Christ the King – deacon rudy's notes

The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe Mass Readings

First Reading: 2 Samuel 5:1-3
Responsorial: Psalm 122:1-5
Second Reading: Colossians 1:12-20
Gospel: Luke 23:35-43

http://usccb.org/bible/readings/112419.cfm

Greetings on this Solemnity of Christ the King! I’m sure that many of you have heard excellent homilies today about Christ the King, perhaps tracing the history of kingship through Scripture to its manifestation in Jesus Christ, that is to say, in Jesus the anointed. So rather than attempt cover that ground again, I’d like to share with you my reflection about what the kingship of Jesus means.

But first, I’d like to admit that I have been a little bummed. I can’t specifically tell you how long I’ve felt this way, but it’s been a while. “Why,” you might ask? Well, I’ve probably spent a little too much time over the past year on social media. More recently, between politics in several countries and the fallout over the Pan Amazon Synod, I’ve been really bothered specifically by all the negative comments I’ve read.

Very often I’ve composed a response to one post or another, but of course I rarely actually post replies. I try to take a page from President Lincoln who, it is said, would write what he called a “hot letter” whenever he felt the urge to tell someone off. Once he finished emptying his anger into the letter, he would write on the bottom, “Never sent. Never signed.”, and then he’d file it away.

Now he is not the only person in history to write unsent “angry letters.” I have some examples in the notes to this podcast which you can find on the website www.deaconrudysnotes.org. <1> But I’ve got to tell you, the sheer volume of angry, accusatory and hurtful comments cast into cyberspace makes my heart hurt.

You see, it seems no one seems interested in solving problems. Everyone just seems focused on trying to win the argument. “What’s happening to Western society?” I wonder to myself. It can be all so overwhelming. Why does all of this bother me so much?

Well, when my faith teaches me that we are all created in the image and likeness of God, I believe it. I believe that Jesus is the fullness of humanity – everything God ever hoped for all of us. St. Paul tells us that Jesus is in us:
• 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Or do you not realize about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you?”
• 2 Corinthians 4:6-7, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels…”
• Romans 8:10, “But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is alive because of righteousness.”
• Galatians 1:15-16, “But when it pleased God…to reveal His Son in me.”
• Galatians 2:20, “I am crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.”

You get my drift?

This is why some of the mystics and saints go further than suggesting we should be like Jesus. They say, based on Scripture, that we are Jesus – each and every one of us. Think about that! The English mystic, Caryll Houselander describes the most incredible vision that hit her while she was traveling in the underground on a crowded train. Suddenly, she couldn’t see the people around except various form of Jesus Christ. The vision persisted when she emerged on the street and it continued for several days. In some people she found a suffering Jesus while in others a living, vibrant Jesus bursting with love and compassion. And still in others, sadly, a Jesus in the tomb of a lifeless soul. <2> Whoa!

For me, to read the overwhelmingly negative exchanges on various social media platforms, especially between supposed Christians, makes me feel…well it makes me wonder how a disciple must have felt standing in the crowd and watching helplessly as Jesus was convicted; as he carried his cross; as he was hung on the cross and as he died on the cross.

Sadly, the worst is not over yet. I suspect we will be witness to more online cruelty and intolerance as elections play out in the UK and the United States just like we’re seeing in Israel and Bolivia.

How is it that Christians can do this to one another? I think it’s because they haven’t accepted Jesus as King. You see, when we accept Jesus as King, he becomes king over every aspect of our entire lives, over our very souls. And our response to one another must first recognize Jesus in the other person and second come from a place firmly grounded in the Kingdom of God. Does that mean we can’t be patriots of our various nations? No, of course we can be patriotic, but our patriotism – our claim to our respective nations and indeed to everything in this world must come second, perhaps a distant second to our citizenship in the Kingdom of God.

If we are to live like Christ, then we need to realize that our Lord and King comes to us not on a bejeweled throne of gold, but on a wooden cross. His kingship isn’t turned inward toward power, wealth and a desire to always be right, but rather it is turned outward with love, compassion, healing, forgiveness, and non-violence. <3>

As we consider the great challenge of the Kingship of Jesus, I encourage us to use the upcoming season of Advent which is a time of preparation to begin again the business of self-evaluation and self-reflection; to reign-in our egos and to make sure that our lives are in service to Jesus Christ as we find him the people all around us.
Homework! As this liturgical season winds down, I encourage you to reflect on the following two questions:

How can I be a channel of God’s service, comfort, healing and life in this world?
Cool off before posting ANYTHING on ANY social media platform.

I think our homework this week might help us recognize Jesus in the people around us. Do you got it? Do you get it? Good! Now go make disciples! May Almighty God bless you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit! +Amen!

Notes:
<1> “Harry S. Truman once almost informed the treasurer of the United States that, ‘I don’t think that the financial advisor of God Himself would be able to understand what the financial position of the Government of the United States is, by reading your statement.’ In 1922, Winston Churchill nearly warned Prime Minister David Lloyd George that when it came to Iraq, ‘we are paying eight millions a year for the privilege of living on an ungrateful volcano out of which we are in no circumstances to get anything worth having.’ Mark Twain all but chastised Russians for being too passive when it came to the czar’s abuses, writing, ‘Apparently none of them can bear to think of losing the present hell entirely, they merely want the temperature cooled down a little.’ Konnikova, Maria. The Lost Art of the Unsent Angry Letter. 22 March 2014. The New York Times Opinion page accessed 22 November 2019 https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/23/opinion/sunday/the-lost-art-of-the-unsent-angry-letter.html
<2> Houselander, Caryll. A Rocking-Horse Catholic. New York: Sheed and Ward, 1955.
<3> Bishop Robert Barron “March in the Army of the True King” https://www.wordonfire.org/resources/homily/march-in-the-army-of-the-true-king/25853/

Church Teaching:
• Jesus prays on the cross, 597, 2605, 2635
• Jesus as king, 440
• The good thief 1021, 2616

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Catholic parish church of St. Matthäus in Alfter, relief at the high altar: Jesus washes his disciples' feet. — St. Matthäus in Alfter, relief at the high altar: Jesus washes his disciples’ feet.

