Our Gospel reading today helps us to distinguish between professing our faith and demonstrating our faith in action. Our faith requires more than simply checking off some required boxes, or boasting a title that denotes piety. Jesus makes that clear when he says, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven."

The Kingdom of God is full of paradoxes: we receive by giving, we receive honor when we are dishonored, and as the Gospel illustrates for us today, we lead others to the kingdom by being in service to them. The Feast of Christ the King is an invitation to all of us to share in the kingship of Jesus, as servant leaders.

Discipleship, our discipleship, entails focusing our love on Christ first, and then what comes as a by-product is a love for others.

Prayer doesn’t change God, but it does change things. It changes us. Prayer changes us. When we come into contact with God, whether that is in meditative prayer, whether that is in silence and prayer, whether it’s through reading his Scripture, reading his word, or being a coworker with him, it changes us.

It’s in the process of actively seeking reconciliation through daily, and thoroughly reflective prayer, and going to confession, that allows us grow in our walk of faith in a way that was demonstrated by Oskar Schindler (of "Schindler's List"), but clearly was not demonstrated by the rich man in the gospel.