Christ the King (C) 24 Nov 2013

Fr. Noel Connolly

Today is the last Sunday of the Church’s Year. Unlike the secular calendar which begins on January 1 or New Year’s Day, the Church’s calendar begins next Sunday, the First Sunday of Advent. So this Sunday is the Church’s official end of the year.

Endings are always a time for review, for looking back over the year with all its joys and hopes, its concerns, sorrows and anxieties. It is extremely important if we want to be reflective, prayerful and grateful Christians that we frequently look back over life to count our blessings and reflect on our anxieties, our failures and all the things we wish had never been.

In celebrating the Feast of Christ the King, the Church is proposing to us the context in which we should review the year namely the confidence that when all is said and done, when we reflect on our lives we recognise that Christ is our King. He is the ultimate value in life and he loves us and will protect us.

In today’s readings we are given different images of Kingship. In the second reading we have the beautiful theological image of Jesus as “the first born of all creation, for in him all things in heaven and earth were created ….. Thrones, Dominations, Sovereignties, Powers – all things were created through him and for him.” And “all things will be reconciled through him and for him, everything in heaven and everything on earth, when he made peace by death on his cross.” In this one reading we have the two great contrasts in God’s power or kingship. He is king of all in heaven and on earth but his kingship is not like that of worldly kings. His is a different type of power. It comes not from lording it over others but from service and ultimately from his death.

This contrast is strongly emphasised in comparing the first reading and the Gospel.  In the first reading from the book of Samuel we learn of how David was anointed King of Israel. Before Saul and David Israel’s only King was God. Israel was a group independent tribes united only by their common faith and history. Whenever they were attacked a charismatic leader would emerge who would unite them to fight off their enemies. But as their enemies got more powerful and sophisticated, many Israelites came to Samuel their priest and elder and asked him for a King. Samuel was reluctant to give them a King. He recognised they needed a king to defend themselves against the better organised and united Philistines but he warned them that a king would need a standing army and for that he would collect taxes and conscript their sons. He would also need a capital and servants and most likely he would be corrupted by greed and hunger for power and lead them away from God. In that he was prophetic. Israel survived because of their kings but the rest of the Old Testament is a history of good and bad kings and the prophets who challenged them when they were unjust or unfaithful.

Luke’s Gospel paints an entirely different picture. It portrays Jesus as King, but a King on the Cross. Instead of lording it over others Jesus would be servant to all. He spent most of his public ministry trying to warn his disciples about the dangers of power and to wean his disciples away from the idea of an all-powerful God. Whenever they got carried away with the idea of making him a King he would warn them that he must die.

We all want God to be powerful. We want a God who is in charge, who will fix our problems, who will give us clear directions, and rescue us from our crises. But Jesus shows us a God who reveals his love in rejection, darkness, failure & death. In today’s Gospel the soldiers and even one of the thieves taunt Jesus to prove that he is God by coming down from the cross. That is the worldly understanding of power, the ability to do whatever you want, to get out of all kinds of trouble, to save ourselves. But God’s power is contrary to human power. It is found in love and forgiveness, in patient suffering, in service of others especially the weak and the poor. Jesus proves he is God not by coming down from the cross but by staying on the cross and loving till the end. On the cross the contrast between the different concepts of power is clear. Rome seemingly has all the power. It can kill Jesus. But Jesus has the power to love, forgive and save. The Romans are forgotten and Jesus still lives.

God’s love is vulnerable & contrary to human power. God is active in pain, suffering and ambiguity. Jesus never evades suffering. And God normally doesn’t interfere and take us out of our crises or even our suffering. But he does love us and will always be with us. He will support and protect us. That is the kind of King Jesus is.

So on this last Sunday of 2013. We look back over the year to count our blessings and reflect on our anxieties, our failures and all the things we wish had never been. We entrust everything to Christ, our King.