Who is in control?

Homily

34th and Last Sunday in Ordinary Time B2

Solemnity of Christ the King

24 November 2024

St. Ann Catholic Church - Prairie Village, KS

AMDG

Who is in control?

We just had a dramatic election about who should be in control of this country.  As it goes with the things of this fallen world, the rhetoric was riddled with fear-mongering.  So many people are afraid the world is spinning out of control, toward destruction.  That's probably because it is, and always will be.  The world as we know it, though exceedingly good, is broken at its core, doomed to destruction, and there is an enemy determined to make all things end in death.  There is reason to be anxious, and scared.  It's not only in politics and the economy, it's in our personal lives all the more.  I doubt there are too many people in this room who feel in control, who feel absolutely safe.  I would bet instead that most everyone is fearful about something, and experiencing a lack of control.

So who is in control?

For the Solemnity of Christ the King, we have this dramatic encounter between a prisoner and a governor, between Jesus and Pilate.  So critical is Pilate in the economy of salvation, that he appears in the creeds of the Church.  Yes, that's right, the three persons of the Trinity, Mary and you guessed it, Pontius Pilate appear in the creeds.  This conversation we hear in the Gospel is critical.  Who is in control in this critical exchange?  Remarkably, it's not Pilate.  The one who has the power to crucify or release Jesus is the one scared out of his mind.  The one with all the worldly power, with an army to back him up, is the most scared person in the world in the face of a true King, even as that king is bound in chains, scourged, condemned and seemingly overcome with weakness.

Who is in control?

Jesus of course in His passion shows that real kingly power looks like.  The one who is in control, and who participates in the true and everlasting kingdom of heaven, is the Lamb that is slain, the one who can give His life away in self-sacrificial and suffering love.  Blessed are those, happy are those, in control are those who are persecuted for the sake of truth and righteousness, for theirs in the Kingdom of heaven.  

Jesus toys with Pilate in this exchange, necessarily mocking Pilate's power through subversive questions, exposing the fear of anyone who is desperately hanging on to control and power according to the ways of the world.  Jesus in his passion is the ultimate revolutionary, overturning the power of this and forever changing how the world truly works, by his self-sacrificing and suffering love.

So you too are His children, incorporated through baptism into His suffering and death, receiving the dignity of being a kingdom of priests!  Members of this Kingdom enjoy through Jesus our King the happiness of claiming thorns as our true crown and the cross as our true throne.  No one has greater love nor power than this, to lay down one's life on this altar with Christ, through Christ and in Christ.  We share in the power to forever change how the world works, and to build a kingdom where a love stronger than death reigns forever.

It's the last Sunday of this liturgical year.  Twelve months ago, when we started this journey of faith, did you want to participate more fully in a kingdom where thorns are your true crown and the cross is your true throne?  Twelve months from now, will I be more free to recognize where true power lies, and embrace my opportunity to lose my own control and to place my suffering and the sacrifice of my life within the priestly sacrifice of Christ, my true King.

Who is really in control?