The Solemnity Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe (Homily)

November 22, 2015 7:00 am · Father Dan Vanyo

There is a beautiful paragraph very appropriate for today, from the Catechism, and so not to just read you a paragraph and have people starting to doze off, I broke it into 4 pieces so you'll stay with me. Though already present in his Church, Christ's reign is nevertheless yet to be fulfilled "with power and great glory" by the King's return to earth. Yet to be fulfilled, He came into history with the incarnation, did that. Died on the cross so that the heavens will be opened and that all men might be saved, did that. That was done. And the victory over Satan and his evil forces, He has achieved it. But what has yet to be fulfilled with power and great glory is His reign. Because Satan still has some power over the Earth. The reign has yet to be fulfilled.

The new Heaven and the new Earth are coming. But we're still living in a fallen world right? We're still tempted, we still have confession, we still have sin to avoid. And all the choices we have to make every day for good or for evil. That is why it hasn't yet been fulfilled. And it hasn't yet been fulfilled in our hearts because we know we still err. we still sin. Our hearts even aren't fully under His reign. We may want it to be, but if you've sinned recently there's a part of you that hasn't allowed it be under the reign fully of Jesus Christ. You're still dealing with some other attraction. The next part.

This reign is still under attack by the evil powers, even though they have been defeated definitively by Christ's Passover.