CHRIST THE
KING SUNDAY (2 Sm 5:1-3; Col 1:12-20; Lk 23:35-43)
The Church’s
liturgical year concludes with the feast of Christ the King, instituted by Pope
Pius XI in 1925. Christ is our spiritual King and Ruler who rules by truth and
love. We declare our loyalty to him by the quality of our Christian commitment,
expressed in our serving of others with sacrificial and forgiving love, and by
our solidarity with the poor. Although emperors and kings with real ruling
power exist today only in history books, we nevertheless honor Christ as the
King of the Universe and the King of our hearts by allowing him to take control
of our lives. In thousands of human hearts all over the world, Jesus still
reigns as King.
Kings are supposed to
be powerful, successful and victorious. But today we are staring at a
dying, helpless man hanging from a cross and acclaim him king. Because
the cross is our King's throne -
Christ reigns not from velvet-covered, diamond-encrusted, gold-plated
seats, like passing earthly kings, rather, he reigns from
the cross.
Charles
Colson, former legal counsel to Richard Nixon and later founder of the
Christian Prison Fellowship, says: “All the kings and queens I have known in
history sent their people out to die for them. I only know one King who decided
to die for his people.”
During the
trial Pilate asked Jesus, "Are you the king of the Jews?" Jesus
replied, "You have said it." (Luke 23:3). "You are a king, then!"
said Pilate. Jesus answered, "You are right in saying I am a king. In
fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to
testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me." (Jn
18:37) After a few hours, the same king stood elevated on the cross with the
inscription INRI, (Iesus Nazarenus, Rex Iudaeorum - "Jesus of Nazareth,
the King of the Jews") By placing this title Pilate had made an
involuntary, but historical proclamation that Jesus is the King not only
of the Jews but of the Universe. Many a time such involuntary
proclamations of Jesus’ Kingship are heard from unbelievers. The soldiers made
a crown of long, sharp thorns and put it on his head, and they put a royal
purple robe on him, and shouted, "Hail! King of the Jews!"(John
19)
Pope John
Paul II said, "If it is assessed according to the criteria of this world,
Jesus' kingship can appear 'paradoxical'. Indeed, the power he exercises does
not fit into earthly logic. On the contrary, his is the power of love and
service that requires the gratuitous gift of self and the consistent witness to
the truth (cf. Jn 18:37)."
Christ's
Kingdom begins in this world, but it is not of this world. It
begins in the hearts of Christians like us, his followers,
who believe in him and obey him. The Church and the saints
are living signs of this Kingdom, as buds in
springtime are signs of summer. And so, since his Kingdom transcends
this world, it makes sense that Christ's throne
is different from earthly thrones. Christ's Kingdom is
built on the unconquerable power of God's unconditional love for each
one of us. On the cross Jesus reveals that love by suffering and dying for
our salvation, even while we were still sinners. In
the Resurrection he will reveal that unconquerable power. And
that's why our King reigns from such a throne.
As we
celebrate the Kingship of Christ today, let us remember the truth that he is
not our King if we do not listen to him, love him, serve him, and follow him.
We belong to his Kingdom only when we try to walk with him, when we try to live
our lives fully in the spirit of the Gospel and when that Gospel spirit
penetrates every facet of our living. If Christ is really King of my life, he
must be King of every part of my life, and I must let him reign in all parts of
my life. We become Christ the King’s subjects when we sincerely respond to his
loving invitation: “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me; for I am
gentle and humble in heart“ (Mt 11:29). By cultivating in our lives
the gentle and humble mind of Christ, we show others that Jesus Christ is in
indeed our King and that he is in charge of our lives.
Today’s
Feast of Christ the King reminds us of the great truth that Christ must be in
charge of our lives, that we must give him sovereign power over our bodies, our
thoughts, our heart, and our will. In every moral decision we face, there’s a
choice between Christ the King and Barabbas, and the one who seeks to live in
Christ’s Kingdom is the one who says, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth
as it is in Heaven.” Let us ask ourselves the question, “What does Jesus, my
King, want me to do or say in this situation?” Are we praying each day that our
King will give us the right words to say to the people we meet that day, words
that will make us true ambassadors of Jesus? Does our home life as well as the
way we conduct ourselves with our friends come under the Kingship of Jesus? Or
do we try to please ourselves rather than him?
Let’s pray
that we get the grace to totally surrender ourselves to the King of the
Universe and king of our hearts.
Today we
celebrate the feast of Jesus Christ King of the Universe. As king he would like
to rule our lives but only if we accept him as king. Citizens of Christ’s
kingdom are expected to observe only one major law–the law of love. “Love
God with your whole heart and love your neighbor as yourself. “If you love Me,
you will keep My commandments”(Jn 15:10). Jesus expects a higher degree of
love from His followers: “Love one another as I have loved you” (Jn
13:34). On this great Feast of Christ, the King, let us resolve to give
him the central place in our lives and promise to obey his commandment of love
by sharing what we have with all his needy children.
The Cross is his throne and the Sermon on
the Mount, his rule of law. His citizens need obey only one major law: “Love
God with all your being, and love others as I have loved you.” His love is
selfless, compassionate, forgiving, and unconditional. He is a King with a
saving and liberating mission: freeing us from all types of bondage, enabling
us to live peacefully and happily on earth, and promising us an inheritance in
the eternal life of heaven.
4) We need to obey the
law of love of Christ the King. Citizens of Christ’s kingdom are expected to observe only
one major law–the law of love. “Love God with your whole heart and love
your neighbor as yourself.”(Mt 10:10; 22:37-40; Mk 12:30-31); Lk 10:27.) “If
you love Me, you will keep My commandments”(Jn 15:10). Jesus expects a
higher degree of love from His followers: “Love one another as I
have loved you” (Jn 13:34). On this great Feast of Christ, the
King, let us resolve to give him the central place in our lives and promise to
obey his commandment of love by sharing what we have with all his needy
children.
He revealed himself in humility, aware that his Kingship
would bear fruit not in human glory, but in human ignominy. But even among
those in the crowd who praised and exalted him, who honored and flattered him
with the waving of branches and laying down of their cloaks, were those who
would soon cry out for his crucifixion, betraying him. Of those, some would
repent and others would not. Jesus wept for them. In his humanity he felt the
weight of rejection. But it was not rejection that he experienced due to the
desire to preserve his human respect. His divine heart was pierced with sorrow
as he felt the weight of damnation for those who would be lost.
3) We need to follow
Christ the King’s lesson of humble service to the Truth. Christ has come to serve and to be of
service to others. Hence, we are called to his service – service to the Truth.
In today’s Gospel, we hear Jesus saying that the reason for his coming – the
reason that he was born – was to “bear witness” to the Truth. The Truth to
which Jesus bears witness by His Life and which he teaches us is that God, his
Father, is also our loving and forgiving Father, so we are all His children,
forming one body. Hence, whatever we do for His children, and our sisters and
brothers, we do for Him. So we are called to be a people who reach out to
embrace the enemy and the stranger, a people who are called to glory in
diversity, a people who will endlessly forgive, a people who will reach out in
compassion to the poor and to the marginalized people of our society, a people
who will support one another in prayer, a people who will realize that we are
called not to be served, but to serve. In other words, servant-leadership is
the model that Christ the King has given us. “For the Christian, ‘to reign is
to serve him,’ particularly when serving ‘the poor and the suffering, in whom
the Church recognizes the image of her poor and suffering founder’” (CCC #786).
Since we are
the members of this kingdom, we are bound to practice its fundamental virtues,
that others will recognize us as the citizens of the kingdom of
Jesus.
CHRIST THE KING SUNDAY (2 Sm 5:1-3; Col 1:12-20; Lk 23:35-43)
Homily starter anecdotes: #1: Christ has conquered; Christ now
rules: In the middle of St Peter’s square in Rome, there stands a
great obelisk. It about four and half thousand years old, and it originally
stood in the temple of the sun in the Egyptian city of Heliopolis. But it was
bought to Rome by the dreadful Emperor Caligula and it was set right in the
middle of Circus of Nero, equally dreadful, that was on the Vatican hill. It
was in that Circus that St Peter was martyred, and the obelisk may well have
been the last thing on this Earth that Peter saw. On top of the obelisk there
now stands a cross. In ancient times there was a gold ball representing, of
course, the sun. Now there is a cross — the cross of Christ, and on the
pedestal of the obelisk there are two inscriptions. The first of them in Latin,
“Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat”, which translated
means, Christ has conquered, Christ now rules, Christ now reigns supreme. The
other inscription says “The Lion of Judah has conquered.” — So here we have the
language of victory. Christianity has triumphed by the power of the cross and
triumphed even over even the greatest power that the ancient world had known,
the Roman Empire, and here in the middle of St Peter’s square stands the
obelisk bearing those triumphant inscriptions. (Mark Coleridge Archbishop of
Brisbane) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/).
