This Solemnity concludes and sums up the life of prayer for the Church throughout the entire year. It is a declaration of who Jesus is and what he has done for us. It is a declaration of who we are and how we are impelled to respond in faith and in humble action of service, to him, and to the world for which he suffered and died, for which he rose from the dead and over which he rules in glory!
The Kingdom of God could not be harmed by those who interrogated, scourged or crucified Jesus. The truth to which Jesus bore witness could not be silenced by the controversies or calamities that would beset the Church from the times of the Apostles to this very day. We continue to pray as Jesus taught his disciples and teaches us: “thy Kingdom come.”
So what does that look like or feel like? Well, it looks like us, and it feels the way we feel and the way we pray to feel. Very few who saw the man being shoved through the streets of Jerusalem to the place where the crucifixion awaited him would have been likely to think “King” or “Kingdom.” Only those who had grappled with that horror AND stood in the mystery of the empty tomb could begin to understand that truth. Only those who encountered the Risen Lord in the full power of the Holy Spirit poured out upon them and in them could begin to live a life strengthened by him, a life of witness to him, and a life sustained by him until our full witness in him to the world is fulfilled.
As our nation and our families prepare to gather for “Thanksgiving,” I am truly grateful for so much here at St. Peter’s Parish. I ask God’s blessings on all our gatherings, on our volunteers and those who once again will dine at this year’s Parish Thanksgiving Dinner! Behold, he is coming, and his coming looks like this!