“When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the peoples will be gathered before him. He will separate one from the other, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and put the sheep to his right hand and the goats to the left. Then the king will say to those who will be at his right hand: ‘Come, blessed of my Father, receive as an inheritance the kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world, because I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me a drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me, sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to see me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when we saw you hungry and fed you, or thirsty, and gave you a drink? When have we ever seen you as a stranger and we have welcomed you, or naked and dressed you? When have we ever seen you sick or in prison and came to visit you?’ And the king will say to them, “Truly I say to you, all that you have done to one of these little brothers of mine, you have done to me.” Then he will also say to those who will be on the left: ‘Away, away from me, cursed, in the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and for his angels, because I was hungry and you did not feed me, I was thirsty and you did not give me a drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ They too will answer, ‘Lord, when we have seen you hungry or thirsty or foreign or naked or sick or in prison, and have we not served you?’ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, all that you have not done to one of these little ones, you have not done to me.’ And they will go away: these to the eternal torment, the righteous instead to eternal life” (Mt 25, 31-46).

Last stop

Today we celebrate the last Sunday of the liturgical year, called the solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, king of the universe. This goal had been indicated to us on the first Sunday of Advent and today we come to it; and since the liturgical year represents our life in miniature, this experience reminds us, and even before that it educates us, of the fact that we are on our way to the encounter with Jesus, the Spouse, when He will come as King and Lord of life and history. We’re talking about his second coming. The first is in the humility of a Child laid in a manger (Lk 2:7); the second is when he will return in glory, at the end of history, the coming that we celebrate liturgically today. But there is also an intermediate coming, the one that we are living today, in which Jesus presents himself to us in the Grace of his Sacraments and in the face of every “little one” of the gospel (cf. “If you do not become like children you will not enter the kingdom of heaven… Mt 18:2; when we are invited to recognize Jesus in the face of our brothers and sisters, the time in which we are invited to traffic the talents received, to assume our responsibilities every day). And along this journey, the liturgy offers itself to us as a school of life to educate us to recognize the Lord present in daily life and prepare us for his last coming.

Coordinates of life

“Be blessed…Go away from me, cursed, in the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” Blessing and curse are not decisions, a “taken account” of the King, who only “reckons”, only reveals what each one has been and has done; of what has been taken care of his brother (cf. Gn 4; Lk 16:19:31 the rich epulon). At the beginning of the gospel, in chapter 1:23, the evangelist Matthew writes: “Behold, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son who will be called Emmanuel, which means “God with us,” and, at the conclusion of the gospel: “Behold, I am with you every day, until the end of the world” (Mt 28:20). It is within this frame that the “universal judgment” that the liturgy today makes us contemplate should be read and understood. Jesus, Emmanuel, the God with us, is truly “with us” until the end of the world. He is there. But where is it? How do we recognize this present and active in our lives? To find him it is necessary to follow the steps of Jesus, to cultivate his feelings, which are often not ours. How can we not remember when Jesus trusted his disciples who awaited him from death on the cross, and Peter rebuked him; Jesus then turned him away by telling him “far from me, Satan! You are scandalous to me, because you do not think according to God, but according to men” (Mt 16:22; cf. Is 55:8). We must always remember that we are in the world, but not in the world (cf. Jn 17:14). And precisely because it is so easy to be turned away from the right path (cf. Gal 5:7: “You were running so well, who cut your way?”), it is important to keep your gaze fixed on Jesus, to avoid losing ourselves (cf. Heb 12:2). He is there. Our life is therefore not oriented by chaos, but by a Presence that is Life and that has shown us the Way.

A party that reveals the way

The liturgical year is the symbol of the journey of our life: it has its own beginning and has its own end, in the encounter with the Lord Jesus, King and Lord, in the kingdom of Heaven, when we enter it through the narrow door of “sister death” (St. Francis). Well, at the beginning of the liturgical year (the First Sunday of Advent), we were shown in advance the goal towards which we would move our steps. As if in view of an exam there were given, a year before, the answers to the questions! This would have been a rigged examination; in the liturgy, however, this is a gift from Jesus, Master, because it allows us to know which path to take (Jesus, Way), what thought to follow (Jesus, Truth), from what hope to let ourselves be animated (Jesus, Life, cf. Jn 14:6).

