he Liturgical cycle according to the Church’s calender starts with the season of Advent, a time of preparation for the celebration of Christmas and ends with the Solemnity of the Feast of Jesus Christ, Universal King. The establishment of the Kingdom of Jesus started with His birth: The Angel Gabriel said to Mary: “The Lord God will give Him [Jesus] the throne of His Father David and of His Kingdom there will be no end” and with the message: “Glory to God in the highest and Peace on Earth” (Lk 2:14).

esus preached His Kingdom throughout the three years of His public ministry. It was the breaking of the Good News that He brought for humankind that: “God loved the world so much that He sent His only Son so that those who believe in Him might have eternal life” (1 Jn.4:9). It is the Good News of God’s love towards man and of man’s love towards God and among men themselves.

“n Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, time became a dimension of God, who is Himself eternal” (T.M.A. No.10).Christ reigns in time according to His plan and in His own way and His Kingdom is to be received like a gift, which is established in the life of men and women only if it is accepted. “That Your Kingdom come is the wish of us Christians”, writes Tertullian, a father of the Church. It is a wish that we Christians have been repeating for twenty-one centuries. May God’s Kingdom of peace, of justice and love come to our earth. “Open our hearts, free all the world to rejoice in Your peace, to glory in Your justice, to live in Your love”, prays the Church.

e know that the Kingdom of Christ lives in a situation of permanent tension because it finds resistance to its transforming action. However, in order for this Kingdom of peace, justice and love to come, we Christians and all men and women of good will should work, suffer and pray: May Your peace come to all our earth in all nations ravaged by war, violence and hatred; in Afghanistan, in the Holy Land ... May Your Kingdom of justice come to our earth to put an end to worldwide social and economic injustices and to pervasive moral degradation. May Your love reign in our families between members of different races and religions. May this be the cry with which we rise and with which we end our hard day’s work: “Thy Kingdom come!”: “Glory to God in the highest and Peace on Earth!”