May 28, 2025

Fr. John Riccardo

God mounts his throne to shouts of joy: a blare of trumpets for the Lord.

All you peoples, clap your hands, shout to God with cries of gladness, For the LORD, the Most High, the awesome, is the great king over all the earth.

God mounts his throne amid shouts of joy; the LORD, amid trumpet blasts. Sing praise to God, sing praise; sing praise to our king, sing praise.

For king of all the earth is God; sing hymns of praise. God reigns over the nations, God sits upon his holy throne (Psalm 47: 2-3,6-7,8-9).

Earlier this week we celebrated Memorial Day here in the States. It’s a day to remember in our prayers in a special way those men and women in the military who lost their lives in the service of our country. Lord God, pour out Your mercies on all those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for us, and comfort as only You can those who grieve the loss of loved ones.

My dad fought in World War II. He was stationed in India, China and especially Burma, where they were preparing for a land invasion into Japan before things went another direction. One of his brothers fought in North Africa, Italy and Germany. In fact, my uncle had the amazing blessing of liberating the town from which his parents had emigrated and where many of his cousins were still living. I grew up hearing various stories from those war years, and especially of their return home after it was finally over.

The pictures of ticker tape parades, with uncountable numbers of men, women and children lining the streets, joyfully welcoming the soldiers home after the hell that is war, has always been a helpful image for me on the Solemnity of the Ascension. That’s what I “see” when I pray with the Psalm above. The One through whom the universe was made, the greatest of all soldiers, the one who laid down His life so that we all could live, the One who became Man so as to go to war to rescue us from a tyrant far worse than Hitler or any other such megalomaniac, returns “home” after His glorious victory over the powers of Sin, Death and Satan. He “mounts His throne,” as the angels line the streets, worshiping Him, in awe of such love shown by the Creator of all for a creature that had been taken captive by powers against which he was defenseless.

I know we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King in November, just before we enter the season of Advent, but in a true sense this Sunday is Christ the King. The readings at Mass in one way or another help us understand that Jesus is the true King of all, the One to whom all authority in heaven and on earth has been given, who has already defeated our ancient foes and one day will destroy them and make all things new.

This is going to happen. There is much work to do until that happens, of course — the work of announcing to all the wondrous love of God made manifest in Jesus, crucified and risen; the work of bringing the power of the gospel into every dimension of human life, thereby making it more genuinely human.

But today, this week, and especially Sunday, perhaps the work is to make time to worship Jesus. Worship is something that I would argue makes up very little of most people’s prayer. Our prayer is usually dominated by intercessions of one kind or another, and that’s alright as Jesus told us to ask after all. But this week, let us be intentional to worship the King. Let us imagine how we would have felt back in 1945 to have heard the war is finally over; to see ourselves on those streets as the soldiers returned home after having fought for us; to know this all happened for us, and to pour out our praise and honor to the One who is Lord and who has triumphed by His love.

Image: Getty Images

Heaven’s Ticker-Tape Parade

How the Spirit Comforts Us

Begging the Spirit to Do What Only He Can Do