Feast of Christ the King, Year C

St. Monicas: November 23-2, 2!"3

## Sam$e% &:"-3: "You shall be shepherd of my people Israel ... and they
anointed David King of Israel."
'sa%m "22: I rejoiced when I heard them say: "Let us go to od!s house."
Co%ossians ":"2-2!: ""e is the image of the unseen od and the first#born of all
creation ... $ow the %hurch is the body& he is its head."
($)e 23:3&-3: "'his is the King of the (ews." "(esus) remember me when you
come into your Kingdom." *'his day) you will be with me in +aradise.
I hope that a of us have strugged wth ths dea that |esus s a
kng. If we havent, we shoud, because there s hardy anythng
n the scrptures that s more cear than that |esus re|ected the
whoe dea of beng a kng! In fact, most of the prophetc wrtng
of the Od Testament s an ndctment of kngshp, whch seems
n many ways to have been a faed experence. (Reference 1
st
readng .)
Actuay, there was never a feast of ths name unt the 20th
century. In 1925, t was Pus XI who nsttuted the Feast of Chrst
the Kng. Probaby because t then we understood that |esus
never camed to be a kng. A number of dfferent tmes n the
scrptures, he re|ected ths dea. For exampe, when he was n
the desert and was abe to feed thousands of peope wth fve
oaves and two fshes. And they wanted to make hm a kng.
What dd he do? He went and hd hmsef because he re|ected
the whoe noton.
Or remember when |esus was begnnng hs ast trp to
|erusaem? He was teachng the dscpes aong the way, and he
tod them that the son of man was gong to |erusaem to pck up
hs cross and be crucfed. Executed. Peter ob|ected. "We, of
course", he sad, "you can do whatever you want. You have the
power. Youre a kng or coud be a kng. But why woud you aow
yoursef to be put to death, to be executed?" Remember what
|esus dd? He turned to Peter and he sad, "Get behnd me,
Satan!" He bascay caed Peter "Satan" for even thnkng that
|esus woud want to be exated as a kng, and use power and
force over peope. Peter ddnt understand so |esus had to be
very drect and confrontatona: "Peter, youre wrong! Get t
straght!"
In another ncdent toward the end of hs pubc fe, the dscpes
are st tryng to magne |esus as a kng. They wanted hm to
restore what we heard about n the frst readng when Davd was
made the kng of the unted, chosen peope and became a great
kng n ther hstory. They wanted |esus to restore the kngdom.
And they thought he was gong to do t.
The mother of the sons of Zebedee, |ames and |ohn, comes to
|esus and says, "Look, when you become the kng, when you
take over ths Roman kngdom, I want my sons on your rght and
eft hand. I want them to have the greatest paces of esteem,
power and prestge n your kngdom." And |esus s very
dsturbed. Here t s, the end of hs pubc fe, and the dscpes
are st tryng to make hm a kng. They have msunderstood hs
message. So he cas a of the dscpes together, and he says,
"Now ook, among the pagans, those who dont beeve n God,
those n power ord t over others. They domnate. Among you t
cannot be that way! It cant be that way, because the one who s
to ead has to be the servant of a."
"Servant" of a. Or n some transatons, "save" of a. That s
how you have a frst pace n the communty of dscpes of |esus
- you become a servant, a save, the opposte of a kng. |esus
remnded them that the Son of man dd not come nto ths word
to be served but to serve and to gve hs servce even to the
pont of gvng hs fe.
That s what we see on the cross. |esus s hangng on the cross,
and even there he s beng a servant, reachng out to that
crmna who recognzes hm for who he reay s. Not as a kng,
but as a son of God. |esus serves hm by respondng, "Yes, today
you w be wth me n paradse." |esus was servng to the pont
of gvng hs fe. He gave up the dea of power, weath, prestge,
ordng t over other peope. He became a servant. And he nvtes
us to do the same.
Its so cear n the scrpture. Why then do we have the feast of
Chrst the Kng? Why do we go aganst the words of |esus and try
to make hm a kng? When Pope Pus XI estabshed ths feast n
1925 he wrote a document to expan why. He sad: Because the
peope of the day - of that tme - "had thrust |esus Chrst and
hs hoy aw out of ther ves. As ong as ndvduas and states
refuse to submt to the way of our savor, there w be no
hopefu prospect of a astng peace among natons."
