Preparing for the Solemnity of Christ the King This Sunday

This king, however, is a liberator and lover. The lord of history who stands before the throne of God is not a lion. He is a lamb.

A strange king, to be sure. In the fourth Gospel's account of the Passion, all of our expectations of kingliness are reversed. The king-servant, who washed his followers' feet, is strangely grand and noble, yet only in his quiet vulnerability and the utter truth of his being. He does not muster armies or amass territories. He just invites, relying on nothing other than our hearts' response.

...Jesus says that his kingdom is not of this world. It is a kingdom not fought for with old means of warfare. Rather, it testifies to truth. It will not kill for the truth, it will die for it. If Jesus is king, he will be a suffering king. He will not demand ransom. He will be ransom. He will win, not by spilling the blood of others, but by offering up his own.

~Rev. John Kavanaugh, S.J.
Meditation for Solemnity of Christ the King 

O Jesus, King of Love on Calvary, may Yours be the only crown I seek to wear.