Today’s Solemnity of Christ the King is a relatively new feast in the life of the Church: Pope Pius XI established the feast in 1925. And to understand what the feast really intends for us to appreciate about our life of faith, all we have to do is think about the feast’s name, and about what was going on in the world in 1925, when Pope Pius announced this feast.
In 1925, powerful political, social, and economic forces were at work, claiming the allegiance of men and women. In Russia, Soviet Communism had arisen, asserting that individual rights were subservient to the rights of the State and of the Party – that human labor was not for a person’s own benefit, or for the family, but entirely for the People.
In Italy and Germany, fascism, another form of totalitarian rule claimed ownership of people’s lives and labor. And around the world, colonialism operated under the assumption that white Western European nations were entitled to dominate the people and the resources of “inferior” and “backward” regions of the world.
So the Church at that time was properly asking, who really holds sovereignty over the hearts and souls of men and women? Who is really in command of the peoples of the world and its resources?
Of course, the answer is God, and God alone. Jesus Christ is King of the universe and the Lord of our lives, and it is His Law that orders all creation. All human authority comes from God and is bestowed by Him for the peace and security of all men and women.
And yet Pope Pius lamented that people had “thrust Jesus Christ and His holy law out of their lives” and imagined that Jesus had “no place in public affairs or in politics. As long as individuals and states refuse to submit to the rule of our Savior,” he wrote, “there will be no really hopeful prospect for a lasting peace among nations.”
Pope Pius wrote that in 1925. Sounds like it could have been written yesterday, don’t you think? That’s why, now at the end of every liturgical year, we mark this feast in honor of Jesus Christ the King. We remember and celebrate that Jesus Christ is indeed the King of the Universe and that only under His rule will the world know peace.
In light of this meaning of today’s feast, we can appreciate that our Gospel from St. Luke, his account of Jesus’ Passion, is particularly scandalous. In His preaching and ministry, Jesus had claimed, and demonstrated, an authority unlike any other leader in Israel. He was hailed by the crowds as the Son of David, and now, it was specifically for claiming to be the King of the Jews that the authorities were putting Him to death.
The sneers of the leaders, the derision of the soldiers, and the mocking of the crowd that we hear in today’s gospel, all point out the harsh reality that at the foot of the Cross, Christ’s claim of Kingship seems like a tragic joke. The sign nailed above his head is meant merely to mock and ridicule. Even the disciples run in fear and shame, and wonder how the Crucified One could possible be the Messiah they thought He was.
And of course today there are still a great many people who stand at the foot of the Cross and mock and deride the idea, the reality, that God could became flesh for us and be killed as a common criminal.
And yet, at the same time, it is precisely at the Cross that Jesus’ Kingship is fully realized, and fully understood. The one who hangs upon the Cross is indeed the King of the Jews, the King of the Universe – and thus, we arrive at the essential paradox and challenge of believing in Jesus Christ. If we are to believe that Jesus really is who He says He is – that He really is King of the Universe – we have to amend our understanding of what a king is, and we have to make sure it includes the suffering and death, the self-sacrifice of the Cross.
After the Resurrection, the disciples who once ran from the Cross, come to realize that the Cross is not merely an instrument of torture to which Jesus is nailed, it is a throne of glory that Jesus mounts triumphantly. They see that the Cross is the very essence of Jesus’ Kingship. But in today’s Gospel, even in the midst of the scandal of the Cross, there is one who already sees with the eyes of faith.
The repentant thief, named Dismas by Tradition, confesses his own guilt, recognizes Jesus’ innocence, and with tremendous faith humbly asks: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Dismas is able to understand and believe what St. Paul explains in his Letter to the Colossians: “In Him all the fullness was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile all things for Him, making peace through the blood of His cross.”
Jesus is King precisely in that He is the Redeemer, extending forgiveness and peace to all the world, not through violence or domination, but by offering Himself up and washing us clean in the blood of His Cross.
Friends, in Baptism we became, in the words of the first reading, “flesh of His flesh, and bone of His bone.” We were anointed, like Christ, as priest, “prophet and king.” We can say, therefore, that we have not only been washed clean by His blood, we have His royal bloodline flowing through us.
And so St. Paul says in today’s second reading that we have been “delivered from the power of darkness and transferred into the Kingdom of God’s beloved Son.” We have been transferred into the Kingdom of God’s Son. The promise of our Baptism is the very promise made to Dismas: “Today you will be with me in Paradise.”
As this liturgical year comes to a close, we should ask ourselves if we live our lives, day in and day out, as if we live in the Kingdom of God’s beloved Son. Do our words, and our actions, show to the world the authority and power of Christ the King, and extend the reign of His love? Do we see ourselves, and treat ourselves, and act towards others with the dignity of an heir of the kingdom of God?
Or do we, rather, make all sorts of other things the king of our hearts.
If our world is ever to know the peace that only Christ’s Kingship can give, it will only know it through our fidelity to His reign. So, on this feast of Christ the King, let us all be reminded of our dignity as members of the Baptized – that we have been purchased at the price of His blood, and now share in the Kingship of Christ. And may we all be strengthened by this Eucharist to live and act as citizens and heirs of Christ’s Kingdom.
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