Sunday of Christ the King

On the one hand the end of the year is a reminder of the time that is running out while the broken world we live in still needs so much healing. It isn’t hard at all to connect the description of injustice (and the apparent ease with which the ‘wicked’ practise it) in verses 3 – 7 with our own broken world.

On the other hand, “Sunday of Christ the King” and Psalm 94 both proclaim that God is sitting on his throne and that justice and righteousness will eventually belong to the “Judge of the earth” (verse 2). That is why we may pray with the Psalmist that God as Judge will come to put right injustice, the oppression of people and corruption. The Psalm is also an appeal to choose God’s discipline (verse 12), a declaration of willingness to seek God’s law and a summons to others to become involved in this (verse 16).

So, even though we are aware of the broken world in which we live, we can look up at the King who rules. While we are aware of people whose lives are broken – especially those whose lives are overshadowed by the dark shadow of HIV and AIDS – we are able to reach out with hope and love as people who are identifying with God’s justice and righteousness.

So we can pray in this time:

“Dear Jesus, help me to spread your fragrance everywhere. Flood my soul with your spirit and life. Penetrate and possess my whole being so completely that my life may be only a radiance of yours. Shine through me, and be so in me that every soul I come in contact with may feel your presence in my soul. Let them look up and see me no longer, but only Jesus.”
Amen.

(Prayer by Cardinal John H Newman – used daily by Mother Theresa and her helpers in Calcutta.)