Everything is played on love

The thing that today strikes from the texts heard, is that the last exam focuses on love, on the concreteness of life, starting from its simplest, most ordinary gestures: I was hungry, I was thirsty… Not heroic gestures, therefore, not gestures foreign to everyday life or even egregious gestures. But the beautiful thing that emerges from the Gospel, is that Jesus is not only the God with us until the end of the world, but comes to be the God in us, starting with the little ones: he comes to identify himself in those in need, with every little one of the gospel, with every persecuted (cf. Acts 9:4: “Saul Saul why do you persecute me?”). Every gesture of love, therefore, is a gesture made “with Jesus”, because in his company; “like Jesus”, because we learned it from the gospel; but also “to Jesus”, because every time he made a gesture of love he was made “to Him”.

Love in everyday life

One thing is surprising: in the “six” gestures remembered by Jesus, there is no religious or sacred gesture, as we understand it. They all seem “secular” gestures, made on the street, in the house, where it happens, where there is a need, but in reality “there is nothing more pro-fanum, whether it is in front of or outside the temple, because all reality is the great temple of God: nothing is profane and everything is “sacred”, because everything is in function of Jesus” (L. Giussani). This is the beautiful worship rendered to God, as it also grasps in another passage of the Gospel of Matthew: “If therefore you present your offering at the altar and there you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there, and go first to reconcile with your brother and then return to offer your gift” (cf. Mt 5:23-24; Wednesday of the ashes: Is 58:9; Gl 2:12: This is the fasting that I want to After all, if the worship of the altar is not preceded and accompanied by the cult of love towards neighbor, it is worth very little.

At that time, Pilate said to Jesus, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you say this to yourself, or have others spoken to you about me?” Pilate said, “Am I a Jew? Your people and the chief priests have delivered you to me. What have you done?” Jesus replied, “My kingdom is not of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have fought so that I would not be consigned to the Jews; but my kingdom is not from down here.” Then Pilate said to him, “So you are king?” Jesus said, “You say it, ‘I am king. That is why I was born and for this reason I came into the world: to bear witness to the truth. Everyone is from the truth, hear my voice” (Jn 18:33b-37).

Last stop

Today we celebrate the last Sunday of the liturgical year, called the solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, king of the universe. This goal had been indicated to us on the first Sunday of Advent and today we come to it; and since the liturgical year represents our life in miniature, this experience reminds us, and even before that it educates us, of the fact that we are on our way to the encounter with Jesus, the Spouse, when He will come as King and Lord of life and history. We’re talking about his second coming. The first is in the humility of a Child laid in a manger (Lk 2:7); the second is when he will return in glory, at the end of history, the coming that we celebrate liturgically today. But there is also an intermediate coming, the one that we are living today, in which Jesus presents himself to us in the Grace of his Sacraments and in the face of every “little one” of the gospel (cf. “If you do not become like children you will not enter the kingdom of heaven… Mt 18:2; when we are invited to recognize Jesus in the face of our brothers and sisters, the time in which we are invited to traffic the talents received, to assume our responsibilities every day). And along this journey, the liturgy offers itself to us as a school of life to educate us to recognize the Lord present in daily life and prepare us for his last coming.

A party that reveals the way

The liturgical year is the symbol of the journey of our life: it has its own beginning and has its own end, in the encounter with the Lord Jesus, King and Lord, in the kingdom of Heaven, when we enter it through the narrow door of “sister death” (St. Francis). Well, at the beginning of the liturgical year (the First Sunday of Advent), we were shown in advance the Destination towards which we would move our steps. As if in view of an exam there were given, a year before, the answers to the questions! This would have been a rigged examination; in the liturgy, however, this is a gift from Jesus, Master, because it allows us to know which path to take (Jesus, Way), what thought to follow (Jesus, Truth), from what hope to let ourselves be animated (Jesus, Life, cf. Jn 14:6).

The joy of a dream

In the first reading, taken from the book of the prophet Daniel (7:13-14), we speak of the vision of the Son of man, who will eventually take the place of those who throughout history have used the people instead of serving them. In this vision, it is clear, therefore, that there is a term for those who usurp the people and exploit it. The day will come when to take the reins of the history of the peoples will be a just and merciful “King”.

The Expected King

In this frame of hope, we can thus read the text of the Gospel that the liturgy presents to us, in the dialogue between Pilate and Jesus. Jesus presents himself as King, but his Kingdom is not from here. In fact, Jesus does not try to survive, considering his life superior to the mission received from the Father: simply He is King and came into the world – says the text – to show his kingship, which consists in giving witness to the Father. A life in the service of the Father, the Truth of life.

