What’s the truth that Jesus comes to bear witness to in this last Gospel of the Church’s year? It’s the truth that in Jesus God keeps the promise He made to David of an everlasting kingdom, of an heir who would be His Son, “the first born, highest of the kings of the earth.”

In the First Reading in the vision of Daniel, we hear that He comes on “the clouds of heaven”—another sign of His divinity—to be given “glory and kingship” forever over all nations and peoples. In today’s Psalm, the Psalmist says that “He had made the world” and His dominion is over all creation. Today’s Second Reading, taken from the Book of Revelation, quotes these promises and celebrates Jesus as “the faithful witness.” The reading hearkens back to Isaiah’s prophecy that the Messiah would “witness to the peoples” that God is renewing His “everlasting covenant” with David.

But as Jesus tells Pilate, there’s far more going on here than the restoration of a temporal monarchy. In the Revelation reading, Jesus calls Himself “the Alpha and the Omega,” the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. He’s applying to Himself a description that God uses to describe Himself in the Old Testament, in the Book of Isaiah 41:4,6 and 48:12. We read this way—the first and the last, the One who calls forth all generations.

Christ is King and His kingdom, while not of this world, exists in this world in the Church. We are a royal people. We know we have been loved by Him and freed by His blood and transformed into “a kingdom, priests for his God and Father.” As a priestly people, we share in His sacrifice and in His witness to God’s everlasting covenant. We belong to His truth and listen to His voice, waiting for Him to come again amid the clouds.

As St. Paul tells us: Though Jesus “was in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness.” He came into this world to take care of the needs of others, not be served, but to serve. We shall also follow His footsteps in our life, that is “As a servant, to always serve others.”

I wish you all a Very Happy THANKSGIVING. We shall have an attitude of gratitude towards God and men always.

With gratitude, love and prayers,

Fr. Charley