🙏 SUNDAY INSIGHTS - THE SOLEMNITY OF CHRIST THE KING 🙏

SOLEMNITY OF CHRIST THE KING

First Reading - 2 Samuel 5:1-3

Second Reading - Colossians 1:12-20

Gospel - Luke 23:35-43

Once a priest was giving a homily and as he went on, he became more animated. He made a sweeping gesture – and accidentally knocked his papers from the pulpit. He scrambled to pick them up, then asked, “Now, where was I?” A voice from the congregation responded, “Right near the end!” — Well, we are at the end – not of the homily, but of the liturgical year.

This Sunday, at the end of Church’s liturgical year, the readings describe the enthronement of the victorious Christ as King in Heaven in all his glory. Instituting this Feast of Christ the King in 1925, Pope Pius XI proclaimed: “Pax Christi in regno Christi” (the peace of Christ in the reign of Christ). This means that we live in the peace of Christ when we surrender our lives to him every day, accept him as our God, Savior and King and allow him to rule our lives.

The first reading recalls the story of David’s anointing as King of Israel. David was seen in the Old Testament as a type, a representation, of the future Messianic King. Jesus is often identified as the Son of David, as the Messiah, and as the Shepherd of God’s people. King David’s successful 40-year reign became the model for the hoped-for Messiah (that is, the Anointed One, or the Christ), in later Judaism. Saul, the first King of Israel, learned from the Lord God through the prophet Samuel that the kingship would not remain in his family because he had disobeyed the laws of God. David was chosen by God to replace Saul and was anointed secretly by Samuel in Bethlehem. Forced to flee from Saul, David settled in Hebron. Accepted by the tribe of Judah, he reigned there as King of Judah for seven years. The first reading tells us how, on the death of Saul, the northern tribes came to David in Hebron and anointed him King over all of Israel. David’s reign lasted a mere forty years, but Christ’s reign is eternal. David was a mere man, sinful but repentant. Christ is True God and True Man, sinless and All-perfect. Christ died on the cross to free all men from their sins.

In the second reading, Paul asserts the kingship of Jesus. Among the early Christians at Colossae, there were people promoting a detailed belief in angels and their mediating role in our relationship with God. Neither affirming nor denying the existence of these “Thrones, Dominations, Principalities or Powers,” Paul simply states that Christ is superior to the whole lot. St. Paul tells the Colossians how grateful they should be to God for having made them Christians and citizens of Christ’s kingdom. The Apostle then describes Who and What their new Sovereign is: true God and true Man, the true Image of the invisible God and, at the same time, the perfect exemplar of true humanity. As God’s beloved Son, our King has direct and immediate access to God. As the Image of the invisible God, Jesus, our King, is the embodiment of Divine Sovereignty. As the firstborn of creation, He is the promise of all the good things that will follow. As risen Lord, He is the Head of the Church and the promise of our own resurrection. This portion of St. Paul’s Epistle is aptly chosen for this great Feast of the Kingship of Christ, for it reminds us of how blessed, how fortunate we are to be Christians, citizens of His Kingdom on earth, with a promise of perpetual citizenship in His Heavenly Kingdom if we remain faithful to Him, because “in Him all things hold together.”

Today’s Gospel presents Christ the King as reigning, not from a throne, but from the gibbet of the cross. Like the “suffering servant” of Isaiah (53:3), Jesus is despised and rejected, as the bystanders ridicule the crucified King, challenging him to prove his Kingship by coming down from the cross. The Gospel also tells of the criminal crucified beside Jesus who recognized Jesus as a Savior King and asked Jesus to remember him when he entered his kingdom. Jesus promised the good thief, “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise!” Tradition remembers the criminal on Jesus’ right side as “the good thief” who repented of his sins at the last moment, though Mark and Matthew call him a “revolutionary.” Although the Romans intended the inscription on the cross, “This is the King of the Jews,” to be ironic, it reflected the popular Jewish speculations about Jesus’ possible identity as the Messiah of Israel. For Luke and other early Christians that title was correct, since the Kingship of Jesus was made manifest most perfectly in his suffering and death on the cross, followed by his Resurrection on the third day, as he had foretold.

Dear friends, we need to accept Christ the King as our Lord, King, and Savior and surrender our lives to him. We surrender our lives to Jesus every day when we give priority to his teaching in our daily choices, especially in moral decisions. We should not exclude Christ our King from any area of our personal or family lives. In other words, Christ must be in full charge of our lives, and we must give him sovereign power over our bodies, our thoughts, our heart and our will.

We need to be serving disciples of a serving King. Jesus declared that he came not to be served but to serve and showed us the spirit of service by washing of the feet of his disciples. We become Jesus’ followers when we recognize his presence in everyone, especially the poor, the sick, the outcast, and the marginalized in the society and render humble and loving service to Jesus in each of them. 

We need to accept Jesus Christ as the King of love. Jesus came to proclaim to all of us the Good News of God’s love and salvation, gave us his new commandment of love: “Love one another as I have loved you,” (Jn 13:34), and demonstrated that love by dying for us sinners. We accept Jesus as our King of love when we love others as Jesus loved, unconditionally, sacrificially, and with agape love.