Homily
Solemnity of Christ the King
20 November 2011
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas
Daily Readings
Michael Jackson. Elvis. Simba. Lebron. There are lots of kings out there. We love them. We love anointing kings who are unstoppable within their temporal kingdom. But we also love to bring them down. In a country that was founded by the desire to topple a king, we probably take more pleasure in seeing kings fall than in anointing them. Paterno, Gill and Pinkel are all under fire, though for different reasons. Mubarak, bin Laden, and Qaddafi are tyrants and terrorists toppled in the Arab spring. Lohan and Kardashian are under fire in the tabloids. Anointing and toppling leaders in politics is perhaps America's greatest pasttime of all. It's embarrassing really, how much time and energy we devote to anointing kings, and how much pleasure we take in seeing them fall. Most of us get too caught up in it, to our own shame.
Today's solemnity ends the liturgical year for us by trying to set things straight. There is only one king. There is only one whose reign is unstoppable, whose kingdom extends beyond the time and space of the universe, only one kingdom that is so universal and eternal that legions of angels rejoice in proclaiming its glory. That is the kingdom of Jesus Christ our King. Whenever we say the name of Jesus, the name of the one who saves by shedding his blood for his subjects, we proclaim him to be the Christ, the anointed one. Jesus Christ. Jesus the Lord. Jesus our King. Today's feast proclaims with incomparable joy the reality of a kingdom that not even a king with the power to launch a nuclear weapon can destroy. It is a kingdom founded on truth and love, on justice and peace. To this king alone belongs the power to judge the world, as today's Scriptures state clearly. It is to this king alone, that every knee should bend, in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, to the glory of God the Father, Amen. (Ph 2:10).
The incomparable power of this king, however, lies not only in His ability to rule and to judge and to dominate, but in its opposite. The Lord cautioned the Isralites that earthly kings are sinful and dangerous, but when they still insisted that someone by anointed to rule over them, the Lord turned their sinful wish into a blessing, into a promise of a king who would rule longer than any king before or after. Yet the king that was sent was mysterious beyond imagination, a king recognizable only by the eyes of faith, a king born out in the cold,a king who rode into his capital city on a donkey, a king who forewent a secret service or army, and instead handed himself over to the hands of his enemies, and at his weakest moment was mocked as Ieusus Nazarenus Rex Ieudaeorum. This is how the Lord himself came to rule, by showing that the greatest power a king could show is to give himself over in love to those who hate him. This power alone is a power greater than the power of the Big Bang that created the universe, for this power of sacrificial love is the ground of all reality, and is the foundation of a kingdom of love and truth, justice and peace, that alone is universal and eternal.
Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive the scroll and break open the seals (Rev 5:9). It is our King's ability to lay his life down in love, to be the lamb who was slain, that is the foundation of his judgment of the world. The sacrifice precedes the judgment. The mercy which is the heart of God is why we proclaim our King to be most worthy on this great solemnity. Worthy is the lamb. Worthy is our King who was not afraid to be a lamb. This king is to be praised and adored above all forever. Amen. This solemnity must be for us a solemnity of the highest praise, when we forsake all our false kings and idols, and proclaim the Lord to be the King who alone is worthy. Jesus is not proclaimed king today because he is like any earthly rule that came before him; he is proclaimed king because he is the new and eternal definition of what a king really is.
You didn't see this on the mainstream media, but Pope Benedict, that old man with just a few acres of territory and an annual budget less than that of a single American university like Harvard or Notre Dame, an old man who has no army, outdrew both President Obama, the most powerful man in the world, and Prince William, whose wedding to Princess Kate made him the most popular this year. Both men outdrew the Pope on tv, but I was there when our old and frail Holy Father drew 2.2 million to Madrid for the World Youth Days, the largest crowd in the world this year. I was there, and I saw it, a small glimpse of the kingdom of Jesus Christ, which is more vast and powerful and eternal than any nation or kingdom on this earth ever was or ever will be. Let us pray with earnest for our Holy Father and his brother bishops, who are so unworthy of the task of governing and shepherding and making visible this kingdom of Jesus Christ, so that people may believe in it and belong to it. Let us help them by taking up the kingly identity and mission given to us at our baptism, for as long as we help build the kingdom of Christ, the Lord shares the dignity of his kingship with us. By virtue of our baptism, we are kings, so let us act like kings after the example of Jesus Christ. Let us forsake the temptation to anoint anyone, or to delight in the downfall of anyone, whose kingship is not rooted in the kingship of Jesus Christ. For he alone is worthy of our anointing and our loyal and obedient service, and no one can be a king, unless they belong to Him, the king of kings, and the Lord of Lords, forever and ever. Amen.