#2: “Long live Christ
the King!” In the 1920s, a
totalitarian regime gained control of Mexico and tried to suppress the Church.
To resist the regime, many Christians took up the cry, “Viva Cristo Rey!”
(“Long live Christ the King!”) They called themselves “Cristeros.” The
most famous Cristero was a young Jesuit priest named Padre
Miguel Pro. Using various disguises, Padre Pro ministered to the people of
Mexico City. Finally, the government arrested him and sentenced him to public
execution on November 23, 1927. The president of Mexico (Plutarco Calles)
thought that Padre Pro would beg for mercy, so he invited the press to the
execution. Padre Pro did not plead for his life, but instead knelt holding a
crucifix. When he finished his prayer, he kissed the crucifix and stood up.
Holding the crucifix in his right hand, he extended his arms and shouted, “Viva
Cristo Rey!” (“Long live Christ the King!”) At that moment the soldiers fired.
The journalists took pictures; if you look up “Padre Pro” or “Blessed Miguel
Pro” [beatified by Pope St. John Paul II, September 25, 1988) on the Internet,
you can see that picture. (Fr. Phil Bloom). (https://frtonyshomilies.com/).
#3: “I die the king’s
good servant, but God’s first.” St. Thomas More is the patron saint of lawyers and
politicians, among others. He was a brilliant lawyer and diplomat in 16th
century England. His patriotism and loyalty to the throne attracted the
attention of King Henry VIII who made him Lord Chancellor of England. What
Henry VIII did not know was that Thomas More’s first loyalty was to Christ, the
King of kings. When Henry VIII decided to divorce his wife Catherine of Aragon,
marry Anne Boleyn, and make himself head of the Church of England, Thomas More
thought this was not right. Rather than approve what he believed to be against
the Divine will, he resigned from his prestigious and wealthy position as Lord
Chancellor and he and his family lived a life of poverty thereafter. Since he
would not give his support to the king, Thomas More was arrested, convicted of
treason, imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1534 and beheaded in July of the
following year. On his way to public execution, More encouraged the people to
remain steadfast in the Faith. His last recorded words were: “I die the king’s
good servant, but God’s first.”– For More, it was not simply enough to confess
Christ privately in the safety of his heart and home; he believed one must also
confess Christ in one’s business and professional life as well as in the laws
and policies that govern society. (Fr. Munacci). (https://frtonyshomilies.com/).
# 4: On His Majesty’s
Service: Polycarp, the second
century bishop of Smyrna, was brought before the Roman authorities and told to
curse Christ and he would be released. He replied, “Eighty-six years have I
served him, and he has done me no wrong: how then can I blaspheme my King, Jesus
Christ, who saved me?” The Roman officer replied, “Unless you change your mind,
I will have you burnt.” But Polycarp said, “You threaten a fire that burns for
an hour, and after a while is quenched; for you are ignorant of the judgment to
come and of everlasting punishment reserved for the ungodly. Do what you wish.”
He was condemned to be burnt at the stake, and the sentence was carried out,
but the flames did not touch him, so his executioners had to stab him to death.
– Only through the grace of Holy Perseverance for which he asked God, was
Polycarp enabled to remain faithful through all his trials. We all need to ask
God for that same grace daily, if we would be with God in Heaven! (https://frtonyshomilies.com/).
# 5: A king with a big
difference: Charles Colson, former
legal counsel to Richard Nixon and later founder of the Christian Prison
Fellowship, says it like this: “All the kings and queens I have known in
history sent their people out to die for them. I only know one King who decided
to die for his people.” (https://frtonyshomilies.com/).
Introduction: In the Church’s calendar, Christ the King is the parallel
of the Super Bowl trophy or the Final Four in college basketball or the last
game of the World Series. The Church’s liturgical year concludes with this
feast of Christ the King, instituted by Pope Pius XI in 1925 to celebrate the
Jubilee Year and the 16th centenary of the Council of Nicaea. Instituting this
feast, Pope Pius XI proclaimed: “Pax Christi in regno Christi”
(“The peace of Christ in the reign of Christ”). This feast was established and
proclaimed by the Pope to reassert the sovereignty of Christ and the Church
over all forms of government and to remind Christians of the fidelity and
loyalty they owed to Christ, who by his Incarnation and sacrificial death on
the cross had made them both adopted children of God and future citizens and
heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven. The Feast was also a reminder to the
totalitarian governments of Mussolini, Hitler, and Stalin that Jesus Christ is
the only Sovereign King. Christ is our spiritual King and Ruler who rules by
truth and love. We declare our loyalty to him by the quality of our Christian
commitment, expressed in our serving of others with sacrificial and forgiving
love, and by our solidarity with the poor. Although emperors and kings with
real ruling power exist today only in history books, we nevertheless honor
Christ as the King of the Universe and the King of our hearts by allowing him
to take control of our lives. In thousands of human hearts all over the world,
Jesus still reigns as King. The Cross is his throne and the Sermon on the
Mount, his rule of law. His citizens need obey only one major law: “Love God
with all your being, and love others as I have loved you.” His love is
selfless, compassionate, forgiving, and unconditional. He is a King with a
saving and liberating mission: freeing us from all types of bondage, enabling
us to live peacefully and happily on earth, and promising us an inheritance in
the eternal life of heaven.
Today’s scripture
summarized: The first reading (II Samuel 5:1-3) describes all the tribes of Israel
choosing Israel’s second king, the great David, as their “shepherd” and
“commander.” David’s successful 40-year reign became the model for the
hoped-for Messiah– the Christ or the Anointed One in later Judaism. In the
second reading (Col 1:12-20), Paul quoting an early Christian hymn,
assures the Colossian Christians of: (1) the primacy of Christ over and above
all angels and cosmic powers; (2) the value and necessity of the cross; and (3)
the cosmic effects of salvation. Today’s Gospel (Lk 23:35-43),
referring to the sign board hung by the order of Pilate on the cross of Jesus,
“Jesus the Nazarene, King of the Jews,” presents it as an imperial
admission of the kingship of Christ, although it was intended to serve as a
three-fold mockery. It prompted the Jewish leaders to call out, “He saved
others, let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God,” and the
soldiers to shout at Jesus, “If you are the king of the Jews, save
yourself,” and the thief on Jesus’ left side to challenge him, “Aren’t
you the Messiah? Then save yourself and us.” Pilate may have had his
own reasons for writing this inscription on the board: to protect himself from
being charged with bowing to the pressure of the mob; to mock Jesus and thereby
to appease the Jewish leaders; and to forewarn other would-be revolutionaries
that their rebellion against the empire would be similarly extinguished. But
Pilate was unknowingly accepting the person and mission of Jesus as King and
Savior. The repentant thief accepts Jesus as his Savior, calling Jesus Jeshuah, or
Jesus, meaning “the Lord saves!” Jesus assured the thief that he had the power
to promise him a share in Jesus’ everlasting reign: “Amen, I say to
you, today you will be with me in Paradise!” (Lk 23:43)
First reading: II Sm
5:1-3, explained: This reading recalls the story of David’s
anointing as King of Israel. David was seen in the Old Testament as a type, a
representation, of the future Messianic King (2 Sm 7:16, Is 9:6-7, Jer 23:5).
Jesus is often identified as the Son of David, as the Messiah, and as the
Shepherd of God’s people. King David’s successful 40-year reign became the
model for the hoped-for Messiah (that is, the Anointed One, or the Christ), in
later Judaism. Saul, the first King of Israel, learned from the Lord God
through the prophet Samuel that the kingship would not remain in his family because
he had disobeyed the laws of God. David was chosen by God to replace Saul and
was anointed secretly by Samuel in Bethlehem. Forced to flee from Saul, David
settled in Hebron. Accepted by the tribe of Judah, he reigned there as King of
Judah for seven years. The first reading tells us how, on the death of Saul,
the northern tribes came to David in Hebron and anointed him King over all of
Israel. David’s reign lasted a mere forty years, but Christ’s reign is eternal.
