Homily
[Daniel 7:13-14; Psalm 93; Revelation 1:5-8; John 18:33b-37]
It is certainly a joy for me to make a pastoral visit to Sacred Heart Parish this weekend. Before all else, I want to say a heartfelt “thank you” to you all. The visit has afforded me the opportunity to see firsthand the many wonderful things that you, the parishioners, are doing to serve one another and the community. To express my gratitude, I take inspiration from the feast we are celebrating today throughout the universal Church – the Solemnity of Christ the King. In that light, I’d like to say that I am grateful that you understand “whose you are”.
As Christians, we belong to Jesus. We acknowledge him as Lord and King, which means we allow him to rule over and in our lives, surrendering to no one or anything else. We listen to his words; we follow his commands, and first among those is to love God and our neighbour. This is what I have seen as I visited Sacred Heart school, a Catholic Social Services home for people unable to care for themselves, the Sagebrush care home, and Hope Mission Shelter. I witnessed your love of God and neighbour in the work and dedication of the pastoral and finance councils, in the Knights of Columbus and CWL, in the men present all day yesterday clearing the area of snow, in your establishment of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, and even in the parishioner who made sure I was properly dressed to visit a cattle farm. When we allow Jesus to rule over our hearts and minds, guiding our every thought and action, the result is an inner peace and joy that expresses itself in love for others. You know whose you are and it shows in the way you share your faith.
This is not to say it is easy. In many ways, our Christian faith collides daily with a society increasingly inimical to the Gospel. Every time we turn on the television or radio, boot up the computer, or access the smartphone, we are confronted immediately with ideas and pressures that compete for our allegiance and seek to tempt us away from fidelity to the Lord. The ones who are feeling this most acutely are our young people. During my visit to the school on Friday, I held two Q&A sessions, one with K-6 children, and the second with junior high students. They asked very mature questions, I must say, seeking to understand how to deal with the social media messaging washing over them like a tsunami while remaining faithful to Jesus. The pressure to conform and give allegiance to someone or some idea other than Jesus can be enormous. It is a challenge that confronts us all, regardless of age.
In the text we have this morning from the Gospel of Saint John, the Lord himself teaches us how to deal with that challenge, how daily to give him our complete allegiance and not succumb to other pressures competing for sovereignty over us. Jesus, standing before Pontius Pilate, says this: “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” As followers of Jesus, we acknowledge that he is the Truth, as he himself proclaimed (cf. John 14:6). In Jesus, we encounter the truth about God, the truth about ourselves, and the truth regarding how we are to live. No one wants to be led by falsehood and lies. We want and need the truth; we want to belong to the truth, and that means listening to the voice of Jesus Christ, and following where he leads.
Allow me to suggest a daily practice that can help stay focused upon the Lord as we strive each day to surrender to his sovereignty and give our allegiance uniquely to him. At the beginning of each day, we can ask ourselves: to whom shall I listen first? Shall I begin the day looking at the sports scores or reading the Word of God? Will I open first the newspaper or the Bible? Instead of looking at the weather forecast, perhaps I should think first of God’s plan for my life today. Rather than checking first the obituaries to see who died, I can choose to consider before anything else how Jesus wishes me to live. An easy way to listen to Jesus first is to read and ponder the passages from Sacred Scripture given for daily mass. If we make a habit of reading the Word of God before looking at anything else as the day begins, that will help keep us faithful to our King.
From heaven, Our Sovereign Lord reigns over the world and universe, but also walks among us here on earth, most wondrously in the sacrament of the Eucharist. May our communion with Jesus, made possible by our participation in this mass, strengthen our faith in him and deepen our surrender every day to the authority of his love.
Most Reverend Richard W. Smith
Sacred Heart Parish, Wetaskiwin, AB
November 24th, 2024