Homily for the Week of November 25, 2012

Feast of Christ the King, 2012 First Reading: Daniel 7:13–14 Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 93:1, 1–2, 5 Second Reading: Revelation 1:5–8 Gospel: John 18:33b–37 This week I was talking to one of my priest friends who mentioned that one Sunday he made a grand gesture and he accidently swept his sermon notes off the pupil and onto the floor. After he picked them up and tried to reassemble them, the congregation heard him say to himself: Now, where was I. One member of the congregation answered back: Right near the end. Now this has no connection with what I intend to speak on today, but I thought it was funny. This special Mass in Honor of Christ the King can leave most of us wondering what does it mean. We in the United States have never been much for kings. Our nation began with a nasty war to free us from a king. Yet there’s something about royalty that fascinates us. Princess Diana and Prince Charles repeatedly captured the world’s attention. In the United States we watch with interest the doings of Queen Elizabeth. High School students still appoint members of their Junior class to be King and Queen of the Junior Prom. It may be that the lives of kings and queens represent a fairy-tale-like image of the good life that we just can’t help dreaming about. For poor people when the Bible was written, the notion of a kindly king who has the good of the people at heart may have held just as much attraction. When one’s life is a constant struggle, believing in a powerful king fuels hope and gives a reason to keep plodding on. Yet so very, very often our prayers use the image of king and kingdom. In the OUR FATHER we prayer your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. At funerals we pray that the person will enter the kingdom of God. We often end our prayers through Jesus Christ our king. Because of this you and I find it always difficult to see Jesus as a King. The image of KING is not one that appeals to our imagination or even our mind very much. Catholics in many other countries have a different viewpoint. And also a different spirituality based on Christ the King. For example our neighbors in Mexico don’t share our misgivings and indifference. The Mexican people are just as proud of their revolution, just as proud of their democracy, just as scornful of royalty as we are. Still, they have a great love for Christ the King. However, kings and royalty would not have seemed usual to Jesus. Political power in Palestine at the time of Jesus was with the King of Rome and his local governor, King Herod. Jesus crossed paths very often with King Herod. The Romans made Herod the King of Palestine about 50 years before Jesus was born. Herod built the temple in Jerusalem where Jesus prayed and taught. He was the king of Bethlehem when Jesus was born. He was the King of the Jews who heard that the new born baby Jesus was going to be a King, so Herod ordering that all young males living in Bethlehem would be killed. Herod’s son Pilate was king of Galilee where Jesus lived. He is the one who had John the Baptist killed. So it would not be surprising if Jesus had anything but hatred for kings, but it seems he didn’t. As an educated and devout Jew, Jesus knew how important kings, both good ones and bad ones, had been in Jewish history. He knew that the Jewish people would have a savior who was a descendent of the lovable King David. The Old Testament is filled with references to a ruler who is to come. Daniel in our first reading speaks of a person who is to come to give people victory over sin and death. By the time the Book of Revelation was written, that person became an historical person. The early Christian community that first heard the words of Revelation associated any reference to this person as being the person of Jesus Christ. Our Gospel passage can be a bit frustrating for us because we want Jesus to stand up for himself. We want Jesus to be clear with Pilate and with the Jewish authorities and chief priests about who He is. We want Jesus to be like an American hero who, having taken all the abuse he can take, comes out with guns blazing to set the world in order. This not only does not happen, in this story the hero dies. In this Gospel reading we find Jesus on trial. He is bound and handed over to be tried in court. Pilate is the prosecuting attorney. Jesus is his own lawyer trying to defend himself from the title KING OF THE JEWS. which Pilate hated. KING OF THE JEWS meant one thing for Pilate. It meant another thing to Jesus and his followers who were longing for an earthly kingdom. The Jews saw in the title ''King of the Jews'' a religious reality while Pilate saw a political one. But Jesus was also trying to teach his followers -- the early Christians who were at one time Jews. For thousands of years the Jews had prayed that God would establish his kingdom on earth. God had told them many times that the kingdom would be in heaven. But they forgot or did not understand. They had substituted an earthly kingdom which would replace the kingdom of King David. Jesus is trying to tell Pilate and the Jews that his kingdom does not belong to this world. Jesus says he is king where truth resides. He is the king of human hearts. Whether or not we call Jesus our king, spiritually we must have the faith to place our lives under his authority. We must freely allow him to rule us. Unlike Herod and Pilate and other kings, Jesus does not rule with a sword or a gun, but with the power of love. It is the only power that can bring a real sense of freedom - a freedom from sin. Jesus has come to make up for anything which we cannot handle. He came to teach us about God. Jesus was simply a witness for us of the power and love of God. He showed us this power by the way he lived. This is how we are to understand this feast of Christ the King. Jesus threats us with love. Perhaps the only ones who would fear Jesus would be those, who like Pilate, want to be control others. Again, we must ask ourselves what does it mean for we Catholic Americans to call Jesus a king? Is Jesus my king only when I am in church, or does He remain my king wherever I might be? Does my piety in church travel back home with me or to work with me or to school with me or when I am with my friends? Do I profess my faith in church but show little sign of it anywhere else? Living with Jesus is not like living with a president who is here for a few years then gone. Jesus is king all of the time and in all places. We must see the way that Jesus sees. We must try to live our daily life with the values and love of Jesus. If we do, when our earthly life is ended, we will then be ready to live in our first kingdom: the kingdom of God which is known as heaven.