33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

How in the world are we supposed to celebrate the solemnity of Christ the King!? We are Americans, crying out loud! We don’t have kings. We don’t want kings. Some of us don’t even like kings.

Just next week we celebrate National Gorge Day, when we eat turkey and pumpkin pie. A day when we celebrate when pilgrims came to this land to get away from what? A King!

The oppression and tyranny of a king. As the years go by, as our country more formally comes into existence, our founding fathers made a very conscious and deliberate decision that this great land would not be ruled by kings or queens or any such persons despite the fact that just about every nation or assembly of people up to that point had been ruled by precisely those kinds of people.

But given our nation’s history and the holiday we are about to celebrate, how is it you and I are supposed to celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King? I would suggest that in order to do so, we have to make a critical and pivotal distinction between kingships as it’s usually exercised in this world and the Kingship of Jesus.

In this world, a king, or at least our image of a king, is someone who lives a life of sheer luxury. Who is waited upon by servants who see there at his every beck and call? He sits on a gilded throne wearing fancy clothes and exercises his arbitrary will on his people who are often left helpless to fend for themselves amongst the harsh realities of this world so as to make ends meet.

It is from precisely this king that the pilgrims fled and whom our founding fathers rejected. But according to the word of God, that is not at all what a king is or what a king does.

According to the word of God, a king is more like a shepherd as we heard in that first reading. In fact, David is, for the Jewish people throughout the Old Testament, the model of a king. His life, throughout the Scriptures, reveals to us that a king, on earth anyway, before he has rights, has responsibilities.

First, he’s responsible for leading his people into battle; For defending them. Not by sending troops to go fight while he sleeps well in his castle, but by himself leading his army into war so as to protect his people.

Second, a very clear responsibility a king has according to the word of God is to care for the poor who lack the essentials of life.

The Third responsibility he has is to care for widows and orphans. In other words, those who through some misfortune suddenly find themselves to be in positions of great need.

These three tasks, only these three tasks really, are the tasks of a king, at least according to the word of God. And they help to define real authority.

Authority is not about wielding power or imposing our will upon someone else. Authority is entrusted to somebody so as to lead those people entrusted to the person with authority’s care, to fulfillment.

Jesus, of course, is the fulfillment of everything the Scriptures tell us about a king. He doesn’t sit on a gilded throne bedecked with jewels. In His life here, His throne was the roughhewn wood of a cross. His clothes aren’t made of purple and gold. In fact, upon the cross, He had no clothes at all.

Throughout His days of ministry, He reached out to an extended help to and sought those who were in most need - the poor, lonely, mangled and the cast aside.

Upon the cross, He does battle with the greatest enemies of humanity: the devil, sin and death. He didn’t send angels for us to fight while He stayed in heaven. He took on human flesh, came down from heaven and went to war with the devil and destroyed His power and by His glorious resurrection has forever triumphed over the power of death. That’s our King! That’s our God!

He doesn’t wield power and impinge upon our freedom and rule with an iron fist. He rules with a pieced heart and a crown of thorns. And by His love and by his power, He’s trying to lead you and me to happiness, to truth, to freedom and to the fullness of life.

So what does this all have to do with you and me right now? What are you and I supposed to take away from this solemnity?

Two things come to mind: one has to do with our actions and the other has to do with our hearts.

Every person here who has been baptized has been made a sharer in Christ’s Kingship. That means the same responsibilities, those three responsibilities that a king has, we have.

That means that you and I are called by God to have a very special interest for the poor. This is not an option for a Christian and this isn’t something that only happens at Christmas either.

This is supposed to be the constant disposition of our lives. We are continually supposed to be asking God to open up our eyes and our hearts to see those around us who are most in need and to reach out and help them however we can. Sometimes, the only way we can do that, is by giving them an encouraging word or sharing some of our time with them.

But it also means that just as a king leads his people into battle and defends human life and human dignity, you and I are called by God to be at the forefront of the battle that you and I are engaged in for all time: to care for human dignity and for human life.

It means we can’t stay on the sidelines with issues like abortion, pornography, death penalty, poverty, the destruction of human embryos and all the other many assaults against life and human dignity, we cannot sit on our hands and we cannot keep quiet.

We are called by our baptism since we share in Christ’s Kingship to care for and speak out on behalf of and to get involved in with defending life and dignity.

But perhaps even before we ask the Lord to gently show us who we’re supposed to serve, today’s solemnity is calling us to reflect on something even more basic. That’s the state of our hearts. Make no mistake, a king rules. That’s what a king does.

Today’s solemnity challenges you and me to ask ourselves this Question: who rules my life? My will? My heart? My desires? Who rules yours? Is it me? Is it you? Is it some political party? Or is it Jesus? Is He really first in our lives? Is He my King and yours?

Unless He is, then you and I are simply settling for too little. So let’s pray that His Body and His Blood, which we are about to feast on in the Eucharist, will help us surrender ourselves ever more fully to him so that He can rein ever more fully in us so that he can lead us to the fullness of life and freedom that he wants for us.

Sunday Mass begins at 11 a.m. with the Sacrament of Reconciliation at 10:15 a.m.

Come pray with us at St. Michael Catholic Church located at 1004 W. Gentry in Henryetta.