Is Jesus Lord of your Life? Do you imitate Blessed Miguel Pro?

+ J. M. J. +

Homily Outline for the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, Year C

This Sunday, we enter into the final week of the liturgical year! Beginning with Advent, we prepare for the birth of Christ, and then during the Christmas season we celebrate that birth. With Lent and Easter, we first prepare for and then celebrate the mystery of the Easter Triduum, the Paschal Mystery, the Passion, Death, and Resurrection of our Lord and Savior. The other weeks of the year are numbered in succession, and we call them Ordinary Time, during which we hear proclaimed Jesus preaching and His miracles, while we also celebrate the beautiful feasts of the Saints. It is the bulk of the year, a time for ongoing growth and conversion. At the very end of that process each year, before we begin the cycle once again, the Church places before us this beautiful and daunting image of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. Jesus is Lord and King of all created reality, King of Heaven and Earth, King of all Humanity, King of the Physical and Spiritual Realms.

Jesus’ Kingship has its roots deep in Salvation History. The people of Israel clamored to God for a king, wanting to be like the other nations, and God gave them first Saul, who turned mad, and then David. Our first reading comes from the moment when David is establishing and consolidating his political and military power, as the tribes descended from Jacob, also known as Israel, submit themselves to him. They anoint him king. This is strange, perhaps for us… we don’t anoint our presidents or governors, and rightly so, for they are not religious, but political leaders. However, the People of Israel accept David as king because God has chosen him, not only because they have chosen him. As they anoint David, they acknowledge and respond to God’s blessing, the blessed oil a symbol of God’s strength and protection and healing. The one who is anointed, in Hebrew, is the Meshiach, the Messiah, and in Greek, the Christos, the Christ. God’s promise to David and David’s anointing indeed foreshadow and prepare the way for another king who would come.

In our second reading, St. Paul lays out for us boldly who Jesus is: not merely a man, not merely a teacher, nor even simply another prophet. Rather, Jesus, standing at the end of the long Davidic line, is more than a man called by God to rule and teach. Listen again to Paul’s mystical words:

He is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation.
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.
He is the head of the body, the church.
He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he himself might be preeminent.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and Son of Man, like us in all things but sin, a man who walked among us and taught and healed, is also Himself God. We sang the Creed today to mark the end of this Year of Faith, as we prepare now to carry the healing truth of the Creed with us out into the world once again, and we proclaimed together that Jesus is, “God from God, Light from Light, True God from True God, begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father.” Jesus is King, Messiah, Lord, Jesus is God! This is the very core of our belief and identity as Catholics. Jesus is God, He is King of the Universe, King of all Creation.

Our Gospel, however, reminds us that Jesus’ Kingship is far more than pomp and majesty. Jesus conquered the powers of darkness, the brokenness and lies of sin, precisely by taking all the deceit of the Enemy to the Cross. Jesus reigns and rules and is lifted up especially on the Cross, which is why we keep the crucifix always before our eyes.

One powerful and blunt question is placed before each one of us by this great feast of Christ the King. As we gather here to celebrate and pray, is it the case, is it true, that Jesus is the Lord of our lives? Is Jesus King and Ruler of our daily words, choices, and behavior? Do we allow Jesus to be Lord in our struggles and sorrows and failures and also in success and thanksgiving? Do we acknowledge Jesus as King and pay Him homage in both joy and sorrow? The man who mocked Jesus turned his back on Jesus’ kingship because it wasn’t according to his taste, while the other man asked for mercy and opened the door. If we choose Jesus, we see clearly that it will not make life easy, nor will it eliminate suffering, but it will lead to eternal joy.

In the Church’s wisdom, Saturday, Nov. 23rd is also the feast of a recently beatified saint, Blessed Miguel Agustín Pro, a Jesuit priest who was executed by firing squad on Nov. 23, 1927 in Mexico. In the midst of persecution and government oppression, he chose to study for the priesthood, and once ordained, he freely chose to go back to Mexico, despite the danger. He used great courage, resourcefulness, and ingenuity to escape the police and detectives sent after him as he visited the sick and dying, and celebrated Mass covertly in people’s homes. As they were about to shoot him, he asked for permission to kneel and pray first. The Mexican ruler at the time, President Calles, thought to use the incident as a PR stunt, but it backfired, for the journalists invited to the execution shared the pictures of Fr. Pro’s calm courage and piety with the whole world, bringing discredit and shame on the government that brutally framed and murdered him. Blessed Miguel Pro’s dying words were “Viva Cristo Rey,” that is, “Long live Christ the King.” Jesus was Lord of His life, and Fr. Pro followed Him without counting the cost.

Perhaps this is an extreme and unusual case, but the same invitation comes to us… in difficulty, in struggle, in joy and success, in all moments, will we turn to the Lord, will we call upon His name? Will we imitate Miguel Pro? Will we imitate the good thief who knew of his need for God’s mercy? As we celebrate today with joy Jesus’ Kingship over Heaven and Earth, we ask that this may go deeper than the words on our lips, that we may acknowledge Jesus beyond the walls of this church in our homes, in our schools, in our workplaces, wherever we are. In His infinite power, Jesus is also perfectly humble, and He comes to us now with tender humility, offering us Himself, hidden under the appearance of bread and wine.

+ A. M. D. G. +