The Daily Gospel

Sunday, 25 November 2012
Our Lord Jesus Christ the King - Solemnity - Year B

Christ the King, solemnity
St. Catherine of Alexandria, Virgin & Martyr († c. 307)



Commentary of the day
Saint Teresa of Avila : "My kingdom does not belong to this world"

Reading

Jn 18:33b-37.


So Pilate went back into the praetorium and summoned Jesus and said to him, "Are you the King of the Jews?"
Jesus answered, "Do you say this on your own or have others told you about me?"
Pilate answered, "I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me. What have you done?"
Jesus answered, "My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants (would) be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not here."
So Pilate said to him, "Then you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice."


Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB



Commentary of the day

Saint Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), Carmelite, Doctor of the Church
The way of perfection, 22 (trans. E. Allison Peers)

"My kingdom does not belong to this world"

Thou, my God, are a King without end...; When the Creed says: “Whose
Kingdom will have no end” the phrase nearly always makes me feel
particularly happy. I praise you, Lord, and bless you for ever, for your
Kingdom will endure for ever. Never allow it to be thought right, Lord, for
those who come to speak with you to do so with their lips alone... For we
cannot approach a prince and address him in the same careless way we should
adopt in speaking to a peasant or to some poor woman like ourselves, whom
we may address however we like.The reason we sometimes do so is to be found
in the humility of this King, who, unskilled though I am in speaking with
him, does not refuse to hear me or forbid me to approach him, or command
his guards to throw me out. For the angels in his presence know well that
their King is such that he prefers the unskilled language of a humble
peasant boy, knowing that he would say more if he had more to say, to the
speech of the wisest and most learned men, however elegant may be their
arguments, if these are not accompanied by humility.But we must not be
unmannerly because he is good. If only to show our gratitude to him for
enduring our foul odor and allowing such a one as myself to come near him.
It is well that we should try to realize his purity and his nature. It is
true that we recognize this at once when we approach him... When you
approach God, then, my daughters, try to think and realize whom you are
about to address and continue to do so while you are addressing him. If we
had a thousand lives, we should never fully understand how this Lord merits
that we behave toward him, before whom even the angels tremble. He orders
all things and he can do all things: with him to will is to perform. It
will be right, then, daughters, for us to endeavour to rejoice in these
wondrous qualities of our Spouse and to know whom we have wedded and what
the holiness of our lives should be.