The Feast of Christ, the King of the Universe, is a glorious feast! It is the closing of the liturgical year which began last Advent. During this liturgical year, we have walked with Jesus. We have heard Our Lady’s “YES” to the Angel, have witnessed his birth and have watched him grow in “wisdom age and grace.” We have taken our place among thedisciples – listening and learning as he spoke of the Kingdom of God and we have learned to recognise it through the stories he told: yeast in dough, hidden treasure, seed scattered on the ground, wheat mixed with weeds, good fish among bad… We have seen him heal the sick, cure the blind and deaf, seek out and save the lost and broken – have heard him challenging the Religious Leaders and have listened as he told us to “stay awake.”

We have stood at the foot of the cross when, covered with wounds and crowned with thorns, he abandoned himself to his Father. Then with Mary Magdalen in the garden and the two disciples on the road to Emmaus we might have mistaken him for a stranger! Or, like Thomas, we may have needed to touch his wounds before we recognised him!

And then, before he sent us out to continue his presence and mission in the world, we have seen him disappear from view. Mission accomplished! He “hands over the Kingdom to the Father.” (1 Cor 15)

And today we are celebrating that this one we have followed throughout this year is our Shepherd King who leads us to green pastures, bandaging our wounds, searching for the lost, caring for each one. (Ezechiel 34.)
As King his role is to judge us, but we see that he does not use the criteria of society but of how we have cared for each other when we are poor and vulnerable, strangers, sick, or imprisoned and he tells us that “insofar as you did it to the least of these – you did it to me!” Matt.25.)