Pus XI was wrtng these words and procamng them at a tme
when the word had |ust come out of one of the worst wars n a
of human hstory, Word War I. Lteray mons of soders had
saughtered each other on the battefeds of Europe. There was
no peace after that war, reay, because the wnners of the war
had mposed a crue knd of punshment on the German naton,
makng t amost mpossbe for that naton to survve. Out of
anger, resentment and the hatred that was eft as a resut of that
war, the whoe deoogy of Nazsm grew n Germany and ed to
another war, a war worse than the frst.
The "war that was to end a wars" became the seed of a second
war that was even worse. Because peope had refused, as Pus XI
sad, to et the rue of |esus, the way of |esus, gude ther ves,
ther prvate ves and ther natona fe.
Is t any better today? Ask yoursef, "Are we, each of us n our
own fe, foowng the way of |esus? Do we reay want to et
ourseves be a servant to others?" Another queston: If Chrst s
Kng, what s he Kng of? What s hs kngdom a about? What s
t - and when s t? Ths phrase "the kngdom of God" appears
over 80 tmes n the Gospes; yet these questons do not have
smpe answers.
What s t? We do know that t s somethng to strve for. It s
more dffcut to enter t f you are rch. It s easer to get nto t f
you are chdke. Its good news was procamed by |esus and hs
dscpes. It beonged to the poor, the humbe, and those
persecuted for the sake of rghteousness. It has humbe
begnnngs and grows ke seed and yeast. It s not here or there
but rather t s among us.
I thnk t s smpy ths: If the funess of the Kngdom at the end
of tme s when we ve n that perfect word where God had
ntended us to ve, where soca herarches do not exst, where
there s no cass or ethnc dscrmnaton, where there exsts an
unquestonng trust n God and hs provdence, where a peope
operate wth sefess ove of others, where ove conquers sn,
where whoeness conquers sckness, where peace conquers
sufferng, where fe conquers death, where hope conquers
despar, where redempton conquers damnaton, where
feowshp conquers oneness, then our gmpses are gmpses
of these thngs here and now.
And so how shoud we act, as we wat for ths kngdom and cry
"Thy Kngdom come"? "Be the servant, the save of a," |esus
sad. "That s why I came." As we ook at our potcs - be t at
the federa eve wth the shenangans n the Senate, the Rob
Ford sdeshow n Toronto and the ongong reveaton of
corrupton n our own cty, and our provnca governments
deberate payng up of the potcs of dvson and ant-regous
rhetorc n ts so-caed "Charter of Secuar Vaues" - we see tte
evdence of the recognton not ony of Chrst the Kng, but of any
transcendent vson of potcs at the servce of ndvdua human
dgnty the authentc common good of our socety.
St. Pau n our second readng today says: "Through |esus, God
was peased to reconce to hmsef a thngs, whether on earth
or n heaven." To reconce a thngs through |esus. That doesnt
mean ony us as Cathocs, or even ndeed a Chrstans. Ths
means Musms and |ews, Buddhsts and Hndus, athests and
agnostcs - and yes, even the kes of Rob and Doug Ford,
Paune Maros and Bernard Dranve, Stephen Harper and Nge
Wrght, Mke Duffy and Pamea Wan. For Pau, the hghght
was Chrstans and |ews: everyone - wthout excepton - can be
reconced to God through |esus. "Through |esus bood shed on
the cross, God estabshes peace on earth as n heaven."
And thats the ony way. Ths s the way of Chrst.
So we can worshp |esus as the kng today f we wsh. We can
pace a crown on hs head as a sgn of honour, our oyaty to hm.
But we must aso remember that he ob|ected to any dea of
kngshp remnscent of wordy fame and power. |esus crown of
thorns gves kngshp a whoe new meanng.
If we are gong to worshp |esus as our kng, we are gong to do t
accordng to hs way. The one who wants to be frst must be
servant of a, has to foow the way of |esus n the way of
reconcaton and ove. Thats how we w brng peace nto our
own ves and nto the word. We can be gratefu for Church
eaders ke Pope Francs who, as much by persona exampe as
by word, are showng us a dfferent way - the way of Chrst - the
ony way.
The kngshp of Chrst s not about power, certany not the
potca or |urdca power to "save yoursef and us" from
sufferng and death. |esus power to save s reveaed n hs words
to the "good thef": "Ths day, you w be wth me n Paradse."
So as we ha |esus as our Kng, may we mode our eadershp
and exercse of authorty n the ght of hs Gospe, hs shnng
exampe. Then, we can be confdent that ndeed, ke the
crmna executed next to hm, he w ndeed
"remember us, when he comes nto hs Kngdom."