Reflections on the End of the Church Year
Catholic Exchange - Your Faith. Your Life. Your World.
Christ's kingdom is not just "coming" but is "at hand" and "among us" (Mk 1:15; Mt 12:28; Lk 17:21). It is not something toward which we should merely look in the future, but into which we're supposed to have entered already, since Christ has already inaugurated it. The King is already here, truly present in the Eucharist, and the best means is to love Him in the disguise of the Eucharist, like we would hope to love Him if we saw Him transfigured in glory.But to do that, we need to have faith. We have to admit that it would be much easier for us to adore our King if He appeared to us in all His glory surrounded by the angels and the saints, but the Lord does not choose to manifest Himself to us in that way here on earth. Instead He wills to hide His majesty under His equally great humility. We see that obviously in the Eucharist, where His Divine Majesty cloaks Himself under the appearances of bread and wine and bids us to consume Him. But we see it, too, when before Pilate and the crowds, Christ's crown was made not of jewels but of thorns. The sign of His royalty was not a signet ring on His finger, but a hole straight through His hand. His throne was not made of marble but of two beams of intersecting wood. He was covered not in royal purple but in blood. Why did the Universal King divest Himself of His majesty and not only assume the humblest of appearances, but allow His creatures He Himself formed in the womb to manhandle Him in the way that they did on Calvary and have continued to do through the centuries?
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The term "priest" is being used generically here to describe one who makes sacrifices to God. Christ came to establish a kingdom of people who, like Him, offer their lives as a ransom for others, who desire not to be served, but to serve, who sacrifice themselves to for others' sanctification and salvation.