David was a mere man, sinful but repentant. Christ is True God and True Man,
sinless and All-perfect. Christ died on the cross to free all men from their
sins.
Second reading: Col
1:12-20, explained: Among the early
Christians at Colossae, there were people promoting a detailed belief in angels
and their mediating role in our relationship with God. Neither affirming nor
denying the existence of these “Thrones, Dominations, Principalities or
Powers,” Paul simply states that Christ is superior to the whole lot. St. Paul
tells the Colossians how grateful they should be to God for having made them
Christians and citizens of Christ’s kingdom. The Apostle then describes Who and
What their new Sovereign is: true God and true Man, the true Image of the
invisible God and, at the same time, the perfect exemplar of true humanity.
As God’s beloved Son, our King has direct and immediate access
to God. As the Image of the invisible God, Jesus, our King, is
the embodiment of Divine Sovereignty. As the firstborn of creation, He
is the promise of all the good things that will follow. As risen Lord, He
is the Head of the Church and the promise of our own resurrection. This portion
of St. Paul’s Epistle is aptly chosen for this great Feast of the Kingship of
Christ, for it reminds us of how blessed, how fortunate we are to be
Christians, citizens of His Kingdom on earth, with a promise of perpetual
citizenship in His Heavenly Kingdom if we remain faithful to Him, because “in
Him all things hold together.”
Gospel explained: Today’s Gospel presents Christ the King as reigning, not from a
throne, but from the gibbet of the cross. Like the “suffering servant”
of Isaiah (53:3), Jesus is despised and rejected, as the bystanders ridicule
the crucified King, challenging him to prove his Kingship by coming down from
the cross. The Gospel also tells of the criminal crucified beside Jesus who
recognized Jesus as a Savior King and asked Jesus to remember him when he
entered his kingdom. Jesus promised the good thief, “Amen, I say to you, today
you will be with me in Paradise!” Tradition remembers the criminal on Jesus’
right side as “the good thief” who repented of his sins at the last
moment, though Mark and Matthew call him a “revolutionary.” Although the
Romans intended the inscription on the cross, “This is the King of the
Jews,” to be ironic, it reflected the popular Jewish
speculations about Jesus’ possible identity as the Messiah of Israel. For Luke
and other early Christians that title was correct, since the Kingship of Jesus
was made manifest most perfectly in his suffering and death on the cross,
followed by his Resurrection on the third day, as he had foretold.
The Biblical basis of the
feast: A) Old Testament texts: The
title Christ the King has its roots both in Scripture and in
the whole theology of the Kingdom of God. In most of the Messianic
prophecies given in the Old Testament books of Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah and
Daniel, Christ the Messiah is represented as a King. B) New Testament
texts: a) In the Annunciation, recorded in Lk 13:2-33, we read: “The
Lord God will make him a King, as his ancestor David was, and He will be the
King of the descendants of Jacob forever and His Kingdom will never end.” In
fact, the Kingdom of God is the center of Jesus’ teaching and
the phrase “Kingdom of God” occurs in the Gospels 122 times, of
which 90 instances are uses by Jesus. b) The Magi from the Far East came to
Jerusalem and asked the question: (Mt. 2:2) “Where is the baby born to be
the King of the Jews? We saw his star… and we have come to worship him.” c)
During the royal reception given to Jesus on Palm Sunday, the Jews shouted: (Lk
19:38) “God bless the King, who comes in the Name of the Lord.” d)
During the trial of Jesus described in today’s Gospel, Pilate asked the
question: (Jn 18:33): “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus
replied: “You say that I am a king. I was born and came into this world
for this one purpose, to bear witness to the Truth.” e) Today’s Gospel
tells us that the board hung over Jesus’ head on the cross read: “Jesus
the Nazarene, King of the Jews,” (Lk 23:36; see also, Mt 27:37; Mk
15:26; John 19:19-20), and that, to the repentant thief on the cross who made
the request: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom,” Jesus
promised , “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise!”
(Lk 19:39- 43). f) Before his Ascension into Heaven, Jesus declared:
(Mt. 28:18): “I have been given all authority in heaven and on
earth.” g) Finally (Mt 25:31), we read that Christ the King will come
in glory to judge us on the day of the Last Judgment.
What is the Kingdom of
God? What is the Kingdom of Christ the King? Here is a beautiful explanation given by
Gerald Darring (St. Louis University: Center for Liturgy): The
Kingdom of God is a space. It exists in every home where parents and children
love each other. It exists in every region and country that cares for its weak
and vulnerable. It exists in every parish that reaches out to the needy. The
Kingdom of God is a time. It happens whenever someone feeds a hungry person, or
shelters a homeless person, or shows care to a neglected person. It happens
whenever we overturn an unjust law, or correct an injustice, or avert a war. It
happens whenever people join in the struggle to overcome poverty, to erase
ignorance, to pass on the Faith. The Kingdom of God is in the past (in the life
and work of Jesus of Nazareth); it is in the present (in the work of the Church
and in the efforts of many others to create a world of goodness and justice);
it is in the future (reaching its completion in the age to come). The Kingdom
of God is a condition. Its symptoms are love, justice, and peace. Jesus Christ
is king! We pray today that God may free all the world to rejoice in his peace,
to glory in his justice, to live in his love.
Life
Messages: 1) We need to assess our commitment to Christ the King today. As we celebrate
the Kingship of Christ today, let us remember the truth that he is not our King
if we do not listen to him, love him, serve him, and follow him. We belong to
his Kingdom only when we try to walk with him, when we try to live our lives
fully in the spirit of the Gospel and when that Gospel spirit penetrates every
facet of our living. If Christ is really King of my life, he must be King of
every part of my life, and I must let him reign in all parts of my life. We
become Christ the King’s subjects when we sincerely respond to his loving
invitation: “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me; for I am
gentle and humble in heart“ (Mt 11:29). By
cultivating in our lives the gentle and humble mind of Christ, we show others
that Jesus Christ is in indeed our King and that he is in charge of our lives.
2)
We need to give Jesus control over our lives. Today’s Feast of Christ the King reminds
us of the great truth that Christ must be in charge of our lives, that we must
give him sovereign power over our bodies, our thoughts, our heart, and our
will. In every moral decision we face, there’s a choice between Christ the King
and Barabbas, and the one who seeks to live in Christ’s Kingdom is the one who
says, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.”
Let us ask ourselves the question, “What does Jesus, my King, want me to do or
say in this situation?” Are we praying each day that our King will give us the
right words to say to the people we meet that day, words that will make us true
ambassadors of Jesus? Does our home life as well as the way we conduct
ourselves with our friends come under the Kingship of Jesus? Or do we try to
please ourselves rather than him?
3)
We need to follow Christ the King’s lesson of humble service to the Truth. Christ has come to
serve and to be of service to others. Hence, we are called to his service –
service to the Truth. In today’s Gospel, we hear Jesus saying that the reason
for his coming – the reason that he was born – was to “bear witness” to the
Truth. The Truth to which Jesus bears witness by His Life and which he teaches
us is that God, his Father, is also our loving and forgiving Father, so we are
all His children, forming one body. Hence, whatever we do for His children, and
our sisters and brothers, we do for Him. So we are called to be a people who
reach out to embrace the enemy and the stranger, a people who are called to
glory in diversity, a people who will endlessly forgive, a people who will
reach out in compassion to the poor and to the marginalized people of our
society, a people who will support one another in prayer, a people who will
realize that we are called not to be served, but to serve. In other words,
servant-leadership is the model that Christ the King has given us. “For the
Christian, ‘to reign is to serve him,’ particularly when serving ‘the poor and
the suffering, in whom the Church recognizes the image of her poor and
suffering founder’” (CCC #786).
4)
We need to obey the law of love of Christ the King. Citizens of
Christ’s kingdom are expected to observe only one major law–the law of
love. “Love God with your whole heart and love your neighbor as
yourself.”(Mt 10:10; 22:37-40; Mk 12:30-31); Lk 10:27.) “If you
love Me, you will keep My commandments”(Jn 15:10). Jesus expects a
higher degree of love from His followers: “Love one another as I
have loved you” (Jn 13:34). On this great Feast of Christ, the
King, let us resolve to give him the central place in our lives and promise to
obey his commandment of love by sharing what we have with all his needy
children.