Royalty and truth

The theme of “truth”, which will so fascinated Pilate but not to the point of stopping the execution, asks for an adherence: “Whoever is from the truth, listens to my voice”. And here Pilate will stop, unable to embrace the truth because manipulated by the desires of the crowd, towards which he must still pay the political price. In this choice, Pilate demonstrates what it really is and what it really allows itself to be guided, while Jesus manifests to the end to Who belongs and Who serves so much that he can say: “I am the Way, the Truth, the Life” (Jn 14:6).

Truth and lies

Today’s solemnity not only brings to the open who Pilate is, but offers itself to each of us to understand who we are really serving. At the end of this liturgical year it becomes important to understand who or what our heart is going to, because where our treasure is, there will also be our heart (Lk 12:34). A question that can help us to put our life and our affections in order to not go where the heart goes, but to take the heart where it really has to go. But this asks us to accept that Jesus be our King, the One who alone serves with truth the truth of our life.

The people were to see; the chiefs instead mocked him, saying, “He saved others! Save himself, if he is the Christ of God, the chosen one.” Even the soldiers mocked him, approached him to give him vinegar and said, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself.” Above him was also an inscription: “This is the king of the Jews.”
One of the evildoers hanging on the cross insulted him: “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” The other instead rebuked him by saying: “You have no fear of God, you who are condemned to the same penalty? We, rightly so, because we receive what we have deserved for our actions; but he has done nothing wrong.” And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you enter your kingdom.” He said to him, “Truly I say to you, today you will be in heaven with me” (Lk 23:35-43).

Last stop

Today we celebrate the last Sunday of the liturgical year, called the solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, king of the universe. This goal had been indicated to us on the first Sunday of Advent and today we come to it; and since the liturgical year represents our life in miniature, this experience reminds us, and even before that it educates us, of the fact that we are on our way to the encounter with Jesus, the Spouse, when He will come as King and Lord of life and history. We’re talking about his second coming. The first is in the humility of a Child laid in a manger (Lk 2:7); the second is when he will return in glory, at the end of history, the coming that we celebrate liturgically today. But there is also an intermediate coming, the one that we are living today, in which Jesus presents himself to us in the Grace of his Sacraments and in the face of every “little one” of the gospel (cf. “If you do not become like children you will not enter the kingdom of heaven… Mt 18:2; when we are invited to recognize Jesus in the face of our brothers and sisters, the time in which we are invited to traffic the talents received, to assume our responsibilities every day). And along this journey, the liturgy offers itself to us as a school of life to educate us to recognize the Lord present in daily life and prepare us for his last coming.

A party that reveals the way

The liturgical year is the symbol of the journey of our life: it has its own beginning and has its own end, in the encounter with the Lord Jesus, King and Lord, in the kingdom of Heaven, when we enter it through the narrow door of “sister death” (St. Francis). Well, at the beginning of the liturgical year (the First Sunday of Advent), we were shown in advance the Destination towards which we would move our steps. As if in view of an exam there were given, a year before, the answers to the questions! This would have been a rigged examination; in the liturgy, however, this is a gift from Jesus, Master, because it allows us to know which path to take (Jesus, Way), what thought to follow (Jesus, Truth), from what hope to let ourselves be animated (Jesus, Life, cf. Jn 14:6).

A King on the Cross

The text of the Gospel presents us with the King on the cross, between two thieves. If one rethinks the entrance of Jesus to Jerusalem, between songs and dances (cf. Lk 19:28-40), one is amazed at how it will eventually present itself in the “throne of the Cross.” And even here he finds himself with a thief who ironically on his royalty – “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us.” The other, on the other hand, will say, “Remember me when you enter your Kingdom,” recognizing that Jesus is King. The power of Jesus’ royalty is precisely in what the “good thief” has seized: love. A love without borders, merciful, a reflection of that kingship with which Jesus was received in Jerusalem: “Behold, your king comes to you. He is righteous and victorious, humble, he rides a donkey” (Zech 9:9).

Himself or the others?

Jesus does not put “himself” before him, as his accusers asked: “He has saved others! Save himself if he is the Christ of God, the chosen one,” v. 35; then the soldiers, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself” v. 37; finally the first thief, “If you are not the Christ? Save yourself…”, v. 39.

Jesus did not come to serve himself, but to serve; he did not come to use “his power” but to give himself with all of himself for others. To save them. This is the kingship of Jesus, and for this reason it is not understood. It is the kingship of love, of forgiveness, of the service that Jesus came to bring and that thanks to the Cross he won.