The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe – November 24, 2024

St. Paul – Lyons, KS

Daniel 7:13-14; Psalm 93:1-2, 5; Revelation 1:5-8; John 18:33b-37

The Story of Ignatius

Back in the 1500’s, a young man grew up in Spain, in northern Spain, by the name of Inigo. Inigo was the youngest of thirteen children and came from a pretty well-to-do family, a family of minor nobility. Before he was sixteen, though, both his mother and father died. And at that very impressionable age, Inigo was taken to become a page in the court of King Ferdinand—the same Ferdinand who sent Columbus to the Americas. Inigo was sucked into the life and culture and ways of high society. And he loved it, couldn’t get enough! Inigo couldn’t get enough of the status, the wealth, the fashion—high society, he was all in! Eventually he became a soldier and an officer in the prestigious Spanish army.

One day in battle, he was seriously injured by a cannonball in the leg and spent the next year recovering from this. While he was recovering—while recovering, his life radically changed. This was before Netflix, so when you were recovering in bed all you could do was read. And Inigo loved reading the stories of knights and soldiers. But the only books available were about the life of Jesus Christ and the saints. And for some reason—totally unexpected to him—Inigo found these stories absolutely riveting, just totally enthralling. What would usually bore him began to fascinate him. He even began to imagine if he could be like the heroic figures of St. Dominic and St. Francis. And very importantly, he realized something that changed his life: while his “normal” reading would leave him excited at first, but then left him empty, reading the lives of Jesus and the saints produced a lasting and enduring peace. That little insight—everything changed.

Once he was back on his feet, then, Inigo abandon all of his military ambitions and gave his life to Christ and the Church. Lying in a bed, reading a book, Jesus Christ encountered him in a powerful way, a way that changed his life forever, and he responded with his entire life. Inigo’s passion to be a member of high society, a courageous and celebrated soldier, brushing shoulders with royalty and influential people—all of this became a passion to serve Christ, all the way, holding nothing back. This soldier, once dedicated to his own glory, became a soldier fighting or the glory of God. And his conversion had a huge influence on the world! Inigo later changed his name to? Ignaitius, right. We know his as Ignatius of Loyola. And his legacy today, his legacy is greater than all of the kings of his era. Why? Because his life was no longer about himself, but about giving everything to God. 

His motto—his motto is very telling: Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, For the Greater Glory of God, abbreviated A.M.D.G. If you wake up in the morning and you ask, “What am I about today?” Many of us would say, like Ignatius in his early life, “I’m about my career, I’m about my family, I’m about making good money, I’m about having a good time and just enjoying life, I’m about just getting through the day.” Or you can say, “No, what I’m about to day is giving every greater glory to God, Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam!” And when that’s the case, then how you handle your work responsibilities, family responsibilities, how I have fun and enjoy life—all of that will begin to serve a greater purpose of giving ever great glory to God. A.M.D.G., Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, For the Greater Glory of God.

Ignatius, famously then, summed everything up in a prayer he wrote called the Suscipe, that’s just Latin for “take.” In the very first line of his autobiography, Ignatius wrote, he said that when he was a young man, “I was given over to the vanities of the world and had a great and foolish desire to win fame.” But after he encountered Christ, after he began to live not for his own glory but for the the greater glory of God— Ignatius wrote this prayer, the Suscipe: “Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding and my entire will. All I have and call my own. You have given all to me. To you, Lord, I return it. Everything is yours; do with it what you will. Give me only your love and your grace. That is enough for me.” This is the secret Ignatius discovered: the fullness, the happiness, the peace that we are looking for—and oftentimes begin looking for in all the wrong places—that happiness and peace is found when we give everything, our entire lives back to God; when we live our lives not for our own glory, our own plans, but for the every greater glory of God.

Christ the King

Today, the Church celebrates the solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. And obviously, as the name says, it celebrates the fact that Jesus Christ is king. Our first reading, from the book of the prophet Daniel—Daniel has a vision from the perspective of heaven, and while there the Son of Man comes on the clouds and is enthroned. So it is a vision of the Ascension, when one day the Son of Man, Jesus, will come to be enthroned as king. Second reading, book of Revelation, John has a vision, and there he sees Jesus enthroned in heaven as king. And so it’s a simple but basic truth: Jesus Christ has been set up, enthroned as king.

But what do the readings also point out? They point out what this means. And what this means—Daniel says, the “Son of man received dominion, kingship, and glory.” Book of Revelation, “To him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen.” This great solemnity we celebrate is precisely the thing that Ignatius intuited in his conversion: A.M.D.G., Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, For the Greater Glory of God. Christ as King—if Christ is King, it means that our lives are meant to give him ever greater glory.

The Gut Check: Do I glorify him?

And so this is our last gut check of this series. Gut check: Do I live to glorify Jesus Christ the King? Do I live to glorify God? When I wake up, what am I about all day: myself or God? Do I live so that every day I glorify God more and more? As Ignatius discovered, he was serving the wrong king: he discovered that he was the king of his own life. And so in an act of great surrender, he said suscipe: take everything, Lord. Take and receive all of me. Ignatius began to live not for his own glory, but for the ever greater glory of God.

That’s the gut check for us, though. Do I live to glorify God, or to bring greater glory to myself?

Think back to last week. Last week we were talking about discovering and being able to share our testimony, right? Leslie did a beautiful job sharing her testimony. I think Ignatius, his testimony—I think it gives us another great example. Here is this person that grew up a Catholic, Catholic Spain, was baptized, First Communion—but he never really had a real relationship with God. He lived for himself, he did his own thing. But in a very clear moment, Jesus entered into his life. Literally while he was lying in bed reading books, he recognized this as the moment that Jesus encountered him in a new way. And Ignatius responded! Little by little, he began to give his life, his entire life, to God. He held nothing back: suscipe, he said, “Take everything, Lord.” And day after day, Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, he lived For the Greater Glory of God.

The gut check for us then is just that: Do I live only to bring greater glory to myself? Or, do I live to glorify God, for the greater glory of God? Do I surrender my life him, pray suscipe, “Take everything, Lord”?

Today, as we celebrate this beautiful Solemnity of Christ the King, my hope is that we can make Ignatius’ prayer our own: Suscipe, “Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding and my entire will. All I have and call my own. You have given all to me. To you, Lord, I return it. Everything is yours; do with it what you will. Give me only your love and your grace. That is enough for me.” My hope is that we can make that prayer our own, and make his motto ours: A.M.D.G., Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam, all For the Greater Glory of God.