This coming Sunday is the celebration of the Solemnity of the Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe – commonly known as Christ the King Sunday. While the formal declaration of the feast only dates to 1925, it origin of the consideration of Christ as King dates back to the patriotic period of the Church appearing in the writings of Cyril of Jerusalem, but is also found in the Gospel of Matthew 28 which Cyril saw as part of his foundation of thought. The celebration, originally placed in October, has an eschatological dimension pointing to the end of time when the kingdom of Jesus will be established in all its fullness to the ends of the earth. It leads into Advent. Attention to the nature of the Advent reading reveals anticipation of the second coming of Jesus. A detailed commentary can be found in Matthew 25:31-46. Continue reading
Christ the King
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A large regional trauma center hospital (more than 1,000 beds) was located within the boundaries of my former parish. The hospital, while having a wonderful chaplain staff, did not have a Catholic priest on the staff and so we priests in the parish took care of the sick and dying, in addition to our usual parish responsibilities. Over the course of more than 13 years assigned to the parish, I easily saw more than 10,000 patients. Most who recovered, some who did not. For those individuals and their families who experienced the great passing on, it was a loss, a sorrow and especially when the young died, a tragedy. 
The year 2020 might be remembered as the year “election night” last 4+ days. This election was also unique because of how Americans voted — a record number voted early, either in person or by mail. Because many states report absentee and Election Day ballots at different times, and absentee voters are disproportionately likely to be Democrats while Election Day voters are disproportionately likely to be Republicans, that made it tricky to follow the vote in real time. In some states like North Carolina and Ohio, that meant the initial vote totals included a disproportionate number of Biden votes relative to the final results; in others, like Michigan and Virginia, the initial totals included a disproportionate number of Trump votes. And in still others, Trump began to look stronger as more votes were counted on election night, but it became clear that Biden received more votes as the last few mail-in ballots were counted in the ensuing days. If you are interested, FiveThirtyEight.com has a 
The anger of the LORD blazes against his people, he stretches out his hand to strike them; The mountains quake, their corpses shall be like refuse in the streets. For all this, his anger is not turned back, his hand is still outstretched. (Isaiah 5:25)
Part of my experience includes 3+ years as a lay missionary in Kenya. It was an amazing and eye-opening experience. One of the pivotal experiences was seeing one’s home country through the eyes of another people. I remember one discussion with a chief of the Kikuyu people (one of the 50+ tribes of Kenya) who asked me if it was true that in the United States 51% of the people voted for something that was they way it would be. I responded that was accurate in our democracy. He sadly shook his head and noted that no Kikuyu chief would ever want 49% of the people to be unhappy. He would direct the people and leaders to continue to talk until at least 75% of the people agreed – the others would then understand that it was their communal duty to support such a decision. There are lots of other stories of people seeing us from afar and having some interesting insights.
There are 75 million Americans who voted for Mr. Biden. There are 71 million Americans who voted for President Trump. There is a divide, there are passionate people. There is an election that had been lost; an election won. And in the midst of all this I am reading “The Immortal Irishman” by Timothy Egan. The books details the life and times of Thomas Francis Meagher, from his rise as an Irish nationalist and leader of the Young Irelanders in the Rebellion of 1848 (in the wake of the Great Hunger ((Irish: an Gorta Mór ; outside of Ireland known as the potato famine), his conviction
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