Our king enthroned on the Cross and crowned with thorns?

God so loved the world.

Homily Outline for the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ the King

Today we celebrate the last Sunday of the liturgical year.  At this key moment, Holy Mother Church places before us Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of Heaven and Earth.  We offer praise, glory, and honor be unto Him, our Lord and Savior.

When we hear of a king, who comes to mind?  Do we think of Michael Jackson, the tarnished King of Pop Music?  Or King George who unfairly taxed the 13 colonies?  Do we imagine a cruel tyrant who commands all things according to his capricious will?  Or, is it the romantic king of fairy tales, dispenser of justice, commander of knights, rescuer of damsels in distress?  None of these images are all that helpful in understanding our solemnity today.

If our hearts and lives are to be converted once again by this liturgy, by this sacrament, we have to allow our image of “king” to be remolded and renewed. The Holy Word of God presents us with a more significant image of kingship.  In our first reading, we hear of David anointed by the Northern Tribes, Israel.  David is the anointed one, the “messhiac”, the cristos, the messiah.  Now King of Judah and King of Israel, he has consolidated his rule over all the 12 tribes.  God makes a promise to him later that his heir will reign forever on the throne.  The People of God hope for stability, peace, and comfort.  But this all falls apart quickly.  With David’s son Solomon’s death, merely one generation later, the kingdoms split.  In the coming centuries there will be war after war, faithless tyrant after faithless tyrant on the throne.   The people had asked for an earthly king, and that’s what they got.  For a thousand years they continued to hope in God’s promise that David’s son would reign forever.  They sustained that hope through exile, apostasy, and tragedy.  When, in the fullness of time, God did fulfill His promise, He sent a king, the son of David, but not the king they had imagined.

The Word took on Flesh and dwelt among us. God Himself came to be our king, our messiah, our savior.  The expected and yet unexpected king was born in a little hick town, fostered by a simple carpenter.  He gathered up some ex-fisherman and a reformed tax collector and began to preach the good news!  Certainly he performed some impressive miracles, but what about the Romans?  Where was his army?  Where was the strong fist holding a sword that would restore power and glory to Jerusalem?  How could He be the king?  This sense of confusion and betrayal comes to a particularly sharp point in our gospel.  The King is crucified.  Isn’t it a strange image for celebrating Christ’s Kingship?  He’s on the cross, suffering injustice, punished, bleeding, gasping, and mocked by the criminal beside him.  Ignominy, betrayal, and defeat surround him.  Our king is enthroned on a Cross crowned with thorns.  And, yet, the good thief rebukes the other, and makes a startling request, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” What kingdom could this dying man offer?  “Jesus replied to him, ‘Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’”

Who can bring us to Paradise?  It is God who took upon his own shoulders the sins of all the world. It is God who calls us to hope and trust even in the face of weakness and defeat.  God sent no delegate, no special messenger, He raised up no merely human prophet. He sent His Son, the Second Person of the Trinity, His Very Word, the one who said, “I and the Father are One.”  Listen again to our 2^nd reading:

"For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together….For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile all things for him, making peace by the blood of his cross through him, whether those on earth or those in heaven."

Paul leaves us in no doubt – Jesus is God, the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end.

Today, then, we honor Christ the King, but a very different kind of king!  Each one of us by baptism is another Christ.  The Lord wants to shape and conform us in His image and likeness.  We are priest, prophet and king in the world.  

How do we live in light of Christ’s Kingship?  First of all, is Jesus the Lord of our lives?  Do we live by His commandments, by His example?  Or, have we set ourselves up as kings?  Do we march to our own drums?  No matter what your TV tells you, we didn’t create ourselves, we don’t make the rules, we don’t get to shape right and wrong to our own tastes and comfort. Rather, we are called to follow the King, to be conformed to the image and likeness of Jesus, and Him Crucified.

If we follow the king, what are we to expect?  Will everything be easy and sweet?  That is NOT the Gospel.  We face ignominy and defeat in big and small ways, but we know that our King conquered sin and death, and that He will conquer sin and death in us if we but open the door.  In Christ we are victorious, but it is a victory that comes as we struggle through suffering, pain, and confusion.

For the Church, the year ends this week, and next week we will make a new beginning, begin a new waiting, a new preparation. For now, though, let us honor and glorify Jesus, Lord of Heaven and Earth, Lord of our Lives.  May we honor Him by truly living as His disciples.  May we receive today the King’s Body and Blood with open hearts.