Reflection for the Solemnity of Christ the King 2024

There is story told about the great 13th-century saint Dominic, the founder of the Order of Preachers. According to the tale, Friar Dominic made a pilgrimage to Rome where he was welcomed by the pope. The pope took his guest on a tour of the beautiful basilica of St. John Lateran. Quite proud of the opulence of his cathedral church as bishop of Rome, the pope cited the words of the lame man in the Acts of the Apostles, “No longer need we say, ‘silver and gold have I none.’” The humble Dominic responded, “But at the same time, the church can no longer say, ‘Rise up and walk.’”

Christ did not create a church of gold and stone; he envisioned a community of disciples who would take up his work of reconciliation and justice. The Risen Christ dwells among us not in an opulent, musty museum, but within our own church community as we enable one another to “rise and walk.” Christ calls us to embrace not the things of the body but of the soul, not the things of the world but the things of God: the lasting, eternal treasures of love and mercy, the joy that comes only from selfless giving, the satisfaction that comes from lifting up the hopes and dreams of others.

We who have been baptized in the life, death and resurrection of Christ are called to build and maintain that kingdom in our own time and place. Christ’s reign is realized only in our embracing a vision of humankind as a family made in the image of God, a vision of one another as brothers and sisters in Christ, a vision of the world centred in the hope and compassion taught by Christ.