JOKES OF THE WEEK
#1: Christ is in
charge: Susan C. Kimber, in a book called Christian Woman, shares
a funny piece of advice she received from her little son: “Tired of struggling
with my strong-willed little son, Thomas, I looked him in the eye and asked a
question I felt sure would bring him in line: ‘Thomas, who is in charge here?’
Not missing a beat, he replied, ‘Jesus is, and not you mom.’ ”
#2: Co-pilot Christ
the King: Many people love bumper sticker theology. Bumper stickers may not
always have the soundest theological statements, but they generally at least
have the ability to make you think.
# 3: “Right near the end!” Once a priest was
giving a homily and as he went on, he became more animated. He made a sweeping
gesture – and accidentally knocked his papers from the pulpit. He scrambled to
pick them up, then asked, “Now, where was I?” A voice from the congregation
responded, “Right near the end!” — Well, we are at the end – not of the homily,
but of the liturgical year
# 4: The most
famous man who ever lived: One day a kindergarten teacher nun said to the
class of 5-year-olds, “I’ll give $2 to the child who can tell me who was the
most famous man who ever lived.” An Irish boy put his hand up and said, “It was
St. Patrick. “The teacher said, “Sorry Sean, that’s not correct.” Then a
Scottish boy put his hand up and said, “It was St. Andrew.” The teacher
replied, “I’m sorry, Hamish, that’s not right either. “Finally, a Jewish boy
raised his hand and said, “It was Jesus Christ.” The teacher said, “That’s
absolutely right, Marvin, come up here and I’ll give you the $2.” –As the
teacher was giving Marvin his money, she said, “You know Marvin, you being
Jewish, I was very surprised you said Jesus Christ.” Marvin replied, “Yeah. In
my heart I knew it was Moses, but business is business…”
USEFUL WEBSITES OF THE
WEEK (For homilies & Bible study groups
1) Fr. Nick’s
collection of Sunday homilies from 65 priests & weekday homilies: https://www.catholicsermons.com/homilies/sunday_homilies
2) Fr. Don’
collection of video homilies & blogs: https://sundayprep.org/featured-homilies/ (Copy it on the Address bar and press the Enter button)
3) Fr. Geoffrey Plant’s beautiful
& scholarly video classes on Sunday gospel, Bible & RCIA
topics: https://www.youtube.com/user/GeoffreyPlant20663)
4) Dr. Brant Pitre’s
commentary on Cycle C Sunday Scripture for Bible Class: https://catholicproductions.com/blogs/mass-readings-explained-year-Biblical basis of Catholic doctrines: http://scripturecatholic.com/
5) Agape
Catholic Bible Lessons: http://www.agapebiblestudy.com/
6) The Catholic
Liturgical Library: http://www.catholicliturgy.com/
7) Liturgical
Calendar: http://www.themass.org/c-1109.htm
8) Intercession for
priests: http://www.intercessionforpriests.org/
9) Preach the word:
http://www.preachtheword.com/topical.html
10) Text week
homilies: http://textweek.com/yearb/christb.htm
33- Additional anecdotes
1) A Man
for All Seasons: There
is a great scene in the play, A Man for All Seasons, that fits
very well with today’s Feast of Christ the King. You might remember that
the play was about the determination of St. Thomas More to stand for the Faith
against the persuasion and eventually the persecution of Henry VIII of
England. In the scene I’m referring to, Henry VIII is trying to coax his
second-in-charge, Thomas More, to agree with him that it is proper for him, the
King, to divorce his wife Catherine on the grounds that she was also his
sister-in-law but really because she had not given birth to a male heir to the
Kingdom. After the King made all his arguments, Thomas More said that he
himself was unfit to meddle in this argument and the King should take it to
Rome. Henry VIII retorted that he didn’t need a Pope to tell him what he
could or couldn’t do. Then we come to the center point. Thomas More
asked the King, “Why do you need my support?” –Henry VIII replied with
words we would all love to hear said about each of us, “Because, Thomas, you
are honest. And what is more to the point, you are known to be
honest. There are plenty in the Kingdom who support me, but some do so
only out of fear and others only out of what they can get for their
support. But you are different. And people know it. That is
why I need your support.” — In
the presence of integrity, Henry VIII knew who was King and who was subject. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/).
2) “I am the
greatest.” Jesus is not a
king like the ancient Egyptian king, Ramses, whose arrogant motto was inscribed
on temples still standing, “I am the greatest.” Jesus is not a king like the
king of China, a savage tyrant who used millions of slaves to build the Great
Wall of China, a wall so huge that it can be seen from the moon. He is not a king
like Louis XIV, who lived in excessive luxury in his Versailles palace of 1000
rooms. Jesus is different in that he was not born of a reigning King, though He
is of the royal House of David, but as the Scripture tells, Jesus is the One
Whom God “will choose as king….” — There is no other king like King Jesus, for
Jesus is a Divine King, none other than the very Son of God, the Messiah.
Jeremiah calls Him, “the Lord of our Salvation.” (v. 6) St. Paul sees this in
Jesus who is “the image of the invisible God” and in whom dwells “all the
fullness of God.” Jesus himself knows who he is, for he says, “The Father
and I are One … he who has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:10). (https://frtonyshomilies.com/).
3) Desperate deaths of
autocratic kings and dictators: The death of Josef Stalin (1879-1953) the Communist
dictator was described by his daughter as difficult and terrible. Silenced by a
stroke shortly before he died, Stalin’s “last words” were more visible than audible. Newsweek magazine
quoted Svetlana Stalin who said, “At what seemed the very last moment, he cast
a glance over everyone in the room. It was a terrible glance, insane, angry,
and full of fear of death. With one final menacing gesture, he lifted his left
hand as if he were bringing down a curse on us all.” Philip III of Spain
(1578-1621), who proved himself to be an unfit king, indifferent to the plight
of his people, breathed his last wishing, “Would to God that I had never
reigned. What does all my glory profit but that I have so much the more torment
in my death?” Charles IX of France (1550-1574, reigned 1560-1574), who in 1572
had ordered the St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre of the Huguenots throughout
France met death with despair, “What blood! What murders! I am lost forever. I
know it.” When she lay dying, Queen Elizabeth I of England (1533-1603) was
reported to have said she would give, “All my possessions for a moment of
time.”– Today’s Gospel challenges us to compare with these royal deaths Christ
the King’s death on the cross, offering his life to God his Father in all
serenity and elegance. (Patricia Datchuck Sánchez) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/).
4) King in
disguise: The story is
told of Mother Teresa of Calcutta observing a novice using tweezers to pluck
maggots from the leg of a dying leper. The young woman stood at arm’s length to
perform the odious task. Gently but firmly, Mother Teresa corrected her charge.
— Taking the tweezers and putting her face quite near the wound, she said, “You
don’t understand, my dear. This is the leg of Christ our Lord. For what you do
to this man, you do to him.” (https://frtonyshomilies.com/).
5) Francis of Assisi was wealthy, high-born, and
high-spirited, but he was not happy. He felt that life was incomplete. Then one
day he was riding, and he met a leper, loathsome and repulsive in the ugliness
of his disease. Something moved Francis to dismount and fling his arms around this
wretched sufferer; and, lo, in his arms the face of the leper changed to the
face of the Christ. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/).
6) Leo
Tolstoy’s story “Martin the Cobbler” tells of a lonely shoemaker who is promised a visit by our
Lord that very day. Eagerly all day he awaits his arrival. But all that come
are a man in need of shoes, a young mother in need of food and shelter, and a
child in need of a friend. Each of these Martin serves willingly. The
cobbler ends the day thinking “Perhaps tomorrow he will come,” only to hear a
voice reply, “I did come to you today, Martin; not once, but three times.” (https://frtonyshomilies.com/).
7) “Long Live
Christ the King! Long Live the Pope!” Those of us, who pray for the
persecuted Church, mourned the loss of Ignatius, Cardinal Kung who died at the
age of 98. He stood by his convictions, and withstood persecution for his
Faith. He was consecrated the bishop of Shanghai in 1949, shortly after
the Communists took over China. The Chinese government pressured him to align
his loyalties to the “Chinese Catholic Patriotic Association.” But he
refused, choosing to remain loyal to his Church’s chain of command. In 1955,
the authorities brought him and 200 other priests to a stadium in
Shanghai. The government ordered them to “confess their crimes.”
