As I have said so many times before, the feasts and solemnities of the Church year are not merely opportunities to remind ourselves of some doctrinal truth – or to commemorate something that happened two thousand years ago during Jesus’ life. The feast and solemnities of the Church year tell us something about us, and how we are to live in the here and now as followers of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We are especially privileged, therefore, to be able to participate in a celebration of Baptism this weekend – because it is the Sacrament of Baptism that gives each of the Baptized a share in the kingship of Jesus Christ, which we commemorate with today’s feast.
In just a few minutes, after I baptize ______, you will hear me address her in these words:
“God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has freed you from sin, given you a new birth by water and the Holy Spirit, and welcomed you into His holy people. He now anoints you with the chrism of salvation. As Christ was anointed Priest, Prophet and King, so may you live always as a member of His body, sharing everlasting life.”
Then I will anoint her on the crown of the head with the sacred chrism.
Brothers and sisters, it is by Baptism that we became Christians – or, anointed ones – and we are sent by the Father, as Christ Himself was, to be a priest, prophet and king of God’s coming kingdom.
I think it’s accurate to say that we don’t often think of ourselves as called to be priests, and prophets and kings – and yet by Baptism that is what we are. So let’s look briefly at each of these offices of Jesus Christ and what it means for us to have some share in them.
Priest
First, priesthood: in all religions of the world a priest is one who sanctifies and makes holy – who offers prayer and sacrifice to the deity. Jesus Christ is the only High Priest of our faith: His life, death and Resurrection sanctifies and redeems all of creation. It is His sacrifice of Himself, on the altar of the Cross, that reconciles us to the Father and restores us to God’s friendship.
Yes, ordained priests participate in Jesus’ priesthood in a special way and are called to sanctify the Church, the People of God, especially by giving them the Sacraments and preaching the Word of God. But all the baptized are given a share in Christ’s priesthood!
All the People of God are meant to offer the sacrifices of their lives for the sanctification of others and indeed the entire world. Spouses and parents, children and siblings are meant to offer themselves in the daily sacrifices, small and big, that love and family life require – and they are to do so precisely so that they may help make their spouse, or parent, or child, or sibling a more holy person and help ensure that they will indeed be welcomed into Heaven.
We should ask ourselves: Do we usually appreciate and actually live out our high calling to help make other people more holy and to sanctify the world to Christ? Do we properly understand our obligation to offer God prayer and praise, and do we participate in Mass accordingly?
Prophet
Next we are prophets: A prophet is someone who witnesses to the truth, and in the Christian sense, one who announces the kingdom of God and proclaims God’s will for the world. Throughout Jesus’ ministry His words and actions announced the advent of God’s Kingdom.
In word, He used parables to explain what God’s Kingdom was like and taught people how to live for the Kingdom. And in His actions, especially when he performed a miracle or healed someone, He used His power to give people an actual experience of that Kingdom.
All the baptized share in Jesus’ prophetic mission to announce that the Kingdom of God is here in our midst. Every part of our lives can be, and should be, transformed into a means of announcing the Good News of Jesus Christ.
We should ask ourselves: Do our daily actions and our works of charity give others an experience of the joy, peace and healing of God’s Kingdom? Do we, in speech, tell others about the joy and new life we have found in Jesus Christ and invite them to experience this for themselves?
King
Finally, and directly related to today’s solemnity we can speak of Christ’s kingship and our share in it. A king is one who rules and governs a realm. A human king uses power, and sometimes violence, to order society and to exact loyalty, and fear, from the people of his realm who are his subjects.
Jesus is truly the King of the universe, and His kingship is so much a part of his essence and nature that it has become his very name: Jesus, the Christ. But Jesus’ kingship does not subjugate us under His rule and it certainly is not obtained by physical violence, or power, or fear.
Rather, Jesus’ kingship is a result of His self-giving love. God the Father gives Jesus dominion over all creation precisely because He was obedient to the Father’s will even to the point of giving Himself up to death on the Cross.
As King, Jesus does not seek to ensure His own security or power. Rather, He re-orders society and brings about justice by choosing to identify with the poor, the persecuted, the lowly and the voiceless, instead of with the rich or powerful. He actually becomes one of the lowly ones, as we heard in today’s Gospel.
All the baptized share in Jesus’ kingly mission. That is to say that we are given the opportunity to help bring about a more just ordering of society – an ordering of society that protects and defends the stranger, the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the imprisoned, the sick, and all those whose human dignity and very lives are at risk.
We accomplish this in our own homes, as parents – in a sense governing family life – when we give order and discipline to our children as they grow and mature as humans and as Christians. We similarly help them in becoming mindful of justice and growing in care for those in need.
We also share in Jesus’ kingship when we, like Him, lay down our lives in service – working for greater justice in the realms of law and commerce, education and technology, science and medicine, and in all the other areas in which we work and study. By the choices we make in our occupations and vocations we can help re-order society and make it better reflect God’s justice and God’s will for humanity.
On this solemnity of Christ the King, we should ask ourselves if we recognize Jesus’ authority over every aspect of our lives? Do we respect our parents or our children and the proper order of a Christian home? Do we work in our business or study to defend the vulnerable and build a more just society? Do we recognize in the poor and defenseless the “troubling disguise” of Christ the King?
Friends, our Baptism made us members of Christ who is Priest, Prophet and King and it was a pledge of the eternal life that Christ wants us to share in. On this feast of Christ the King, let us examine our lives and live up to our high calling, so that when Christ comes again as King and Judge, He will be able to say to us “come, you blessed of my Father; inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”
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