Christ the King
Cathedral of Mary Our Queen
November 25, 2023
Thanksgiving Day “Table Talk”
I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that your travels were safe and pleasant. I also hope that the conversations at your Thanksgiving dinner table were pleasant. Sometimes, as we all know, the conversation can turn to politics, and in a heartbeat, family togetherness can be shattered … And let’s face it. It’s a very uncertain time in our country and in our world. Whatever our political leanings may be, I think it’s true to say that we are all looking for leaders who are wise, honest, and compassionate.
Sadly, many people feel religion has nothing to contribute in these challenging times. Some no longer think God is real or relevant. Others see religion as hobbled by the same problems found in the surrounding culture. Still others see religion as an other-worldly escape from earthly realities. After all, didn’t Jesus himself say, “My kingdom is not of this world?” Perhaps our conversations at the Thanksgiving table gave us who are believers something to think about on this Sunday when we celebrate Christ the King.
Not of This World
Jesus did indeed say that his Kingdom “is not of this world.” He said as he stood trial before Caesar’s representative, Pontius Pilate. Taking that line out of context can lead one to believe, as do our critics, that our faith belongs to a distant, vague, unreal world, dominated by an illusory god. What good is such a faith in a world torn by so much suffering and injustice? What does it mean to claim Christ as our King in such a world? What does faith in him have to do with the real challenges of daily life?
Here, let us remember what else Jesus said to us: He proclaimed that “the Kingdom of God is at hand”, for God’s Kingdom arrived in the flesh when Christ came into the world. He also told his disciples that we are to be “in” the world but not “of” the world. To put it another way, God did not send his Son into the world to suffer and die for us because he was unconcerned or unconnected with the world in which we live. Rather, as John 3:16 famously proclaims, “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.” In Christ, the Kingdom of heaven has broken into human life and history.
What Does That Look Like?
What, then, does the Kingdom of God look like? Clearly Jesus did not look like or act like any earthly king or potentate. He came in humility, emptying himself of glory, becoming like us in all things but sin. Jesus came not to dominate us but to rescue us from what already dominates us. Jesus reveals himself as our shepherd, as the Good Shepherd, who wants only to heal us, to restore our wounded dignity, and to make us members of his flock. In the end, it is Christ himself will judge who is among his flock and who is not.
Many kings and powerful earthly leaders conquer their adversaries by threats, by military force, by economic sanctions and the like. Jesus did not employ those strategies and tactics. He did the mirror opposite. As we saw in the Gospel, Christ our King identifies himself with the poor and lowly: the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick, the imprisoned, the homeless, the stranger. Those whom the world counts as nothing count for everything in Jesus’ Kingdom. Whatever we do for one of these, we do for Christ.
But Christ’s identification with human need runs deeper, much deeper. Christ who became one of us knows what is going on in our hearts and in our lives. He knows that we suffer from many maladies—spiritual, emotional, physical. Whether we are rich and powerful, or poor and powerless, or somewhere in-between— each and every one of us needs to be saved from something, not least of all saved from ourselves, that is, from our sins. And each and every one of us needs to experience love, and not just any love, like the transactional love the world offers, but a generous, infinite, self-giving love, the love only God can give us. This is the love that was epitomized by Jesus’ death on the Cross and made accessible day after day on the altars of our churches. As a venerable old hymn puts it, “The King of love my shepherd is, his goodness fails me never…” And as St. Gregory of Nyssa describes Jesus’ mission as king and shepherd, it is as if Jesus hoisted a suffering humanity on his shoulders, redeemed it, and brought it safely home to his heavenly Father.
How Do We Participate in the Kingship of Christ?
How, then, are we share in the Kingship of Christ? For all its challenges, we participate in the Kingdom by participating in the Church’s life, for the Church is the sacrament, the living sign of Kingdom. In spite of all its failings, Christ loves his Church as a husband loves his bride, and that means he cherishes each of us and all of us… but he also invites us to be and become something more than we now are.
We glimpse this Kingdom when we strive, in the power of the Spirit, to see as Christ Our King sees, to see by his light rather than the light of earthly power. So often our vision can become clouded, due to an excessive focus on worldly concerns. When this happens we loose sight of higher things, of the things for which our hearts are made. This is not to forget the troubles of this world, but to see them in a broader perspective, to have a fuller vision. We share in the joy and peace of that Kingdom when we seek first that Kingdom, judge what we see in light of the truth he has revealed to us. It is the Spirit of the Lord that gives us the light to see in this way, and so we must beg for that fuller vision, the vision that sees beyond the things in front of us, a vision that plunges to the depths.
Finally, we participate in the Kingship of Christ when we allow him to reign in our hearts. Christ our King is not a tyrant, his reign is ever peaceful and must be freely accepted. God’s Kingdom brings us true happiness and lasting joy, but this is never forced, it is always free. Every day and every moment of every day we have the capacity to allow him to reign in our hearts or to reject his peaceful and merciful rule. As we come to this altar to receive the Lord in this Most Holy Sacrament, let us open our hearts and ask for the grace that Christ the King whose presence comes to dwell within us may reign in our hearts, that we might know the peace and joy of being the sheep of his flock and citizens of his “kingdom of truth and life”, his “kingdom of holiness and grace”, his “kingdom of justice, love and peace”. God bless you and keep you always in his love!