Instead, Kung shouted “Long Live Christ the King! Long Live the
Pope.” Shortly thereafter, he received a life sentence, where he spent
the next 30 years in prison, most of the time in solitary confinement.
When he was freed in 1987, he came to the United States with his nephew and
settled in Stamford, Connecticut. He went to his eternal
reward on March 12, 2000. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/).
8) “Thou
hast conquered, O Galilean!” Of thirty Roman emperors, governors of provinces and
others in high office, who distinguished themselves by their fanatical zeal and
bitterness in persecuting the early Christians, one became mentally deranged;
another was slain by his own son. One of them became blind; another was
drowned. One was strangled; another died in miserable captivity.
One of them died of so loathsome a disease that several of his physicians were
put to death because they could not abide the stench that filled his
room. Two committed suicide; another attempted it but had to call for
help to finish the work. Five were assassinated by their own people or
servants, five others died the most miserable and excruciating deaths and eight
were killed in battle, or after being taken prisoners. Among those who
died in battle was Julian the Apostate. In the days of his prosperity he
is said to have pointed his dagger to heaven, defying the Son of God whom he
commonly called “the Galilean.” But when he was wounded in battle and saw
that all was over with him, he gathered up his clotted blood and threw it into
the air, exclaiming, “Thou hast conquered, O Galilean!” (Boise) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/).
9) “He is something
more than a king.” In
Lloyd Douglas’ novel, The Robe, the slave, Demetrius, pushed his
way through the crowd on Palm Sunday, trying to see who the center of
attraction was. He got close enough to look upon the face of Jesus.
Later another slave asked, “See him – close up?” Demetrius nodded.
“Crazy?” Demetrius shook his head emphatically. “King?” “No,”
muttered Demetrius, “not a king.” “What is he then?” demanded the other
slave. “I don’t know,” mumbled Demetrius, “but he is something more than
a king.” (https://frtonyshomilies.com/).
10) “Honey, take a
long, long look”: As the body of
Abraham Lincoln lay in state for a few hours in Cleveland, Ohio for mourners to
pay their tribute, a black woman in the long queue lifted up her little son and
said in a hushed voice: “Honey, take a long, long look. He died for us, to give
us freedom from slavery.” — Today’s Gospel gives us the same advice, presenting
the trial scene of Christ our King who redeemed us from Satan’s slavery by His
death on the cross. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/).
11) “Little
omission of kindness“: William McKinley, the 25th U.S. President, once had to choose between two equally
qualified men for a key job. He puzzled over the choice until he remembered a
long-ago incident. On a rainy night, McKinley had boarded a crowded streetcar.
One of his prospective candidates was in the car. When an old woman carrying a
basket of laundry struggled into the car looking for a seat, the job candidate
pretended not to see her while McKinley obliged. Remembering the episode as a
“little omission of kindness,” McKinley decided against the man on the
streetcar. — Our decisions, even the small fleeting ones, tell a lot
about us, whether we serve ourselves or Christ our King living in others. [Presidential
Anecdotes by Paul F. Boller Jr. (Penguin Books).] (https://frtonyshomilies.com/).
12) The
Generals of Insignificance in our lives: In the Berlin Art Gallery there is a painting by the
famous artist Adolph von Menzel that is only partially finished. It is
called, “Frederick the Great Addresses His Generals before the Battle of
Leuthen in 1757.” Menzel painstakingly painted the generals first, placing them
around the outside of the painting as a background and leaving a bare patch in
the middle of the painting for the King. But Menzel died before he could
finish the painting. So there is a painting full of generals but no king.
— We often spend much time enthroning the generals of insignificance in our
lives and postpone inviting Jesus the King of Kings into our hearts till the
last moment which is quite uncertain. As a result, many Christians die
without putting Christ into the very center of their lives. The painting
of our lives will never be complete until we place at its center Christ the
King whose feast we celebrate today. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/).
13) “I shall be
that soldier.” Sportsman and best-selling author Pat Williams, in his
book The Paradox of Power, tells about one man who deserved to
bear the name Christian. In fact, that was his name, Christian X, King of
Denmark during World War II. The people of Denmark remember him the way any of
us would want to be remembered, as a person of character, courage, and
principle. Every morning, King Christian rode without bodyguards in an open
carriage through the streets of Copenhagen. He trusted his people and wanted
them to feel free to come up to him, greet him, and shake his hand. In 1940,
Nazi Germany invaded Denmark. Like so many other European nations, this small
Scandinavian country was quickly conquered. But the spirit of the Danish people
and their king proved unquenchable. Even after the Nazis had taken control of
the nation, King Christian X continued his morning carriage rides. He boldly
led his people in a quiet but courageous resistance movement. On one occasion,
the king noticed a Nazi flag flying over a public building in Copenhagen. He
went to the German Kommandant and asked that the flag be removed. “The flag
flies,” the Kommandant replied, “because I ordered it flown. Request denied.”
“I demand that it come down,” said the king. “If you do not have it removed, a
Danish soldier will go and remove it.” “Then he will be shot,” said the
Kommandant. “I don’t think so,” said King Christian, “for I shall be that
soldier.” — The flag was removed. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/).
14) Jesse
Owens crushing Hitler’s Aryan Supremacy theory: The black man standing in the arena was
an affront to Der Fuehrer’s authority. The scene was the 1936 Olympic Games
held in Berlin, Germany. The black man was Jesse Owens of The Ohio State
University representing the U.S.A. He was aptly called “the fastest human
alive.” Der Fuehrer was Chancellor Adolf Hitler who had recently risen to power
championing an arrogant theory that his “Aryan race” of “supermen” would
conquer the world. In implementing his theory, he began systematically to stamp
out the Jews in a bitter expression of prejudice and discrimination. Hitler
also publicly denounced Blacks (Negroes as they were called then), as an
inferior race. Jesse Owens, in his estimation, should not even be present at
the Games. Jesse Owens was not only present, but he went on to win four gold
medals in the 100-meter-dash, the 200-meter-dash, the broad jump and the
400-meter relay race. He demolished Hitler’s claim that the Aryan race was
superior to all others. Furthermore, this soft-spoken black athlete embarrassed
Hitler and undermined his pompous authority in the heart of the Fatherland. —
Today is Christ the King Sunday in the liturgical calendar, an
appropriate time for us to grapple with the whole question of authority. We may
not be in danger of being seduced by an evil power such as Hitler, but we may
not be clear on the authority to whom we do give allegiance. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/).
15) Faith in
and fidelity to the King: While battling the Philistines, King David was camped at a
place called the Cave of Adullam. He was tired of fighting and was longing for
a taste of home. David said, wishing out loud, “O that someone would give me
water to drink from the well of Bethlehem which is by the gate!” Three
of his most able and faithful soldiers overheard the king, and took it upon
themselves to go and get water from that well for him. It meant risking their
necks, for they had to break through the camp of the Philistines to do it. When
they brought the water to David, however, he refused to drink it. He recognized
how dangerous it had been to get the water, and he realized that this act
showed how highly they regarded him. Instead of drinking it, he poured it out
on the ground as an offering to the Lord. — David had already shown his faith
in his men, and these three were responding with faith and love for their king.
(1 Chr 11:15-19). What about Christ? Does he inspire Faith in you? (https://frtonyshomilies.com/).
16) In the
Line of Fire. Dr. Gary Nicolosi compares God’s love to the 1993
hit film, In the Line of Fire. Clint Eastwood plays Secret Service
agent Frank Horrigan. Horrigan had protected the life of the President for more
than three decades, but he was haunted by the memory of what had happened
thirty years before. Horrigan was a young agent assigned to President Kennedy
on that fateful November day in Dallas in 1963. When the assassin fired,
Horrigan froze in shock. For thirty years afterward, he wrestled with the
ultimate question for a Secret Service agent: Can I take a bullet for the
President? In the climax of the movie, Horrigan does what he had been unable to
do earlier: he throws himself into the path of an assassin’s bullet to save the
President. — Secret Service agents are willing to do such a thing because they
believe the President is so valuable to our country that he is worth dying for.
