God's Kingdom, the Church, extends throughout all time and space. The Bible shows this in the prophesies that speak of worshippers coming to pay homage to God from far away places: Sheba, Midian, Ephah, Tarshish, Arabia, from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth… These references point, literally, to every direction on the compass. 

St Paul groups these peoples under the term "Gentiles". He calls them "coheirs" of salvation, together with the Jews, the chosen people, from whom the first members and leaders of the Church were taken (including Jesus himself, and Mary and Joseph). 

So Christ's Kingdom, by including both Jews and Gentiles, implicitly includes every corner of the globe – wherever human beings live. This universal Kingdom also extends to all times. St Paul makes this connection. He says that he has been given the task of revealing the mystery of salvation in full. Before him, it had been partially revealed to the chosen people of Israel, which traces its origin to Adam himself. 

In that sense, then, Christ's Kingdom reaches back through the whole history of humanity. Now the mystery of the Kingdom is being fully revealed, both to the Jews and to all nations. This implicitly includes not just the civilizations that St Paul knew about, but every civilization and culture that has existed or will exist. 

Christ's Kingdom, then, links the very start of the human story with its final conclusion. Christ is, as the Book of Revelation puts it, the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. The coming of these Magi, who represent the Gentile nations, teach us that God's Kingdom, this Church that you and I are a part of, extends through all time and all space. You and I are citizens of the world's only universal Kingdom.

This is one of the reasons why tyrants hate the Catholic Church so much. Tyrants want total control – we call their governments "totalitarian regimes". They can't stand the Catholic Church, because it is a constant reminder that they don't have total control; that they can't – only God can.

Just as Herod tried to do with Jesus, the eternal King, they try to stamp out the Church, the eternal Kingdom. The Roman emperors tried. The barbarian tribes of northern Europe tried. The Medieval Islamic Caliphs tried. The French Revolutionaries tried. Napoleon tried – he even kidnapped the pope, twice! The Nazis tried, and the communists tried too, giving the twentieth century the bittersweet honor of having more Christian martyrs than any previous century. The Herods of every generation try to take over the throne that only Christ can occupy, but the Church continues to survive, grow, and spread.

A favorite example of this un-conquerability of our faith is found in St Maximilian Kolbe. He was the Franciscan priest who died famously in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II. A fellow prisoner had been condemned to death, but the condemned man had a family, and St Maximilian had none, so the saint offered himself as a substitute. It was the crowning action of a string of selfless deeds that he performed throughout his imprisonment. Even the horrors of that concentration camp couldn't conquer his Christian spirit. He celebrated secret masses on crowded, plank bunk beds; he secretly heard confessions walking through the mud to work; he even gave hope to his fellow death-row inmates: for fifteen days they prayed and sang hymns in the bunker where they were being starved to death. 

This is Christ the King's everlasting, unconquerable, universal Kingdom. This is our Kingdom. This is our Church.

How much peace of mind and soul this should give us! As Christ's brothers and sisters, we are plugged in to a Kingdom that will never come to an end, just as we pray in the Creed every week. As long as our friendship with Christ is healthy, our lives have a meaning that no one can take away, that can transform the world around us, that can give us the fulfillment, dynamism and sense of purpose we long for. 

The difference between a mediocre Christian and a saint, a Christian who experiences fully all those benefits of citizenship in Christ's Kingdom, is tiny. The mediocre Christian believes in Christ's Kingdom, as all of us do – otherwise, we wouldn't be here today. But the saint, the mature Christian, lives in accordance with that belief.

If only Christ's Kingdom lasts, then our first priority in life should be, like the Magi, to serve that Kingdom. To offer God our talents and efforts (the gold), our prayers and worship (the incense), and our sufferings and sorrows (the myrrh). 

Which of those sectors of our life needs to be re-offered to Christ? Which needs to be laid at the feet of the baby Jesus? In our heart, we know, because the Holy Spirit is telling us. He doesn't want us to be mediocre; he wants us to experience the lasting peace and joy of Christian maturity. The same joy that the Magi experienced when they saw the star. 

Today, when we receive our Lord again in Holy Communion, let's lay at his feet whatever will please him most, whatever he is asking for. With the help of his grace, let's leave Mass today more deeply committed to living truly like the citizen of His Kingdom that we truly are.