Solemnity of Christ the King
20 November 2011
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas
Daily Readings
Michael Jackson. Elvis. Simba. Lebron. There are lots of kings out there. We love them. We love anointing kings who are unstoppable within their temporal kingdom. But we also love to bring them down. In a country that was founded by the desire to topple a king, we probably take more pleasure in seeing kings fall than in anointing them. Paterno, Gill and Pinkel are all under fire, though for different reasons. Mubarak, bin Laden, and Qaddafi are tyrants and terrorists toppled in the Arab spring. Lohan and Kardashian are under fire in the tabloids. Anointing and toppling leaders in politics is perhaps America's greatest pasttime of all. It's embarrassing really, how much time and energy we devote to anointing kings, and how much pleasure we take in seeing them fall. Most of us get too caught up in it, to our own shame.
Today's solemnity ends the liturgical year for us by trying to set things straight. There is only one king. There is only one whose reign is unstoppable, whose kingdom extends beyond the time and space of the universe, only one kingdom that is so universal and eternal that legions of angels rejoice in proclaiming its glory. That is the kingdom of Jesus Christ our King. Whenever we say the name of Jesus, the name of the one who saves by shedding his blood for his subjects, we proclaim him to be the Christ, the anointed one. Jesus Christ. Jesus the Lord. Jesus our King. Today's feast proclaims with incomparable joy the reality of a kingdom that not even a king with the power to launch a nuclear weapon can destroy. It is a kingdom founded on truth and love, on justice and peace. To this king alone belongs the power to judge the world, as today's Scriptures state clearly. It is to this king alone, that every knee should bend, in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, to the glory of God the Father, Amen. (Ph 2:10).
The incomparable power of this king, however, lies not only in His ability to rule and to judge and to dominate, but in its opposite. The Lord cautioned the Isralites that earthly kings are sinful and dangerous, but when they still insisted that someone by anointed to rule over them, the Lord turned their sinful wish into a blessing, into a promise of a king who would rule longer than any king before or after. Yet the king that was sent was mysterious beyond imagination, a king recognizable only by the eyes of faith, a king born out in the cold,a king who rode into his capital city on a donkey, a king who forewent a secret service or army, and instead handed himself over to the hands of his enemies, and at his weakest moment was mocked as Ieusus Nazarenus Rex Ieudaeorum. This is how the Lord himself came to rule, by showing that the greatest power a king could show is to give himself over in love to those who hate him. This power alone is a power greater than the power of the Big Bang that created the universe, for this power of sacrificial love is the ground of all reality, and is the foundation of a kingdom of love and truth, justice and peace, that alone is universal and eternal.
Worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive the scroll and break open the seals (Rev 5:9). It is our King's ability to lay his life down in love, to be the lamb who was slain, that is the foundation of his judgment of the world. The sacrifice precedes the judgment. The mercy which is the heart of God is why we proclaim our King to be most worthy on this great solemnity. Worthy is the lamb. Worthy is our King who was not afraid to be a lamb. This king is to be praised and adored above all forever. Amen. This solemnity must be for us a solemnity of the highest praise, when we forsake all our false kings and idols, and proclaim the Lord to be the King who alone is worthy. Jesus is not proclaimed king today because he is like any earthly rule that came before him; he is proclaimed king because he is the new and eternal definition of what a king really is.
You didn't see this on the mainstream media, but Pope Benedict, that old man with just a few acres of territory and an annual budget less than that of a single American university like Harvard or Notre Dame, an old man who has no army, outdrew both President Obama, the most powerful man in the world, and Prince William, whose wedding to Princess Kate made him the most popular this year. Both men outdrew the Pope on tv, but I was there when our old and frail Holy Father drew 2.2 million to Madrid for the World Youth Days, the largest crowd in the world this year. I was there, and I saw it, a small glimpse of the kingdom of Jesus Christ, which is more vast and powerful and eternal than any nation or kingdom on this earth ever was or ever will be. Let us pray with earnest for our Holy Father and his brother bishops, who are so unworthy of the task of governing and shepherding and making visible this kingdom of Jesus Christ, so that people may believe in it and belong to it. Let us help them by taking up the kingly identity and mission given to us at our baptism, for as long as we help build the kingdom of Christ, the Lord shares the dignity of his kingship with us. By virtue of our baptism, we are kings, so let us act like kings after the example of Jesus Christ. Let us forsake the temptation to anoint anyone, or to delight in the downfall of anyone, whose kingship is not rooted in the kingship of Jesus Christ. For he alone is worthy of our anointing and our loyal and obedient service, and no one can be a king, unless they belong to Him, the king of kings, and the Lord of Lords, forever and ever. Amen.
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