At Calvary the situation was reversed, says Dr. Nicolosi. The President of the
Universe actually took a bullet for each of us. At the cross we see how
valuable we are to God. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/).
17) The
shivering and hungry King: This is a story about an Irish King. He had no
children to succeed him on the throne, so he decided to choose his successor
from among the people. The only condition set by the King, as announced
throughout his kingdom, was that the candidate must have a deep love
for God and neighbor. In a remote village of the kingdom lived
a poor but gentle youth who was noted for his kindness and
helpfulness to all his neighbors. The villagers encouraged him to
enter the contest for kingship. They took up a collection for him so that
he could make the long journey to the royal palace. After giving him the
necessary food and a good overcoat, they sent him on his way. As the
young man neared the castle, he noticed a beggar sitting on a bench in the
royal park, wearing torn clothes. He was shivering in the cold while
begging for food. Moved with compassion, the young man gave the
beggar his new overcoat and the food he had saved for his return journey.
After waiting for a long time in the parlor of the royal palace, the
youth was admitted for an interview with the king. As he raised
his eyes after prostrating himself before the King, he was amazed to find
that the King, who was wearing the overcoat he had given to the beggar at the
park, was now greeting him as the new King of the country. — When
He comes in glory, Christ the King is going to judge us on the basis of our
corporal and spiritual works of mercy. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/).
18) “If only I
knew it was you!” Nelson Mandela was still a young man when he
became leader of the banned African National Congress. At a certain stage of
the struggle he was forced to go underground. He used many disguises and in
general remained as unkempt as possible, so that he would not be easily
recognized. Once he was to attend a meeting in a distant part of Johannesburg.
A priest had arranged with friends of his to put him up for the night. However,
when Mandela arrived at the house, the elderly woman who answered the doorbell
took one look at him and exclaimed, “We don’t want your kind here!” And she
shut the door in his face. Later when she found out who it was she had turned
away she was horrified and said to him, “If only I knew it was you, I’d have
given you the best room in the house.” Mandela did not let incidents like this
deter him. — Jesus appears to us in different guises. If only we
knew it was he … [Flor McCarthy in New Sunday & Holy
Day Liturgies; quoted by Fr. Botelho.] (https://frtonyshomilies.com/).
19) Gluttonous
kings versus humble king: 1) Hu Hai was the second emperor of the Qin Dynasty
(221 BC-206 BC). Hu Hai indulged in the super-luxurious life. He forced a
large number of peasants from around the country to build Epang Palace and the
mausoleum in Lishan Mountain. He ordered 50,000 soldiers to defend the capital
and all parts of the country were forced ceaselessly to send provisions to the
capital. 2) Several of the Roman emperors, unmatched in wealth and power, fully
demonstrated a capacity for luxury and gluttony. Among these emperors, Claudius
(ruled AD 41–54) is famous. 3) The luxury banquet laid out in the famous tomb
of King Tutankhamen of Egypt (died 1352 BC.), which was intended for the
monarch to enjoy in the afterlife, included a gourmet selection of wines
inscribed with names of wine districts— one may call them— the Nile Valley, the
Nile Delta, and the Oases. Hundreds of attendants waited on them. — Against
this background, there came a King, giving a shocking surprise to his
followers. Jesus washed the feet of his followers and waited on them. He
performed a gesture that had never been heard of, and commanded his followers
to do the same, and to follow it as a new commandment in his Kingdom. (Fr.
Bobby Jose). (https://frtonyshomilies.com/).
20) Large
grave in the monastery: St. Theodosius
was a monk who lived in Palestine in the 500s. After growing in holiness
himself, he decided to start a new monastery, which soon attracted so many
vocations that it became more of a monastic city than just a monastery. One of
the first things he did when he founded his monastery was rather shocking. He
dug a large grave, right in the middle of the cloister. When he had finished
digging, the little group of curious monks gathered around the rectangular pit
to get an explanation. Theodosius said simply: “Here you see a grave. Here we
will all one day be buried and our bodies will return to the dust from which
they were made. Remember this, my sons, so that you never stray from the Lord’s
sure but narrow road of prayer and self-denial. It is better to die to
ourselves each day and rise again on the Day of Judgment than indulge ourselves
foolishly now and remain in the grave forever.” — St Theodosius had learned
well the lesson of today’s parable: Christ wants us to know what’s going to
happen after death, so that we can make the right choices throughout our life.
(E-Priest). (https://frtonyshomilies.com/).
21) The
British Navy Welcomes the Devil: The main point of Pope Pius XI’s 1925 encyclical on the Fest
of Christ the King was to remind Catholics that Christ matters not only for our
private lives, but for our public lives too. That reminder is as valid today as
it was in 1925. We are constantly bombarded by media messages that tell us to
keep our religion safe at home and keep it out of the public square. But if we
don’t defend and spread Christian values in society, what values will thrive
there? If we don’t continue to bring Christ into culture, what will culture
become? You may remember a story that was in the news a couple of years ago. It
told how the British Royal Navy officially recognized and approved of the
practice of Satanism. A naval technician named Chris Cramer, who explicitly
claimed to be a devil worshipper, was granted permission to perform satanic
rituals on his ship. A Royal Navy spokesman explained that the Navy was “an
equal opportunity employer and we don’t stop anybody from having their own
religious values.” — If we truly believe that Christ is the Savior, that
there really is one God who created us and redeemed us, we should not be afraid
to bring that Faith to play in the society around us. If we don’t bring it to
play, others will bring into play other values and beliefs, and those may not
be as innocent as we would like. All religions are not the same. All values
systems are the not the same. Today, the Church is reminding us of this, and
encouraging us to be faithful followers of the one, true God, who so loved the
world that He sent His Son to be our Savior by winning for us the forgiveness
of sins through his death on the cross. [Rev. Francis M. de Rosa, STL; E-
Priest.] (https://frtonyshomilies.com/).
22) Hilaire Belloc won the election: In 1908, the famous
Anglo-French historian and writer, Hilaire Belloc [BELL-ock] ran for the
British Parliament. His opponents tried to scare off his supporters by
claiming that Belloc’s faithfulness to the Catholic Church would inhibit him
from being objective. Belloc responded in a speech: “Gentlemen, I am a
Catholic. As far as possible, I go to Mass every day. This [taking his beads
out of his pocket] is a rosary. As far as possible, I kneel down and tell its
beads every day. If you reject me on account of my religion, I shall thank God
for having spared me the indignity of being your representative.” The crowd was
shocked for a minute, and then burst out in applause. Belloc went on to win
that election, and many more. — If Catholics cannot bring Christ’s wisdom,
goodness, and grace into our society, what do we have to offer? Our
paltry human wisdom? Our own tendencies to selfishness? Our shortsightedness?
Pope Pius XI’s encyclical stresses that Christ truly is the King of the
Universe, that he will reign forever, and that the Church on earth is the
beginning of his Kingdom. It is not enough, therefore, for Christians to hold
onto their Faith just in their private lives. We must bring Christ and
Christian values into culture, politics, and every sphere of society. If we
truly believe in Christ, why would we be afraid of defending and
spreading Christian values? Why would we let ourselves be bullied by secular
fundamentalists who try to exclude Christ from culture? (E- Priest). (https://frtonyshomilies.com/).
23) The Obelisk in St Peter’s Square: In St Peter’s Square in Rome, there stands an ancient
Egyptian obelisk – a single block of granite in the shape of the Washington
monument, almost 100 feet high and weighing 330 tons. It is the oldest obelisk
in Rome, dating from about 1850 BC. At that time it had been erected as a
monument to the Pharaoh, and it watched over two thousand years of Egyptian
history – the longest reigning empire in history. It stood there when Abraham
was called, when Joseph was viceroy of Egypt, when Moses led his people out of
Egypt. At the time of Christ, soon after the Magi came to worship him, the
Roman Emperor Caligula brought it to Rome as a sign of Rome’s superiority as
conqueror of Egypt. There it stood for four more centuries, a symbol of the
Roman Empire, the largest empire in human history. A golden urn with Julius
Caesar’s ashes was placed on it. It stood in the arena where St Peter himself
was martyred, along with hundreds of other early Christians. Then the
barbarians invaded Rome, and in the Middle Ages it fell. Ivy grew around it. It
was half-buried near the old Basilica. But the Church converted the barbarians,
and when a new Christian culture emerged and flourished, and St. Peter’s
Basilica was rebuilt and expanded, Pope Sixtus V had the obelisk re-erected in
the center of the plaza. No longer is it a reminder of the long-perished
empires of Egypt, Rome and the barbarian hoards. Now it is topped with a bronze
cross, and inside that bronze cross is a small fragment of the true cross, the
cross on which Christ, conquering his Kingdom, was crucified. Now it serves the
universal Kingdom that will have no end, the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. (E-
Priest). (https://frtonyshomilies.com/).
