On the Feast of Christ the King

[Homily. JRH-M, 2023]

Today we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King.  This is the Feast which wraps up not only Ordinary time in our liturgical year, but actually the entire liturgical year beginning with Advent, through Christmas, Lent and the solemn celebration of the Suffering, Death and Resurrection of the Lord. 

Today celebrates the hope that we all have as believers in Christ in the Second Coming of the Lord. It is the hope that we have expressed in the readings for this feast:

First, that in the Second Coming the Lord will come as the Good Shepherd who in the context of the prophecy of Ezekiel has himself taken over the leadership of his flock from the bad shepherds, the evil leaders of the people.  The Lord said, “I myself will pasture my sheep, I myself will give them rest. … The lost I will seek out, the strayed I will bring back, the injured I will bind up, the sick I will heal, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy, shepherding them rightly” (Ez. 34:1-15).  Especially today we can hear what the Lord God says to his sheep:  “I will judge between one sheep and another, between the rams and the goats. ” (Ez. 34:1-16).    You are not all the same.  I will judge you according to what or whom you manifest yourselves to be.

Second, that in the Second Coming, as first fruit of the Paschal Mystery, Jesus, resurrected, shall come again.  He shall appear in the triumph and glory alive, death having been dealt its death blow through his obedience to the Father unto death.  Then before Christ the King shall come those who belong to him, the sheep whom he has cared for and led, who follow him and recognize his voice, the sheep for whom as Good Shepherd he has laid down his life.   Then, in the Second Coming, “comes the end, when he [Christ the King] hands over the Kingdom to his God and Father” (1Cor.15:20-26).  This involves two things:  first, he has destroyed every sovereignty and every authority and every power incompatible with his sovereignty, authority and power as King.  All is subjected to him as King.  Second, as King, he hands over everything subject to him “to the one who subjected all to him,” namely, to his God and Father, “so that God may be all in all” (1Cor.15:20-28).  It is beautiful to meditate on this:  The Son of God subjects all things his God has subjected to him so that God, his creativity, his compassion, his love, may be all in all, everything in everything, creation and humanity redeemed in divinity, divinity glorified and praised in redeemed humanity and creation. 

Third, is the text from Matthew (25:31-46) we are more familiar with:  The Judgement of the Nations.  In the Second Coming, Jesus Christ, “the Son of Man comes in his glory, with all the angels with him; he sits on his glorious throne, and all the nations are assembled before him.”  He separates one from the other as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.  The criterion he uses to separate the sheep from the goats is one:  not how much money have you accumulated for me, not how many buildings have you constructed for me, not how many books have you written for me, but rather, how have you cared for the hungry, thirsty, homeless, stranger, naked and imprisoned?  For, he proclaims on Judgement Day, “Whatever you have done or not done for one of these the least of my sisters and brothers, that you have done for me.”

The liturgical celebration of Christ the King celebrates the hope we have in a future event.  The Kingdom of God has been established through the Paschal Mystery; it exists already irreversibly. But it is not yet fulfilled.  We celebrate Kristong Hari in the hope that the Kingdom of God will be fulfilled, when the glorious Son of God, Christ the King, turns over all that has been subjected to him by God, returns all back to his God and Father redeemed, so that God may be all in all. 

Meanwhile, it may be appropriate again to appreciate that Christ the King is best represented not as a King wearing a medieval bejeweled crown and royal velvet garments, holding an orb in one hand and a scepter of power in the other.  The most appropriate image of Christ the King is from scripture, that of Christ hanging on the Cross with the sign over him reading, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews” (Jn 19:19).   Before his crucifixion Pilate had asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus’ answer, “My kingdom does not belong to this world.  …  You say I am a King.  For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.” (Jn 18:36).  Thereafter he was mocked by the soldiers with a crown of thorns, “’Hail, King of the Jews!’  They spat on him and kept striking him on the head” (Mt. 27:29-30).  Later, Pilate presented him derided and humiliated to the Jews, “Behold, your king!”  The people replied, “We have no king but Caesar!” Then Pilate handed him over to be crucified.  He was nailed to the Cross and lifted up. 

Before this image of Christ the King, Christ on the Cross, you look at him today, between the Paschal Mystery, the death and resurrection of the Lord more than 2000 years ago, and the Second Coming of the Lord on a day we do not know.  In the fullness of time, chronology is overcome, these two images conflate.  The Kingdom is established, but it is not yet fulfilled.  It is already, but it is not yet.  Looking at how Christ died for you in love to establish the Kingdom for you and in you, you might ask how you have responded to this love: what have you done for the fulfillment of the Kingdom, what are you now doing for it, what ought you yet do for it?  What ought you to do where so many of the Lord’s sheep are being misled by false shepherds?  What ought you do where so many in the world today trade the sovereignty, authority and power of the Christ the King for the mendacious and manipulative words of advertisements and corrupt politicians?  What ought you do when today so many are still hungry, thirsty, homeless, strangers, naked and imprisoned? What ought you do today when the Second Coming of Jesus as King and Judge of Heaven and Earth is seldom even in the consciousness of good people?

Hopefully you might begin today by quietly contemplating Jesus, the King, hanging from the Cross looking at you despite excruciating pain with a discernible twinkle in his eyes. Look at him with a genuine appreciation of the hope we have in his Second Coming as King and Judge of heaven and earth.  Looking at this image of Christ the King enables a response today that loves even in the way this King loves.