Reflection - Christ the King Sunday

All in All - King of the Universe

Ezekiel 34:11-12, 15-17 Psalm 23:1-2, 2-3, 5-6 1 Corinthians 15:20-26, 28 Matthew 25:31-46

I originally wrote this by hand while at a Jesuit retreat so maybe I’ll sound smart. I also read some Thomas Merton, Trappist Monk, mystic and theologian whom I'll quote:

“Our true self has been concealed under the ‘disguise’ of a false self, the ego, whom we tend to worship in place of God.”

The readings tend to point to the problems of our ego.

• The sleek and the strong ...,
• The sheep from the goats...,
• Death comes through man.

Sadly, humanity tends to make God into an idol of our own ego. Yet, Paul tells us God is all in all.  

Several years ago, I travel to my company’s regional office. As I sat waiting for the meeting to start, I fingered my rosary. One of the ladies who worked in the office said, “What are those?  Isn’t that the way you Catholics pray to Mary?”

It’s a rosary. It is for prayers that contemplate the Christian faith and the life of Christ.

You start with the “Sign of the Cross, The Apostle’s Creed and then the Hail Mary…” I didn’t get to finish.

So, l you are worshiping Mary. I said “No, It is a meditation on the life of Christ; let me tell you the prayers.”

I explained the sign of the cross. She had no problem with that prayer.  But, when I began the creed and said, “… crucified, died, and was buried. He descended into hell.” 

“Jesus did not go to hell!  I can’t believe you said that.”

I tried to explain that “hell” was simply the place of the dead.  Until Jesus Christ was resurrected, there was no “heaven and hell” as we know it. Before Christ, no person went to heaven or eternal damnation. Everyone who died went to the place of the dead.

She couldn't hear me. She wouldn't hear me.   

A year later, I sat in Deacon Formation and our instructor asked us this question. “Is God in Hell?”

It was a question that one of his instructors in seminary had asked his class many years before. We didn’t know how to answer that question. The instructor said his class didn’t know the answer either. 

The instructor explained that the wise old priest and theology professor answered his own question. – “Of course He is - God’s everywhere! But, what's God doing in hell?”

Another hard question, but his answer, “God is there loving all the poor souls lost there.”

God the Father is all in all. Jesus Christ is the fullness of the universe and the all in all. Jesus Christ is the manifestation of the love that God has for all creation. 

Even though that good Christian lady who didn't want to hear that Jesus descended into hell, she was not trying to make God into an idol in her own image. Maybe she could not comprehend what it means that God is all in all, the universe and its fullness.

If we are to see God in the poor, the naked, the sick, the hungry, and the prisoner and love them would God not love them as well? Why then would God not love the poor souls in hell?  

God forgives us and loves us unconditionally, even those who are lost and even those who do not love him.

Now, we are back at the beginning. Rethinking Merton’s quote it seems we live our life in denial of our true self. We see our own ego, denying the reality that God created us. Humanity sees the self it creates. Our true reality of self is found in the image of God in which we are created.

God is all in all and in the saints in heaven. God is all in all; even in those lost souls that exist in the self they created. This self pushes God away. The self that separates self from God and being separated from God’s love is the definition of hell. Creation can become separated from God but God never stops loving it.

Christ the King, God who is all in all and in all of us.