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I went to Mass at St. Catherine of Siena Parish today. I was taking photos for an upcoming feature on Our Lady of Guadalupe (Andrew Junker’s is writing the story). Left of the altar is a beautiful, authentic image of Our Lady of Guadalupe and parishioners spend about 45 minutes after Mass praying before it.

In his homily, Fr. Alonso Saenz related a story about a young man who euthanized his mother.
“He played God,” he said. “And the worst part was the number of Catholics who supported him.”

Fr. Alonso Saenz

It might seem an unusual homily for the Feast of Christ the King — the last Sunday in the liturgical year — but Fr. Saenz brought the message into focus.

“The glory of God is the one and only goal for our lives,” he said during the noon Mass. The son, who described his mother as “religious but not dogmatic,” wasn’t seeking God’s glory when he killed his mother, Fr. Saenz said.

“If we suffer or if we don’t suffer, that doesn’t matter,” he said. “We don’t live to win glory for ourselves. We live to bring glory to God.”

What a beautiful message for the Feast of Christ the King. I often hear that Christ the King is Christ crucified. The cross of Christ is the throne of Christ. And in the Son’s suffering, he brings glory to the Father.

“We always live knowing we are the sons and daughters of God,” Fr. Saenz said. “We use everything for the good — so much the bad as the good.”

In his Feast of Christ the King Angelus, Pope Benedict XVI said noted that Christ refused the title of king when it was meant in an earthly sense.

“The royalty of Christ, in fact, is the revelation and accomplishment of God the Father, who governs all things with love and justice,” he said. “The Father entrusted to his Son the mission of giving eternal life to man, loving him even unto the supreme sacrifice, and at the same time conferring on him the power of judgment, from the moment he became Son of man, like us in every way (Jn 5:21-22,26-27).”

See also: Pope Pius XI’s encyclical Quas Prima, on the Feast of Christ the King

It is Our fervent desire, Venerable Brethren, that those who are without the fold may seek after and accept the sweet yoke of Christ, and that we, who by the mercy of God are of the household of the faith, may bear that yoke, not as a burden but with joy, with love, with devotion; that having lived our lives in accordance with the laws of God’s kingdom, we may receive full measure of good fruit, and counted by Christ good and faithful servants, we may be rendered partakers of eternal bliss and glory with him in his heavenly kingdom.

— Pope Piux XI, Quas Prima