Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe
Sunday, November 23, 2025

Today we come to the last Sunday of the liturgical year and proclaim Jesus as the King of the Universe. We also conclude our extended reading of St. Luke’s Gospel. Next Sunday, on the First Sunday of Advent, we will begin our extended reading of St. Matthew’s Gospel.
 
This feast, in which we celebrate the universal reign of Jesus Christ, sums up what we have been reflecting on all year in Luke’s Gospel. This Gospel has illustrated God’s mercy and tender love through the life and ministry of Jesus. And, in today’s passage, we see that tender love and mercy extends even to his dying moments.
 
Jesus’ kingship has its human roots in the most famous king in Israel, David. In today’s passage from Second Samuel, we see David anointed as the king of the united tribes of Israel. He is the lowly shepherd boy whom God chose to lead all of his people.
 
At the beginning of Luke’s Gospel we are told that Jesus’ foster father, Joseph, is “of the house of David” (LK 1:27).  Jesus is connected to this ideal king, not only by ancestry, but by mission. Jesus will be the Good Shepherd of God’s people, but even more, he is the shepherd-king who lays down his life for the salvation of all the world.
 
In our second reading today, St. Paul, in that beautiful passage from his Letter to the Colossians, gives us language to proclaim who Jesus is, and the salvation he brings.
 
“He is the image of the invisible God,” Paul says. “For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth…He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the first born from the dead, that in all things, he himself might be preeminent.”
 
Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, is the face of the invisible God. And in today’s Gospel, we see what that face looks like. As we have seen throughout this whole year, in parables like the Prodigal Son and the Lost Sheep, Jesus goes to his death revealing the merciful face of God.
 
Yes, Jesus is indeed a king, but a king like no other. He is a king, yes, but a king who is with us, and who came in a special way to be with those who are lost or forgotten. He is with the poor, the outcast, the marginalized; those on the peripheries.
 
The setting for the famous parables of the Lost Sheep and the Prodigal Son in the fifteenth chapter of Luke’s Gospel, is the grumbling of the Pharisees and scribes. They complain that Jesus “welcomes sinners and eats with them.” He tells these stories to illustrate why he is comfortable hanging out with those on the peripheries, those marginalized by society and by the religious elite.
 
Jesus is comfortable there because, like a good shepherd or a good parent, God always wants to rush toward the one who is lost or hurting or in trouble. Yes, Jesus is a king like no other.
 
Jesus’ kingship, his reign, is not one of coercive, dominating power over others. That is not the kind of king he is. His reign is one of loving service. His reign is presence with those on the margins. In today’s Gospel, Jesus, our king, hangs on a cross between two criminals, and is ridiculed by those around him.
 
At the end of his life, Jesus is where he has been throughout his whole public ministry, among those who are cast aside and forgotten. And in today’s Gospel, he promises paradise to a repentant criminal. Yes, indeed, he is a king like no other.
 
And we know, deep in our hearts, that to follow Jesus, our king, we must be guided by his Spirit of merciful love for those on the margins.
 
Why do we give our time and treasure to the St. Vincent de Paul Society? Why do we volunteer at the Cathedral Kitchen? Why do our brothers and sisters at Christ Our Hope go out every Wednesday for sacred encounters with those on the streets of downtown? Why do our fellow parishioners at Immaculate Conception reach out to those down the street, bringing food to those in small homes? Why have we provided assistance to immigrants for more than fifty years here at the Cathedral? Why do we bring communion to those who are sick and homebound in all three of our parishes? Why will we bring food to our Thanksgiving Mass on Thursday for those without enough to eat? 
 
We do all of this, and more, because we know that we cannot be disciples of our king, unless we are with the people that he is with: the poor, immigrants and refugees, struggling families, the incarcerated, the sick, the sinners, and all those on the peripheries who are cast aside and forgotten.
 
We know that all people - rich and poor, strong and weak, saints and sinners - are all welcome in his kingdom. But the test of our authentic commitment to our king is our commitment to the people he rushes toward - the most vulnerable among us. And this is not something new for the Church.
 
Pope Leo points out in his Apostolic Exhortation on Love For the Poor (Dilexi te) that going back to the very beginnings of the Church, “theology was practical, aiming at a Church that was poor and for the poor, recalling that the Gospel is proclaimed correctly only when it impels us to touch the flesh of the least among us, and warning that doctrinal rigor without mercy is empty talk” (#48).
 
It is for this reason, this desire to call Catholics to be with those who are hurting, that the Bishops of the United States issued a “Special Pastoral Message,” last week, saying to our immigrant brothers and sisters, “we stand with you in your suffering, since when one member suffers, all suffer,” and stating emphatically that  “We oppose the indiscriminate mass deportation of people. We pray for an end to dehumanizing rhetoric and violence…”
 
When there are those who are treated with dehumanizing rhetoric and violence, we, the followers of Jesus Christ, rush to their side. We do what he did. We suffer with them.
 
And so may our communion with the Lord, and with each other this day, draw us deeper into his kingdom of merciful, loving service, and empower us to rush toward those most in need. As we do that, we indeed extend his reign as a king like no other - as King of the Universe.

Father Gary F. Lazzeroni