The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

Reading 1 – Daniel 7:13-14
Psalm – Psalm 93:1, 1-2, 5
Reading 2 – Revelation 1:5-8
Gospel –John 18:33-37

Today we celebrate the solemnity of Christ the King. This marks the end of our liturgical year. Can you believe it? Another year has come and gone and Adventis knocking on our doors! So how did this year go for you? A lot has changed for my family and me this year, but I have to ask myself, have I grown in discipleship? How has my faith grown? Well personally, I think my experience this year has mixed results. How about you?

Now, you might ask yourself, so what? Why should I invest any time or effort or energy in today’s readings?

Well,that’s a fair question. Let’s try jump into the Gospel and try to sort this all out. All the readings today tie together and they tell testify to the Kingship of Jesus Christ. So let’s focus on today’s Gospel.

Pilate asks Jesus, “Are you the King of the Jews?”

This is an important question for Pilate. You see, Pilate is concerned about any Jewish messianic claim. Pilate can only understand kingship through the lens of the secular world. For him, any Jewish king represents a threat to Caesar and a threat to the Empire. So Pilate wants to know just who Jesus is.

Now Pilate is not alone in this reasoning. Judas probably betrays Jesus because he was assuming Jesus would usher in some sort of temporal kingdom. Judas was incharge of the ministry’s money, so Judas probably had some interesting delusions about his role in an earthly kingdom. James and John ask Jesus in Mark’s Gospel if one of them can sit and Jesus’ right hand when he ushers in his kingdom.Again, they are thinking in temporal terms about a brick-and-mortar kingdom.

But Jesus answered Pilate, “My kingdom does not belong to this world.” He goes on to tell Pilate, “For this I was bornand for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.”

What is the truth?

Well, the truth is all of it – all salvation history! And the climax of salvation history is that God saved humanity through the blood of his son, Jesus. That’s the extent of God’s generosity. He will give everything to save you and to save me. The crucifixion is what kingship for Jesus means. Rather than sitting on a throne and lording it over us, he takes his place on the cross, stretches his arms out wide as if to embrace us all, and gives his life for you and for me.

We are saved by the blood of Jesus Christ. That is Good News!

But what does it mean to follow Jesus? We are called to be disciples of the Kingdom. That’s why we need to spend some time with these readings – to grow in discipleship. What’s a disciple? Three things: a disciple is someone who accepts Jesus Christ as Lord and savior; someone who tries to deepen their relationship with Jesus by learning more about Him; and someone who shares the Good News with others – to be what Pope Francis calls a “missionary disciple”.

To whom should we go? We go to the unbelievers – those who serve the prince of this world, (John 12:31, Ephesians 2:2). We are supposed to go to those who are caught “in the snare of the devil” (2 Timothy 2:26).

How do we share the Good News? First, by sharing our lives and our love with them – by letting them see that we are different because of Jesus in our lives. That starts with the people immediately around us – our family and friends, of course, as well as all the people we encounter in our everyday lives, from the knucklehead who cuts us off in traffic, or the (insert colorful metaphor here) who pushes out of the way as we try to board public transportation, or the cashier who frustrates the everliving tar out of us! If we can’t love these people, then somethings wrong in our faith life.

Is this easy? Is it easy to live in the Kingdom? No, it’s not. When sin touches us, (and it will, perhaps every single day!), we will falter. If that’s the case, how can we carry on?

My brothers and sisters, I have good news! Jesus exercises his kingship not by lording it over us, but by giving us what we need! Scripture tells us that Jesus gave us the church to help form us and to guide us in His name. Scripture tells us that Jesus equipped the church with the Sacraments to strengthen us. The Sacraments, especially Reconciliation and Eucharist, can, through the power of the Holy Spirit and in the name of Jesus Christ, heal us and nourish us. That’s how we carry on – by regular participation in the mass and by regularly availing ourselves of the sacraments.

We grow with the tools Jesus gave us so that we can better serve Him – so that we can be better subjects of Christ’s kingdom. We grow in Christ so that like Him we can give ourselves by going out into a dark world that desperately needs to hear a message of hope –the message of the Good News.

Homework!

My brothers and sisters, nourished by Christ in the Word proclaimed and the Eucharist we share, I ask you to reflect on these two questions:

How did I spend this last year? Did I grow in discipleship?
What concrete things am I going to do this next year to grow my faith? Can I attend mass every weekend? Can I go to confession one more time than I did last year? Is there a Bible study or adult formation class offered at my parish or through acredible program online I can join?

I think by doing our homework, (reflecting on our life this past year and coming up with concrete ways we can develop discipleship in ourlives), we will better equipped to begin this season of Advent – this season ofpreparation as we look forward to the coming of our Lord, Jesus Christ the King.

Do you got it? Do you get it? Are you going to do it? Good! May each of us come to know the peace and the love of Jesus Christ. +Amen!

Additional Reading: