at goodnewsatcatholicspiritradio.com.
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That's goodnewsatcatholicspiritradio.com.
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Deacon will answer your questions about faith and religion.
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Thank you for listening to Good News on Catholic Spirit Radio.