CHRIST THE KING
This Sunday we celebrate the feast of Christ the King the last Sunday of the Churches year. The Feast of Christ the King was established by Pope Pius XI in 1925 as an antidote to secularism, this was a way of life that leaves God out of a person’s thinking and has us living life as if God did not exist as we all know God does exist and we have seen this through the example of so many people throughout history right down to ourselves. The readings this Sunday come as a sort of final warning. Malachi pulls no punches. Those who have chosen to live their life harming others will disappear without a trace. Those whose lives are centered on themselves in self-pride that considers no one their equal will face the truth of their lives and the way they lived them. Our Gospel reading for this Sunday has Jesus on the cross between the two thieves.
The cross reveals both the folly of sin and the toll that sin takes on our world where the innocent suffer cruelly at the hands of the powerful. The cross also reveals God’s profound and undying love for us. Even Jesus’ crucifixion did not turn God away from us. God loves us, even when we do our worst. We have a God who is not indifferent to our suffering, indeed, he has entered into our pain and the horror of death for us. Christ the King does not condemn those who murder him; while he passes a merciful judgment on those who turn to him in sorrow and need. Remember the thief who asked Jesus to remember him in his kingdom Jesus told him that he would be with him in paradise. The gospel shows us that all through his life and right up to his death Christ has taken a place with the suffering, poor, sick, the defeated and the outcast who cry out to God. In our midst he stays faithful to us, no matter how far we have attempted to go down the road on our own; or how far life and its attractions have driven us.
As we celebrate Christ as our King we are asked to embrace the cross and walk in the victory of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. What began as a humble event with the birth of Jesus in the stable has changed the world. As we prepare for Christmas during Advent that begins next Sunday are we with Jesus and his call to us to be his light to the people around us? Whenever we show the light of Christ to the world, the Kingdom of God breaks into it. Whenever we are moved by the Spirit to respond to need, to work for justice, to transform and heal our society, the grace of God becomes clearly visible in what we do and say. We can be sure that nobody there on the first Good Friday thought they were witnessing the death of a great King. The kind of kingship Jesus spoke can only be learned among the poor and needy and those whom the world has forgotten. For our king is the servant of the poor and we only belong to his court when we become servants of the poor. let’s not forget the beautiful truths of faith that we have learned, let’s continue to learn more about them, celebrate them, live them, and pass them on. So that when people look at us, they will see that in our daily lives and dealings with those around us “Christ is King to the glory of God our father.”
Fullerton T 