Saints + Scripture: Solemnity of Christ the King

Better Late than Never | Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea máxima culpa!

'Tis the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe: Christus Rex-link, Wikipedia-link Christus Rex, & Wikipedia-link Feast.

Commentary: Wayback Machine. Quoth the Holy Redeemer bulletin:

Pope Pius XI instituted this feast in 1925 with his encyclical Quas Primas ("In the first") to respond to growing nationalism & secularism. He recognized that these related societal ills would breed increasing hostility against the Church. His encyclical reminds the faithful that while governments & philosophies come & go, Christ reigns as king forever.

Scripture of the Week
Mass Readings—Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe
The Second Book of Samuel, chapter five, verses one, two, & three;
Psalm One Hundred Twenty-two (R/. cf. one), verses one & two, three & four, & four & five;
The Letter to the Colossians, chapter one, verses twelve thru twenty;
The Gospel according to Luke, chapter twenty-three, verses thirty-five thru forty-three.

Commentary: Reflection by Bishop Robert Barron (Word on Fire):

Friends, today we celebrate the feast of Christ the King. This day reminds us what the Christian thing is all about: that Jesus really is the King, the Lord of our lives. It affirms that we belong utterly to him; that we can say, with St. Paul, "It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me."

If we say anything else, we are horsing around with Christianity and not really living it. If we pay lip service to Jesus but do not submit completely to him, we are fooling around and not treating him as the King of our lives. If we let him into one or two rooms of the house and not every room, he isn’t our King.

Jesus is our Dominus, our Lord—or we are missing the point.

Video reflection by Father Greg Friedman, O.F.M.: United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Audio reflection by Scott Hahn, Ph.D. (St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology): Breaking the Bread.

Scripture Study—Exodus 90: Day 91: Relativism Ridge, Day 20
The Book of Judges, chapter fourteen, verses one thru nine.

Commentary: Samson's Marriage at Timnah (Judges, 14:1-9).

Mass Journal: Week 52
Reflection by Matthew Kelly, founder of the Dynamic Catholic Institute:

Does it not strike you as a great poverty of leadership that here in America we cannot put one person on the evening news who can be acknowledged by Americans from coast to coast as a Catholic leader? Where is the "someone" who speaks for us? It is true that occasionally a bishop or cardinal effectively harnesses the media in his diocese & establishes a vibrant identity as a Catholic leader in his geographic area. It is also true that some lay Catholics who occupy positions of prominence in the business world, the entertainment world, or the political realm have successfully established a Catholic identity in different ways. But we have no national figures, not within the clergy & not among the laity. Does that not strike you as a massive poverty of leadership? Where is the Catholic leader who can speak to the people of our time in ways that are bold, brilliant, logical, articulate, & inspiring.

†

Otherwise, 24 November would be the festival of Saint Chrysogonus, Priest & Martyr (died 304), martyred in the reign of the Roman emperors Diocletian & Maximian, a victim of the Great Persecution: Martyr-link & Wikipedia-link; Persecutions-link & Wikipedia-link Great Persecution.

Commentary: Wayback Machine.

'Twould also be the festival of Saints Flora & María of Córdoba, Martyrs (died 851), martyred in the reign of the Umayyad king Abd ar-Rahman II, two of the forty-eight Martyrs of Córdoba: Martyr-link Foxtrot, Martyr-link Mike, & Wikipedia-link; Wikipedia-link Córdoba.

'Twould also be the festival of Saint Albert of Louvain, Bishop & Martyr (1166-1192), Bishop of Liège (1192), martyred in the reign of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry VI: Martyr-link & Wikipedia-link; Diocese-link Liège & Wikipedia-link Liège.

'Twould also be the festival of Saint Andrew Dũng-Lạc, Priest, & Companions, Martyrs (died 1745-1862; A.K.A. the Martyrs of Vietnam, of Tonkin, of Annam, of Indochina), martyred in the reigns of the Lê, Tây Sơn, & Nguyễn dynasties of Vietnam: Martyr-link Alpha Delta-Lima & Wikipedia-link Alpha Delta-Lima; Martyrs-link Vietnam ūnus, Martyrs-link Vietnam duo, & Wikipedia-link Vietnam.

'Twould also be the festival of Blessed Maria Anna Sala, Religious, I.M. (1829-1891): Blessed-link & Wikipedia-link.

Papal Quote o' the Day

"Who has not heard Dostoyevsky’s oft-quoted remark: ‘Beauty will save us’? Usually people forget to mention, however, that by redeeming beauty Dostoyevsky means Christ. He it is whom we must learn to see. If we cease to know Him only through words but are struck by the arrow of His paradoxical beauty, then we will truly come to know Him & will no longer merely know about Him secondhand. Then we will have encountered the beauty of truth, of redeeming truth. Nothing can bring us into contact with the beauty of Christ Himself more than the world of beauty created by faith & the light that shines upon the faces of the saints, through which His own light becomes visible."
—Pope Benedict XVI (born 1927, reigned 2005-2013)

Saint Quote o' the Day

"The Church reminds us & admonishes us: Christians, be conscious of your state; Christians, be consistent; Christians, be faithful; Christians, be strong. In a word, Christians, be Christians!"
—Pope St. Paul VI (1897-1978, feast day: 29 May)

Chesterton Quote o' the Day

"I have only found one creed that could not be satisfied with a truth, but only with the Truth, which is made of a million such truths and yet is one."
—G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936)