Christ The King Sunday

Homily 11 24 2013
34th Sunday OT - C

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The Franciscan Order, following the lead of its great thirteenth century theologians St. Bonaventure and Blessed Duns Scotus, was instrumental in establishing the Feast of Christ the King and extending the celebration to the universal Church.

It was Pope Pius XI who brought this feast into the liturgy in 1925, because the people of the day had "thrust Jesus Christ and his holy law out of their lives," believing "these had no place in public affairs or in politics."

Although Emperors and Kings now exist mostly in history books, we still honor Christ as the King of the Universe by enthroning him in our hearts and allowing him to take control of our lives.

When we accept Jesus as the King of our lives, then everyone and everything else falls into its proper place. We are also challenged to find Christ the King in every one around us.

As loyal subjects of Christ the King, we are invited to treat others with justice and compassion as Jesus did, especially those whom we consider the least important.

Today's Gospel presents Christ the King as reigning, not from a throne, but from the gibbet of the cross. Like the "suffering servant" of Isaiah (53:3), He is despised and rejected, as the bystanders ridicule the crucified King, challenging Him to prove His Kingship by coming down from the cross.

The Gospel also tells of the criminal crucified beside Jesus who recognized Him as a Savior King and asked Jesus to remember him when Jesus entered His kingdom. Jesus promised the good thief that he would be with Him that day in Paradise.

Tradition remembers the criminal on Jesus' right side as "the good thief" who repented of his sins at the last moment, although Mark and Matthew call him a "revolutionary." Although the Romans intended the inscription on the cross, "This is the King of the Jews," to be ironic, it reflected the popular Jewish speculations about Jesus' possible identity as the Messiah of Israel.

For Luke and other early Christians that title was correct, since the Kingship of Jesus was made manifest most perfectly in his suffering and death on the cross, followed by His Resurrection on the third day, as He had foretold.

It seems that one of the great burdens Jesus had to carry during his life on earth was being continually misunderstood.

And the one dimension of his ministry where he was so often misunderstood was his radically new understanding of kingship.

From the earliest days of his ministry-his rejection of Satan's temptation that he become a worldly king, to his death on the cross beneath a sign that read: "Jesus, King of the Jews"- Jesus labored under a misunderstanding of what it meant to be a true king.

So what kind of kingdom did Jesus have in mind? Could we not say it was a stewardship kingdom?

Those who became his closest followers-his disciples and apostles-slowly, at first, and at times, quickly, grasped the true meaning of Christ's kingdom ministry.

To be in this kingdom required his followers to become perfect stewards of all that had been given them. They had to recognize their gifts and the gifts of others as coming from God. And they had to learn to use them day after day to build up a kingdom of peace and mercy-a kingdom of love.

What was true for the earliest members of this stewardship kingdom remains true for us today. To enter this kingdom we must embrace fully stewardship as a way of life.

A newspaper story, some time back, recorded the grim incident of a police officer shot and killed in the line of duty. His great desire before he was killed was to see his family's back yard completely landscaped, a desire he never saw fulfilled, because of the bullet that ended his life. Some of his fellow officers, who had grown to love their fallen comrade, donated their time and money to complete the work. Because it was the policeman's desire to finish the project it became his friends' desire. [Allen Hadidian, Discipleship (Chicago: Moody Press, 1987).]

The application to those of us, who love Jesus Christ and accept him as the king of our lives, is clear. What He loved and desired, we should love and desire and work to complete. His work is to see lost men saved and built up. His work is to see this world redeemed. His work is to see this unfinished world brought to completion. We who love Him are called to complete the task with His grace.

The Solemnity of Christ the King is not just the conclusion of the Church year. It is also a summary of our lives as Christians. On this great Feast, let us resolve to give Christ the central place in our lives and to obey His commandment of love by sharing our blessings with all his needy children.

Let us conclude the Church year by asking the Lord to help us serve the King of Kings as He presents Himself in those reaching out to us.

"To Him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by His Blood and made us a Kingdom, priests for His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen" -Revelation 1: 5b-6.

Christus vincit! Christus regnat! Christus imperat! Christ conquers! Christ rules! Christ reigns!

Next week we begin a New Church Year. We move into Cycle A of Advent using Matthew's Gospel as the center of our focus. One of the principle themes in Matthew is the arrival of God's reign in the person of Jesus especially as he work's miracles.

The reign begins mysteriously in hidden ways. It's a process a journey and the reign will fill the whole earth. As we move into Matthew's Gospel and Advent we move into a time of preparation, of waiting...

A time of purple as our liturgical color, the Advent wreath a part of our liturgy...as we pray, Come Emmanuel.

jjl

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