The Feast of Christ the King
November 23-24, 2024
Gospel: John 18: 33b-37
The United States of America came into existence by throwing out the King of England. In spite of our anti-royal origins, we have a fascination with royalty, particularity English Royalty. We speculate on when Prince Willamwill succeed 76-year-old King Charles III. We are glued to the television for a royal wedding or a royal funeral or a royal birth or christening. And we will be engrossed by the forthcoming coronation of a new king whenever it happens…
Jesus Christ is the KING. But He was not crowned in Westminster Abbey. His kingdom, as it has been said, is not of this world. This makes Him much more fascinating than any earthly king.
In this Gospel of John, Jesus, who appears before Pilate, is an odd-looking king. He wears a crown of thorns. He is wrapped in a robe of mockery. He is a prisoner. He appears to be at the mercy of the Roman governor. His entourage, that is to say… gutless “yes” people, are non-existent. A howling crowd demands His death. Yes, John’s Gospel portrays him as truly regal. Jesus is in command. His dignity and His profound responses baffle Pilate. Jesus does not need to defend Himself. He needs only to testify to the truth… and does He ever…
Pilate passed from the scene. The only reason history remembers Pilate is that he met this “strange king”. Jesus remains. We recognize in Jesus the figure foretold by Daniel and described by the Book of Revelation. This is what we expect in a king: glory, dominion, and majesty – the Alpha and the Omega. Jesus became the ultimate king by being the strange king who appeared before Pilate. As the old Spiritual says; “If you don’t bear the cross, you can’t wear the crown.”
Where do we fit in all of this? Revelation tells us: He has made US into a kingdom, we are the “subjects” for His God and Father. He loves us and frees us from our sins by His blood. We share His life. We are a royal priesthood. We share in the mission of CHRIST THE KING, to bring the world to Him, to testify to the TRUTH. This means people that WE are fascinating. We, too, belong to a kingdom NOT of this world. People like Pilate will not understand people like you or me. Our neighbors or co-workers, too, might reject us. They may not like our version of the truth. But they will not be able to dismiss us. There will be something about us that haunts them – and may eventually attract them to reality…
Practically speaking: so what does all this mean? We take seriously our role as witnesses to truth. We study, reflect, and seek counsel. We try to proclaim the truth with our actions as well as our words. We are not surprised when we meet opposition. The world will not always agree with us. We accept our fair share in the sufferings of the Jesus of today.
We are people of HOPE who scream: YES and AMEN!
Christ the King has been with us for about 2,000 years. As we come near the time of our parish’s founding, 178 years, we pledge our allegiance once again. Much of the world has acknowledged His rule in the past 2,000 years. But much remains to be done in the years ahead. We re-pledge ourselves to do our part in making “His kingdom come, His will be done” (just like we pray in His prayer every time we gather for Mass).
I offer this quote from Frederick Buechner, a brilliant theologian, from 1992 about the Christ of Nazareth…
Whether Jesus was born in 4 BC or 6 AD, in Bethlehem or Nazareth, whether there were multitudes of the “heavenly hosts” to hymn the glory of it OR just Mary and her husband – – when the child was born, the whole course of human history has changed. That is a TRUTH as unassailable as any truth. Art, music, literature, Western culture itself with all its institutions – – it is IMPOSSIBLE to conceive how differently things would have turned out if that birth had not happened whenever, wherever, however it did. And there is a truth beyond that: for BILLIONS of people who have lived since, the birth of Jesus made possible not just a new way of understanding life but a new way of living it.
MAY WE CONTINUE TO LIVE IN HIS TRUTH.
