Homily: Christ the King: Nov. 22, 2020: 1 Corinthians 15:20-26,28

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(Please read the passage cited above first.)

My sisters and brothers,

Today we celebrate the feast of Christ the King.  To the King belong time and eternity forever.  Now, as we celebrate the end of the liturgical year and the beginning of the Advent season, we recognize Christ as the beginning and the end of our life.

Christ has risen from the end as the first-fruits of the dead.  Through his resurrection, Christ has given us eternal life.  In Adam we all died, but in Christ, all of us have life.

Christ was king of the dead but, through his resurrection he became King of all the loving.  Christ is King of the dead and of the living.  Christ is King, alive and truly.

Christ has conquered death and likewise all the other enemies of life.  Christ reigns over all the enemies of creation. At the end of the ages, Christ will submit himself to the Father and so God will be all in all things.

In the beginning, Christ, the Son of God, became man and submitted to human life even to the point of dying.  Then, Christ rose from the dead, conquering death and all other enemies.  At the end of time, Christ, our King, having joined himself to us, will hand us over to the Father and God will be all in all.

This is the process from beginning to end.  In baptism, Christ makes us into himself.  Then Christ accepts us into his life.  Then he hands himself, with us, to the Father.  The whole of creation will be in us and we shall be totally in Christ; Christ will be in God and, therefore, God will be all in everything.

If Christ is our king, then we are going to enter into the glory of God the Father.  Christ is our King by his resurrection.  Through baptism we enter into and share this resurrection.  Now there lives in us Christ’s life and, if Christ’s life lives in us, we shall share the Kingdom with Christ’s Father.

Now we have the beginnings of the life of Christ in ourselves.  If we persevere in this life, we shall have the fullness of this life in the Kingdom of Christ’s Father.