We refer to today's commemoration as the Adoration of the Magi, or as the Adoration of the Three Kings. These "kings" worshipped the one King of us all. It is only through Him that we can have authentic peace and love.
Here is what the Pope said on the feast of Christ, the King:
(Christ) invites the just to enter into the inheritance that has been prepared for them from eternity, while he condemns the reprobates to eternal fire, prepared for the devil and for the other rebellious angels. The criterion of judgment is decisive. This criterion is love, the concrete charity to neighbor, and in particular to the 'little ones,' people in the greatest difficulties: the hungry, thirsty, foreigners, naked, sick and imprisoned.
Dear brothers and sisters, it is this that interests God. Historical kingship does not matter to him; but he wants to reign in peoples' hearts, and from there, over the world: He is King of the whole universe but the critical point, the zone in which his Kingdom is at risk, is our heart, for it is there that God encounters our freedom.
We, and we alone, can prevent him from reigning over us and hence hinder his kingship over the world: over the family, over society, over history. We men and women have the faculty to choose whose side we wish to be on: with Christ and his angels or with the devil and his followers, to use the same language as the Gospel.
Benedict XVI said that each individual person has to decide:
...whether to practice justice or wickedness, to embrace love and forgiveness or revenge and homicidal hatred.
On this depends our personal salvation but also the salvation of the world. This is why Jesus wishes to associate us with his kingship; this is why he invites us to collaborate in the coming of his Kingdom of love, justice and peace.
It is left to us to respond to him, not with words but with deeds: by choosing the path of effective and generous love for our neighbor we allow him to extend his lordship in time and space.
May we like the three kings let Christ reign in our hearts so that He will reign in the world.
Fr. Stanley
