34th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Nov. 20, 2022

34th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Nov. 20, 2022

34CKing22.     2 Samuel 5:1-3.  “And the Lord said to you (David), ‘You shall shepherd my people Israel and shall be commander of Israel.’”  The Lord anointed a human being to rule over and order Israel according to his Will.  And so he did later, anointing his Son made man to rule over and order all humanity forever and ever.

Luke 23:35-43.  In John 18:37, “Jesus answered, ‘You (Pilate) say I am a king.  For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.  Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.’”  Truth is eternal reality.  Everything else that claims to be and appears for the moment to be reality or the truth terminates in earthly corruption or rot one day.  Jesus, God made man, submitted himself to the Father’s Will in offering himself up as a sacrificial redemption so that all human beings of all times might have access to heaven.  As a sign of the redemptive aspect of his self-sacrifice, Jesus said to the crucified criminal who recognized the goodness of Jesus, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.”

Colossians 1:12-20.  Paul wrote, “He (Jesus) delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”  Only by submitting ourselves to his authority, his kingship, can we find and possess our redemption.   In John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  It is only through him that we can serve and please the Father.  As God the Son, “All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be.” (John 1:3a)   When we live with him as the king of our lives, we have everything and we have it forever. (Heaven) If we choose live under some authority other than Jesus, we have nothing and we have it forever. (Hell)