Today, as we come to the end of our Church’s year, we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King. This is indeed the conclusion, the culmination of all that the Church teaches about Jesus and about what He teaches us about Himself. He, Himself tells Pilate that He is king and He tells us in the Gospel that He is the way, the truth and the life. But He doesn’t stop there. He goes on to say that, “No one gets to the Father except through me.” He does not mince any words. So, as we come to the end of one year and prepare for the beginning of another, how do we respond to the teachings that we are presented? Actually, it doesn’t much matter. He is the way, the truth and the life and no one gets to the Father except through Him. It doesn’t matter what we do with Him, whether we crucify Him (and we do), or what we say or what we think. As sure as a flying plane must at some point come down from the sky, as sure as our lives on this earth will one day come to an end, Jesus Christ is King of the Universe. His way is the way that will prevail. Not only that, our eternity will be determined by the manner in which we conform, to His way and His truth on this earth, on how we accept Christ as our King. Jesus, although He is King, does not impose His will on us, His truth always sets us free. This means that in freedom we either choose to follow Him or not, but He is the only way to eternal salvation. The sooner we truly accept that reality, the sooner we can take the steps to conform our lives to His way, His truth and His life. Of course the question will arise as to what happens with those who have other beliefs, or belong to other faiths, or who have never heard of Jesus-can they not be saved? First of all, let’s be clear that it is God’s desire that all be saved. He does not want to lose anyone. Therefore this means that anyone who is saved is saved in Christ. They don’t have to know it and they don’t have to believe it, but if they are to be saved, they will be saved in Christ. Another question that will arise is that if we maintain that Christ is the only way to the Father, the only way to salvation, aren’t we saying that we are better than everyone else? Well, in all reality, that is not what we are saying at all. What we are saying is that Jesus is superior to all of us. In conclusion, our challenge is that we, who need to take those steps that clearly establish that Christ is our King- that is what disciples do. They follow Him step by step as the Way to the Father. Hopefully the following acronym (STEPS) will help us to do just that. Here is what each letter stands for: Serve. Tithe. Engage. Practice. Share. Christ is not, our King, we are not His disciples, if we do not serve Him actively, if we don’t use our brains, our brawn and our talents for Him in a way that costs something. To be a disciple, for Christ to be our King we must be on the road to tithing. We must have a plan to figure out how we are going to get there. The gift of our treasure must be planned, it must have priority, and it must move progressively toward the tithe. If Christ does not have our treasure, He will not have our heart. He cannot be our King, we cannot be His disciple if our hearts are not His. If Christ is to be our King we must be engaged in His Faith. It must matter to us, it must be what defines us. Others must be able to readily identify us as a disciple. If Christ is to be our King, we must participate in and we must practice our faith. Disciples go where they are supposed to go and do what they are supposed to do and they don’t just go through the motions. Sitting in a pew is not enough. Disciples share their faith, they share the good news. That’s what the King commanded His disciples to do. If we were privy to knowledge of a singular cure for a disease from which a loved one is suffering, would we not immediately share it? Christ teaches that He is the only way to the Father-this is news that must be shared! Christ is our King. He is the way the truth and the life. No one gets to the Father except through Him. That is the bottom line; that is the Good News-that is our hope. Our challenge is to take the STEPS in our lives that we need to take in freedom to truly make Him the King of our lives.