24) Empires
Come and Go – The Church Endures: St Maximilian Kolbe: This is one of the reasons why tyrants
hate the Catholic Church so much. Tyrants want total control – we call their
governments “totalitarian regimes”. And so they can’t stand the Catholic
Church, because it is a constant reminder that they don’t have total control –
that they can’t; only God can. And so, just as Herod tried to do
with Jesus, the eternal King, they try to stamp out the Church, the
eternal Kingdom. The Roman emperors tried. The barbarian tribes of northern
Europe tried. The Medieval Islamic Caliphs tried. The French Revolutionaries
tried. Napoleon tried – he even kidnapped the Pope, twice! The Nazis tried, and
the Communists tried too, giving the twentieth century the bittersweet honor of
having more Christian martyrs than any previous century. The tyrants of every
generation try to take over the throne that only Christ can occupy, but the
Church continues to survive, grow, and spread. A favorite example of this
unconquerability of our Faith is found in St. Maximilian Kolbe. He was the
Franciscan priest who died famously in a Nazi concentration camp during World
War II. A fellow prisoner had been condemned to death. But the
condemned man had a family, and St. Maximilian had none, so the saint offered
himself as a substitute. It was the crowning action of a string of selfless
deeds that he performed throughout his imprisonment. Even the horrors of that
concentration camp couldn’t conquer his Christian spirit. He celebrated secret
masses on crowded, plank bunk beds; he secretly heard confessions walking
through the mud to work; he even gave hope to his fellow death-row inmates: for
fifteen days they prayed and sang hymns in the bunker where they were being
starved to death. — This is Christ the King’s everlasting, unconquerable,
universal Kingdom. This is our Kingdom. This is our Church.
(E- Priest). (https://frtonyshomilies.com/).
25) The
King of Kings is here! The old Cardinal, Hugh Latimer, often used
to preach before King Henry VIII. It was customary for the Court preacher to
present the King with something on his birthday, and Cardinal Latimer presented
to Henry VIII a pocket handkerchief with this text in the corner
–“Whoremongers and adulterers God will judge,” a very suitable text for King
Henry. Then he preached very forcefully on the sins of lust and did not forget
the personal application to the King. And the King said that the next time (the
next Sunday), when the Cardinal preached, he must apologize. The next Sunday, when
the Cardinal stood in the pulpit, he thought to himself, “Latimer, be careful
about what you say, the King of England is here.” At the same time a voice in
his heart said, “Latimer, Latimer, be careful about what you say, the King of
Kings is here.” Strengthened by this, he preached what God wanted him to
preach. -Today we celebrate the feast of Christ the King. We must enthrone
Jesus as our King in our hearts and in our homes. (John Rose in John’s
Sunday Homilies). (https://frtonyshomilies.com/).
26) The real king? This happened a number of years ago when
the late King Baudouin was reigning in Belgium. As the Constitutional Monarch,
one of his duties was to “rubber stamp” all the bills passed by Parliament with
his signature, thereby officially promulgating them as law. In 1990, the
Belgian parliament passed a reprehensible bill that basically removed all legal
sanctions against abortions. As a practicing and conscientious Catholic, King
Baudouin objected to abortion vehemently, and so he could not and would not
endorse the measure. But according to the constitution, he did not have a
choice – as figurehead monarch, he had to ratify the bill, so by refusing to
sign the bill into law, he was, in effect, attempting to veto the Parliament,
and putting his throne on the line! The parliament simply dethroned him for one
day, promulgated the law on that day when there was no reigning monarch in
Belgium, and then re-instated him on the next day. — Granted, earthly monarchs
need constitutional limitations to prevent the abuse of power. But,
that’s not true for the Heavenly Monarch, the all-good, all-loving God, for any
time we attempt to impede Christ’s reign in our lives, we’re just erecting an
obstacle to the good that He could be in our lives. Clearly then, there’s
false comfort and perilous perdition in that illusion of ultimate
self-determination: if someone on the street swears at you and says, “Go to
Hell!” sure, it’s easy to invoke your autonomy then and shrug it off with the
slur, “I’m free – I don’t have to go anywhere I don’t want to go!” Yet the same
people who declare self-determination their highest law and have thus pretended
to enthrone themselves as the sovereign moral authority by dethroning in their
hearts Christ the King, will discover, when HE solemnly speaks those same words
as the judgment of eternal damnation, the absolute limits of personal freedom,
limits constituted by the True and Almighty King of all creation. [John
Ruscheinsky in Daily Online
Reflections;
quoted by Fr. Botelho.] (https://frtonyshomilies.com/).
27) A king of
love, mercy and justice: The
contemporaries of Jesus grew up hearing the stories of the cruelty of the
ancient kings and rulers. Biblical Accounts give vivid descriptions of the
cruelty of the Assyrians. In 722 BC Assyrian armies swept through the Near
East. They became notorious for their cruelty. There are caves in
Palestine to this day where we can find etched into cave-walls depictions of
Assyrian cruelty: men beheaded, children disemboweled, pregnant women ripped
open. The Assyrians did it. Up until the Assyrian assault there had been twelve
tribes in Israel. The Assyrians slew ten. After 722 BC there were only two
tribes left, Judah and Benjamin. The other ten will never be seen again. The
kings of Assyria tormented the miserable world. They flung away the bodies of
soldiers like so much clay; they made pyramids of human heads; they
burned cities; they filled populous lands with death and
devastation; they reddened broad deserts with carnage of warriors;
they scattered whole countries with the corpses of their defenders as with
chaff; they impaled ‘heaps of men’ on stakes, and strewed the mountains
and choked rivers with dead bones; they cut off the hands of kings and
nailed them on the walls, and left their bodies to rot with bears and dogs on
the entrance gates of cities; they employed nations of captives in making
brick in fetters; they cut down warriors like weeds, or smote them like
wild beasts in the forests, and covered pillars with the flayed skins of rival
monarchs. The contemporaries of Jesus also were familiar with the cruelties of
the Roman emperors and King Herod. They knew how the kings in the ancient world
treated their enemies. Against this background there arose a king with a
different code of conduct. Hammurabi, the ancient Babylonian king, created the first
written set of laws. Since the laws were clearly written down, everyone was
expected to obey them. — But Jesus, the king of Kings, summarized all the laws
into two and wrote them down in the hearts of men. He taught, “Love God with
your whole being and love your neighbors as yourself” (Mt 22:37-39; Mk
12:30-31; Lk10:34), and “Love one another as I
have loved you!” (Jn 1:34) In the ancient world where enemies were
treated with great cruelty, and criminals were murdered mercilessly, this was a
shocking message. But from this emerged the uniqueness of the Kingdom Jesus. On
this code is grounded the power of his kingdom which will last forever. This
has made the kingdom of Jesus different from all the kingdoms on the earth.
History has seen the rise and fall of many empires. But history has not seen
any empire other than the empire of Jesus that grows century after century.
When the angel announced to Mary that she had been chosen to be the mother of
Jesus, he said, “His kingdom will have no end.”(Lk 1:33) The
angel thus conformed the prophecy of Daniel: “His sovereignty is an eternal
sovereignty which shall never pass away, nor will his empire ever be
destroyed.” (Dan 7:14). Fr. Bobby Jose. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/).
