Solemnity of Christ the King

November 22, 2009

Dn 7,13-14
Rv 1,5-8
Jn 18, 33-37

The patient requested, “Doctor, if there is anything wrong with me, do not frighten me half to death by giving it a long scientific name. Just tell me in plain English.”

“Well,” the doctor replied hesitantly, “to be perfectly frank, you are just plain lazy.”

“Thank you, doctor,” murmured the patient. “Now give me the scientific name so I can tell my family.”

Truth hurts. Most of us do not want to accept the truth about ourselves. Pilate asked, “What is the truth?”

The preface for today’s Mass, the prayer we say immediately before we sing the Holy, Holy, tells us that the Kingdom of the Lord is one of truth and life, holiness and grace, justice, love and peace. “My Kingdom is not of this world,” He said. Do we show, by our lives, that we are influenced by the ideals of a kingdom of truth and life, of holiness and grace, of justice, love and peace? That’s the question. Truth and life, holiness and grace, they all go hand in hand. To be part of Christ’s kingdom means that there should be a real transparency about our lives, truth and life, holiness and grace.

We, the members of Christ’s Kingdom have been called to imitate our King at his most regal moment, reigning on the Cross sacrificing himself for others, reconciling, forgiving. We are called to realize with our lives the kingdom of truth and life, holiness, grace, justice, love and peace.

We ask Christ today to help us to sacrifice as he sacrificed. Sacrifice sounds noble, but it is no fun. All of us literally run out of gas, giving to those who are continually demanding. We all want to say, “Enough is enough.” But there was no limit to Christ’s sacrifice and there is no limit to the extent he wants us to follow him. Perhaps the greatest sacrifice is the sacrifice of forgiving those who have hurt us. No one has ever benefited from hanging onto a grudge even if the other person was certainly wrong. Sometimes it is harder to say “You are forgiven” than it is to say “I am sorry.” But that is the way of the King on the cross forgiving the criminal, the mockers and even his executioners. It is also the way of the Kingdom.

We are called to be members of a Kingdom of Truth. Jesus told Pilate that he came to give testimony to the truth. Pilate sarcastically asked, “What is the truth?” So also do some people of our day who are faced with the realization that a life of materialism is empty and an illusion. Some have become cynics saying that there is no truth in the world. Christ said that there is truth, he is the King of truth. The truth of Jesus Christ is that there is infinitely more to our existence than the physical. The Truth of Jesus Christ is that his Kingdom is worth infinitely more than all the riches of the world. Yes, there are moral imperatives. Living for personal  gratification is taking a dive into an empty pool. Yes, there are truths. And we stand for them with Jesus.

And if we do this and when we do this, if and when we stand for the truth of Christ, we are set apart from others. And that is what holiness is, to be set apart for God. Therefore, his Kingdom is a Kingdom of Holiness.

It is the Kingdom of justice and love. For truth demands that we protect the rights of all. We, the Church, cannot and will not ignore the plight of the poor, the sick, the mentally and physically challenged, those who are abused by the system, the battered wife, the helpless baby – inside or outside the mother, the scorned migrant, and all the lepers of the modern world. As followers of Jesus Christ we are committed to his Kingdom of Justice and Love.

All kingships are about power. The question that we have to ask ourselves is this: What power do we allow to shape and influence our lives? Is it the power of domination over others? The power that comes from believing that we are more worthy than anyone else? Is it the power that comes from money or position or prestige? Is it the power that movies and TV and advertising have over us? Is it the power that our celebrity culture exerts? Or, on the other hand, is it the power that we acknowledge  that Jesus Christ has over us?

Jesus is the central mystery of our faith. He lived, he died, he rose, and he will come again. He went about preaching about the Kingdom of God and encouraging us to change our lives so we can become members of this Kingdom. He told us to avoid the materialism of the world. He called us friends, and brothers and sisters. He called us his own. He told us to keep his presence alive in the world by bringing  his compassion to others. He allowed us to be called Christians.

What does it mean to accept Christ as King? It means that our religion is about more than finding comfort and a sweet word of consolation, though there is comfort and consolation in our Christian faith. It is more than simply embracing a noble value system, though the gospel does tell us of noble values, of right and wrong and a good way to live.  To accept Christ as our King is to give Him a total personal allegiance. It is to say that you, Jesus  Christ, are the truth for Whom I would lay down my life, and, if I ever were to have denied you, I would have lied. I would have made my life into a lie.

This gospel, this feast of Christ the King reminds us that each of us was born for this same reason: to testify to the truth. And what is the truth? Jesus Christ is the Truth, and the Way, and the Life.


Fr. Devasagayam Savariyappan, SVD
Our Lady of the Pillar Parish
San Isidro, Abra