Feast of Christ the King 2007
As we celebrate this last feast of the Church’s year,
We have to put it into context.
What do we know about kings?
As Americans, we have experienced a life based on democracy.
Our country is lead by people, and not a person.
Those people have a duty to represent our best interests.
On December 11, 1925
when this feast was put on the Church’s calendar on the last Sunday of the year,
monarchies, kings and queens, were becoming the things of fairy tales
and dictators were emerging across Europe.
Pope Pius the 11th wrote his first encyclical entitled: “Quas Primas”.
Papal encyclicals get their name from the first two or three words of the document.
In this document they were: The first – Quas primas.
Pius the 11th seized a opportunity
while the world was changing
to highlight and image of Christ that finds foundations through scripture.
While people were seeing the destruction of nobility
and the fading grandeur of royal images,
Pius called on Catholics to see Christ as the King or often referred to as Christ Our King.
While people knew Kings and Queen as those who had ultimate power over their lives,
they were not able to communicate real compassion for their subjects.
The Church introduces or reminds its people of Our King. Christus Rex.
Not only is Christ a King in the sense that ultimately He has power over the universe,
He is a Shepherd King, like David, who also has the ability to be among the people,
the subjects of His kingdom, the objects of His love.
Amidst grand hymns like To Jesus Christ Our Sovereign King,
our gospel shows a different image of Jesus and His power.
This King, as was inscribed above His head,
exercises power from a cross
and gives what this kingdom can not give, the promise of paradise:
“Today you will be with me in paradise” he tells the criminal
we have come to know as Dismiss.
Interesting name, it echoes the word Dismissal, the last act or invitation of the Eucharist.
Go in peace to love an serve the Lord because you have the promise of paradise.
Why have such a Feast today? Why at the end of the year? Why such an image?
As we have traveled the journey of Life with Christ once again.
This year with the gospel of Luke.
We have had opportunities to see yet another face or image of Jesus.
Some would say, that their images have changed.
But let be suggest that what the Church and this feast communicates to us
is that while the image of Christ is dynamic and changing from our point of view,
or because of our experience, Christ does not change.
In a world of constant change,
our God, our Savior remains constant
as powerful as a King
and as caring as a Shepherd.
Some great figures of scripture and history have come close, but are not eternal.
They could not promise what Christ can promise
They could only find strength in the same image for themselves.
Let me make this image thing a little more practical.
How things change and at the same time remain constant.
(Show plastic statue of the Sacred Heart)
This is my first image of Christ.
It has been with me so long, I can not tell you were it came from.
Perhaps it was a first communion gift?
Perhaps it was one of those things I had a habit of inheriting from my parents
without them realizing it.
This image of Jesus as the Sacred Heart has never had a right hand in my memory.
His left arm with wounded hand points to His heart.
Come to think of it, this must have been my father’s.
He is convinced that Jesus is a lefty.
As much as my image of Jesus has unfolded over these years
and I trust that it will continue to do so,
this image still remains, not changed but as a constant.
In a very practical way,
Although my life and the world around me has changed,
one thing, Christ remains a foundation and image, a person, I can trust in.
Today we celebrate Christ as our King.
We celebrate Christ as the One KING who can survive the circumstances of history
by remaining constant while still offering new faces to us when we need to see Him
unfold for us in another way - to lead us back to Him . He has that kind of power.
In this world, there is only one person who exercises the kind of authority and power that
Kings once enjoyed and people respected – it’s the Pope interestingly enough.
The Church’s grandeur, by the way, developed in the times of kings and queens and
kingdoms. The Church was a recognized player when it came to the allegiance of the
people. The people gave their riches to the Church to communicate that that is where they
put their allegiance. Not much has changed and we need to see it for what it is: faith in
another kingdom.
Anyway, the Pope can act alone as the Vicar of Christ,
but he bears the weight of shepherding and thus true compassion.
It’s not a job that is easy in this world.
Pope Pius the 11th, wrote His first encyclical on December 11, 1925 to establish today’s
feast and also to establish the last day in May as the Feast of the Sacred Heart. The
encyclical begins: The first encyclical of Our pontificate…and He continues to use a
plural pronoun throughout the document. In the style of writing itself, Pius the 11th ,
brings the document to life. With Christ as Our King, we will never act alone.