28) Jesus is the
king of hearts: Bishop Villegas
in his book entitled Jesus in My Heart said that Jesus is king
of hearts in every Christian. To explain this contention, Villegas used the
image of a deck of cards which carries four images of kings. The first image is
the king of clubs. A club is an extension of a violent hand. A club is an
extension of a hostile man. Christ cannot be king of clubs because
Jesus is not here to sow violence. Jesus is not here to sow hostility. Jesus is
here as a king of peace. Jesus is here, gentle and humble of heart, not to sow
enmity among us. Jesus is here so that all may be brothers and sisters to one
another. Bishop Villegas continued that Jesus could not be king of
spades. A spade is used to throw dirt. Jesus is not here to make our lives
dirty. Jesus is here to cleanse us from everything that defiles us. Jesus is
not the king of spades because Jesus is not in the grave. Jesus is risen from
the dead. Jesus is not king of spades because the business of Jesus is not to
make other people dirty, to make people look at the grave dug by spades. The
business of Jesus is to give hope and purity to us. Jesus cannot be king
of diamonds for he came to bless our poverty. Jesus came to bless our
pains and our aches. Jesus is not here to make our lives easier and more
comfortable. Jesus is here to give meaning and purpose to our crosses and pains
and trials. Jesus can only be king of hearts. This is the kind of
king that Jesus is. He is the king of the universe because he is the king of
hearts. (Fr. T.S. Benitez). (https://frtonyshomilies.com/).
29) Come unto
me: A wonderful statue of Jesus the Christ
exists in the cathedral of Denmark’s fairy-tale city of Copenhagen.
The sculptor was the master Albert Bertel Thorvaldsen who died in 1844. He
chose to sculpt a monumental Christ, the Christus, that would
reveal Him in all His majesty. His hands would be raised as befitted His
awesome power. His face would look out regally on everyone and everything. He
would indeed be the King of kings, the Man in total control. It was done.
“Jesus is the greatest figure in human history,” the sculptor said when the
clay model was finished, “and this statue will so represent Him.” However, a
funny thing happened on the way to the unveiling. The statue was left in a shed
near the water. The dampness had its way with the clay Christ statue. The
upraised hands had drooped. They no longer commanded. Rather, they beseeched.
The fiercely upturned face had lowered itself onto the master’s chest. The
person who wore this face had known many problems and was compassion itself.
This was no longer a King before whom one would grovel and stutter, “Your Royal
Majesty.” Rather, it was a Shepherd solicitous for every one of His sheep. — At
first, Thorvaldsen was bitterly disappointed by the accident. Then he realized
after reflection that this was a more accurate Jesus than the one he had
originally conceived. Indeed, it might have been providentially planned. So, he
left it undisturbed. His original intention had been to inscribe the dictum
“FOLLOW MY COMMANDS” on the base of the statue. But now he realized that was no
longer appropriate. Instead he chiseled the softer message “COME UNTO ME.” To
this day, this benign Nazarene touches the hearts and spirits of those who
enter the Copenhagen cathedral. It is reported that often Thorvaldsen’s
masterpiece reduces spectators to tears. In most probability, it has more of a
genuine effect on them than his majestic Christ ever would have. The statue
reminds them of His famous words to a puzzled Pontius Pilate in today’s
Gospel, “My kingdom is not of this world”(Jn 18:36). (Father
James Gilhooley). (https://frtonyshomilies.com/).
30) “Friends,
Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.” I am sure that most of you have read the immortal
play Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare. After the
assassination of Julius Caesar by Brutus and Cassius, the body of Caesar lies
before the people. It is then that Mark Anthony gives his famous speech
reminding the people how much Caesar loved and cared for them. He said,
“Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. I come to bury Caesar, not to
praise him; the evil that men do lives after them; the good is often interred
with their bones. So be it with Caesar. The noble Brutus has told you that
Caesar was ambitious. If it were so, it was a grievous fault and grievously has
Caesar answered it. Caesar was my friend, faithful and just to me. He has brought
many captives here to Rome, whose ransom did the general coffers fill.” Then he
mentioned Caesar’s will in which he made the Roman citizens his heir. — Often,
we forget the good and great things people do to us. It took Mark Anthony to
remind the Roman citizens of Caesar’s love and care. Then their hearts were set
on fire. This morning may we remember the great love, care, and power which
Christ has bestowed upon us. (https://frtonyshomilies.com/).
31) Napoleon, writing
in exile on St Helena, wrote these famous words before his
death: “Alexander (The Great), Caesar, Charlemagne and I have founded
empires. But on what? On force! Jesus alone founded his
empire on love; and at this hour, millions of men would die for him. He
is everywhere proclaimed, loved and adored and his sway is extended over all
the earth.” — The Church still stands – and it always will…as
long as there are people ready to profess their faith in Jesus Christ as their
Lord and Saviour. (Fr. Tony Kayala) (https://frtonyshomilies.com/).
32) Bring Us to the Joy of His
Kingdom: “You would have no power over me whatever,” Jesus
said to Pilate, “were it not given you from above” (Jn 19:11). —
Even the most powerful kings get their authority from Christ who was designated
by His Father to be the “universal king.” Italy’s last king,
Humbert II, who died in exile on March 18, 1983, learned through bitter
experience the transiency of earthly kingship. Umberto was the son of King
Victor Emmanuel III. Victor, who reigned from 1900 to 1946, was largely a
figurehead. When Mussolini became Italy’s most powerful personage in 1922,
Victor weakly named him prime minister. Thus, whether he wanted to or not, he
became a partner in the building of Fascism. True, the king took a firmer stand
when the Allies invaded Italy in 1943. He dismissed the Duce from office and
installed an anti-Fascist as premier. But Victor Emmanuel had already
compromised himself, so he abdicated on May 9, 1946, in favor of his son.
Prince Umberto accepted the crown but wore it all too briefly. On June 2, 1946,
the Italians voted to replace the monarch with a republic, and sentenced the
new monarch to perpetual exile. Though Humbert did not abdicate, he resigned
himself to exile. Italians nicknamed him “il Re del Maggio” – “the May King”:
his reign had lasted only one month. Humbert passed the rest of his life in
Portugal. He led a decent, humble, non-political life; but he missed his
beloved land. In 1982 the ex-king, now in his seventies, fell ill with a
terminal disease. He gently petitioned the Italian government to allow him to
visit his homeland for one last time. The government was willing but it would
take some time to change the law about his exile. The delay proved too long.
When Umberto died in Switzerland, the last word he uttered was “Italia!” Even
in death, he could not be buried in Rome. Instead he was interned with his
forefathers in mountains of Savoy in southeast France.– Despite his frustration,
Umberto made one last kingly gesture. Since 1453 his family had been owners of
the Holy Shroud of Turin, the famous linen sheet that seems to have been the
burial cloth of Jesus. This he bequeathed to the popes in his will. It was a
high tribute of a suffering earthly monarch to the King of Kings. It was also a
meek prayer that He Who reigned from the cross might welcome the lesser prince
into the only permanent commonwealth – the kingdom of heaven. (Fr. Robert F.
McNamara). (https://frtonyshomilies.com/).
33) What can I
possibly learn from a dying felon who was justly convicted? 2,000 years ago, the mighty pagan Roman Empire
ruled a giant portion of the known world, and persecuted the newly emerging
Catholics for three hundred years simply because they refused to deny the Truth
about Jesus. But today, that pagan empire that was based on power is completely
gone. In fact, not a single government that existed 2,000 years remains in
operation today. However, the Roman Catholic Church survives in the fullness of
His truth! It is based not on power, but on powerlessness. In our RCIA classes
and classes on the Early Church Fathers, the Creed has crucial and central
importance. In that Creed, we profess our Faith – the foundation of our
Catholicism – that “we believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ…on the third day he
rose again in fulfillment of the scriptures.” We are professing that this man
called Jesus, who suffered and died on the cross, rose again – is indeed the
King of Kings, the Messiah. Somehow he is with us at all times, even in our own
suffering; he is still Christ our King. This is why today’s gospel (Lk
23:35-43) is so ironic. All those who ridiculed and reviled and jeered and
sneered at him did not accept him as Messiah; they thought the Messiah would
manifest himself in power. Yet here was their King and God right before their
eyes, and they did not recognize him because of his powerlessness! But our
Gospel does indicate that at least one person recognized and accepted Jesus: a
criminal! Jesus’ words of forgiveness bring hope to our hearts: “Today you will
be with me in Paradise” (Lk 23:43) — If a criminal can make a last
moment’s conversion, then there is hope for me if I humbly return to him. That
is Good News! (Fr. Robert F. McNamara).
This is the question we should ask ourselves:
which king do I serve? The “temporal king” who may promise immediate
gratification or an eternal King who invites a privileged participation in the
building of his Kingdom?
