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Reflection on the Feast of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

Posted on November 23, 2025, by Mary Ann McGivern SL

Sometimes, when I stand in Lebanon, Ky., holding a sign on Wednesday mornings, I have said the rosary. One day recently, I said, I believe in – long pause. What do I believe in, I said to myself. I believe in life.

No, I know life, I experience life, it’s not a matter of believing in life. From my own conception, I have always known life. It’s not a matter of faith.

I stood on my corner thinking. Then I turned back to the Creed. I believe in … long pause again .. I believe in love. No, I don’t believe in love. I know love. I know that I love. I know that you love. I know that God is love. 

So I stood quiet on my corner. I don’t believe in God. I know God because I know love. I didn’t get back to the rosary that morning.

One breakfast Eileen Custy, Magdalena McCloskey, Martha Alderson and I were talking about who God is. The others were eloquent and after a while I said I’m more a believer in Jesus. It’s true. I’m a concrete thinker, and Jesus more than God is present to me. Today is a feast of Jesus Christ, the King of the Universe. And the readings are a test of our faith. Hence my thinking on the corner of Main and Proctor Knott in Lebanon.

Some chapters back from today’s reading, in Matthew and in Luke, the Sadducees ask Jesus which of five wives will be the dead man’s wife in heaven, and Jesus says that the Sadducees don’t understand. In heaven we will be like angels. And everybody goes away satisfied, as if we understood now, that we all know what angels are.

Jesus is more explicit in today’s reading. He says to the thief, “Today you will be with me in paradise.” I don’t know what that means. I’ve staked my life on Jesus Christ, on his call to love one another. It has been the great gift of my life, and it has been my great certainty as well. I know I’m on a good  path. I’m so grateful for the opportunities I’ve had. But what it means to be like the angels and to be with Jesus in paradise – I don’t know.

King isn’t the image I would choose for Jesus, Son of Man. He was a poor man and a teacher. He taught us that He is God and God is love. I know that. The rest is faith.

Mary Ann McGivern SL

Mary Ann lives at the Loretto Motherhouse in Kentucky. She is one of the homilists at Sunday services. She and Mary Swain SL write letters to Congress on behalf of the Community. Mary Ann is leading a call to the governor to commute the sentences of men in Kentucky who are on death row. She remains an active board member of the Peace Economy Project in St. Louis.