Homily
34th and Final Sunday of Ordinary Time
Solemnity of Christ the King
25 November 2012
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas
Daily Readings
Audio
Michael Jackson is the king of pop. Elvis the king of rock. Simba the king of the jungle. Lebron is King James of the basketball world. Perhaps, in a country whose freedom was gained through the toppling of a king, and who elects a president instead, talk of kings could sound anachronistic. Yet we are not immune to anointing kings. We love to point out who dominates in their particular area of reality. We love to point out who demands submission, the one who reigns over his competitors, the one who has power and fame. We still love kings, and what is more, we still love seeing them fall.
A king is different than a president. A president serves at our pleasure. He is elected. A king commands obedience. There is no kingship where there is divided loyalty. Kingship is absolute. It demands submission. When we declare the Kingship of Jesus, and worship him on this solemnity, we do not do so lightly. For one does not worship that which he elects or that which serves at his pleasure. Worship demands submission. So rightly, if we have come this morning daring to worship, it is fitting to proclaim the one we worship to be Jesus Christ our King.
Today we submit ourselves to the author of all creation, to the one more powerful than the Big Bang because he existed before it happened. We bow down before one whose kingdom does not just occupy a vast portion of the time and space of the universe, but one whose kingdom is alone universal and eternal. Because his kingdom is founded by truth and love, justice and peace, it is a kingdom that even one with the power to launch a nuclear weapon cannot destroy. This kingdom belongs alone to Jesus. So whenever we say the name of Jesus, we almost always anoint him king at the exact same time. Jesus the Christ. Jesus the Anointed. Jesus the Lord. Jesus our King.
Yet the incomparable power of Jesus our King lies not ultimately in his power to rule and to judge and to dominate, but remarkably, in its opposite. These last things belong to Jesus as King, but there is something more foundational, something about his kingship that comes first. Jesus is King not just because He is greater than other Kings, but because His is a new category of kingship. He is the only and ultimate definition of what a King is, and anyone else's kingship is illusory and fleeting unless it shares in His kingship.
For Jesus our King is powerful not just because He existed before, and is the author of, the Big Bang and all that comes after. He is powerful even moreso because He can also make himself so small as to be born out in the cold, in abject poverty. He is powerful enough to ride into his capital city not with a secret service or an army, but on a donkey. He is powerful enough to hand himself over to his enemies, to allow himself to be judged by Pilate, and to be spat upon and mocked on the cross as Ieusus Nazarenus Rex Ieudaeorum. This power shown by our King, to give oneself over in love to one's enemies, is a power greater than the Big Bang. The power of sacrificial love shown by our King is the true ground of all reality.
This sacrifice of Jesus, his being a Lamb, precedes his ultimate coming on the clouds to judge heaven and earth. We submit today to a King who allowed himself to be the Lamb who was slain. On this solemnity of Christ the King, we bow down unequivocally and without reservation to the truth that is Jesus, the truth that he represents and that He is. For anyone who belongs to the truth, sees the truth that is Jesus, and declares Him alone to be King. By virtue of our baptism, we too are kings through Him, with Him and in Him. Let us not shy away from the dignity we have as those sent out in the power of the Holy Spirit to help build His everlasting Kingdom by a similar gift of our own lives. Amen.
34th and Final Sunday of Ordinary Time
Solemnity of Christ the King
25 November 2012
St. Lawrence Catholic Campus Center at the University of Kansas
Daily Readings
Audio
Michael Jackson is the king of pop. Elvis the king of rock. Simba the king of the jungle. Lebron is King James of the basketball world. Perhaps, in a country whose freedom was gained through the toppling of a king, and who elects a president instead, talk of kings could sound anachronistic. Yet we are not immune to anointing kings. We love to point out who dominates in their particular area of reality. We love to point out who demands submission, the one who reigns over his competitors, the one who has power and fame. We still love kings, and what is more, we still love seeing them fall.
A king is different than a president. A president serves at our pleasure. He is elected. A king commands obedience. There is no kingship where there is divided loyalty. Kingship is absolute. It demands submission. When we declare the Kingship of Jesus, and worship him on this solemnity, we do not do so lightly. For one does not worship that which he elects or that which serves at his pleasure. Worship demands submission. So rightly, if we have come this morning daring to worship, it is fitting to proclaim the one we worship to be Jesus Christ our King.
Today we submit ourselves to the author of all creation, to the one more powerful than the Big Bang because he existed before it happened. We bow down before one whose kingdom does not just occupy a vast portion of the time and space of the universe, but one whose kingdom is alone universal and eternal. Because his kingdom is founded by truth and love, justice and peace, it is a kingdom that even one with the power to launch a nuclear weapon cannot destroy. This kingdom belongs alone to Jesus. So whenever we say the name of Jesus, we almost always anoint him king at the exact same time. Jesus the Christ. Jesus the Anointed. Jesus the Lord. Jesus our King.
Yet the incomparable power of Jesus our King lies not ultimately in his power to rule and to judge and to dominate, but remarkably, in its opposite. These last things belong to Jesus as King, but there is something more foundational, something about his kingship that comes first. Jesus is King not just because He is greater than other Kings, but because His is a new category of kingship. He is the only and ultimate definition of what a King is, and anyone else's kingship is illusory and fleeting unless it shares in His kingship.
For Jesus our King is powerful not just because He existed before, and is the author of, the Big Bang and all that comes after. He is powerful even moreso because He can also make himself so small as to be born out in the cold, in abject poverty. He is powerful enough to ride into his capital city not with a secret service or an army, but on a donkey. He is powerful enough to hand himself over to his enemies, to allow himself to be judged by Pilate, and to be spat upon and mocked on the cross as Ieusus Nazarenus Rex Ieudaeorum. This power shown by our King, to give oneself over in love to one's enemies, is a power greater than the Big Bang. The power of sacrificial love shown by our King is the true ground of all reality.
This sacrifice of Jesus, his being a Lamb, precedes his ultimate coming on the clouds to judge heaven and earth. We submit today to a King who allowed himself to be the Lamb who was slain. On this solemnity of Christ the King, we bow down unequivocally and without reservation to the truth that is Jesus, the truth that he represents and that He is. For anyone who belongs to the truth, sees the truth that is Jesus, and declares Him alone to be King. By virtue of our baptism, we too are kings through Him, with Him and in Him. Let us not shy away from the dignity we have as those sent out in the power of the Holy Spirit to help build His everlasting Kingdom by a similar gift of our own lives. Amen.
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