HOMILY, CHRIST
THE KING, B, Nov. 22, 2009 |
Intro: “Christ the King” is an odd celebration: It’s a celebration that was instituted by Pope Pius 11 in 1925 to try to combat the growing secularism in the world of the time.
In the United States, we obviously don’t have a king or queen. In fact, rejecting a monarchy was one of the purposes our ancestors had in establishing this nation. The careful balance of power between the presidency, the congress, and the judicial branch of government was to prevent one person from becoming like a king. And Jesus himself didn’t really seek the title “king.” He held to the earliest Hebrew understanding of God the Father, alone, as King. It was only later, when the Hebrews were settled into the Holy Land, that they began to want what their neighbors had – a king. King David was undoubtedly the best known of the Old Testament Jewish kings. But Jesus saw himself more as a good shepherd than an earthly king. He came proclaiming, not his kingdom, but the Kingdom of God.
But here we are, as Catholics, celebrating Christ as our king. It’s the celebration that ends our liturgical year. And one of the strengths of our Catholic faith is what we call the liturgical year. The Good News of how God has saved us, and is saving us, is such an overwhelming reality, that it’s hard to grasp it all at one time. So over the centuries, the HS has led our church to develop the seasons of the church year. Just as we experience in nature the changing seasons, and we can find new beauty in each season, so the church leads us through the stages of salvation as we go through the calendar year.
Next weekend, as we begin the new liturgical year with Advent, we will join in spirit with those Old Testament Israelites, who watched, waited, hoped for the coming of the Savior. We will experience their longing, even as we long to see Jesus face to face one day. Then in about a month, we will join the rest of the world in welcoming the newborn babe in the manger. As the church year continues, we prepare ourselves, through our Lenten practices, to celebrate the heart of the good news, the death and resurrection of the Lord, which we celebrate for 50 days. And so the year continues till we reach the culmination of it on this last Sunday of the church year, in which we joyfully proclaim Jesus as our King.
I. Who wants a king, anyway?
A. We are fascinated by the trappings, the pomp and majesty, the wealth and power of kings, queens, and even princesses, like Princess Di of England, who died some years ago. Our tabloids like to expose seamy secrets about them, like adultery, or their eating disorders. We even see movie stars and music stars as royalty, and tell their seamy secrets with great glee.
B. But we aren’t very anxious to subject ourselves to the authority of a king or queen. In 1776, the American colonies threw off the authority of the King of England. We proclaimed independence. We developed a carefully balanced and limited form of government that we have now.
- Even this limited form of government is sometimes too much for us. The various militia groups that come and go, our careful protection of the right to own guns, the attacks on the IRS for its arbitrary authority over our pocketbooks, even our unwillingness to let the government regulate whether we wear seatbelts or crash helmets, whether we have air bags or not, all speak of our basic unwillingness to give anyone power over us.
II. But in the face of all this, we celebrate Jesus as our King.
A. Granted, He’s a most unusual kind of king. As he tells Pilate, his kingship doesn’t originate in this world, though it certainly has an impact in our world.
1) He never wore a crown, except the crown of thorns
2) He never sat on a throne, except the throne of the cross
3) He was born and lived in poverty
4) He never had mighty armies
5) He never had any earthly territory
- and yet, kings and queens come and go, but Jesus remains, one of the most powerful figures in all of history.
- But he didn’t see his kingship in terms of power: Jesus saw himself as a Good Shepherd, rather than a powerful king.
B. Jesus’ kingdom is unlike any earthly kingdom, in that it isn’t territorial. Jesus’ kingdom is in 2 places, neither of them territorial:
1) It is in heaven, which is beyond location and time, the way we understand them.
2) Secondly, it is in people’s hearts. Jesus is my king, Jesus is your king, if you and I accept him as our king, if we place ourselves under his kingship, under his authority.
III. Do we have enough faith, and humility, to let Jesus be our king?
A. It takes a great deal of faith to place ourselves under the authority of someone we can’t see or hear, someone who isn’t physically present among us. Yet millions of people down through these past 2 millennia, have done just that. They have let Jesus rule their hearts and their lives. Many have given up their lives rather than deny their Christian faith. All of us here are Christians because of the good example, the leadership, and the instruction and evangelization efforts of other Christian people.
B. But each of us stands in the place Pilate stood, in today’s gospel. Jesus stands before us; will we enthrone him in our hearts? Will we give up our own kingship, will we take ourselves, our wishes, our ego off the throne, and let Jesus be our king? Will we subject ourselves to his rule, his direction, his authority? Each time we choose our own self, or choose to sin, we are refusing to accept Jesus’ authority, Jesus’ kingship. Will we let Jesus be our King?
C. And, if we will, then will we help extend Jesus’ kingship? Will we help make Jesus Lord in our family? in our school? in our place of work? in our community? Jesus came into this world as a witness to the truth. Will we share in that task with him? Will we speak God’s truth, by what we say and what we stand for, in a world that often doesn’t want to hear the truth, whether it be standing up for the right to life of all persons, or the right each of us has, to be free? Will we stand up for truth in a world that often scoffs, along with Pontius Pilate, “What is truth?”
D. It may be only at the end of our earthly life that Jesus, in judging us, and we ourselves, will be able to see whether we have let Jesus be our king, whether he has been the focus of our
life, our chief motivation in life.
Concl: So today we join with Catholic Christians everywhere in proclaiming Jesus as our King. May we use this celebration as the occasion to again enthrone Jesus as our own personal king and Lord. And may we recommit ourselves to helping extend his kingdom to others, even as we wait, in joyful hope, for the glorious second coming of our Lord at the end of time!
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HOMILY, 33RD
SUNDAY, B, Nov. 15, 2009 |
Intro: Ever since Chicken Little scurried about, shouting, “The sky is falling!!” people have wondered and worried that the world is coming to an end. Whether through nuclear holocaust, or the collision of a meteorite from space, or an explosion from within the earth, many people fear the end of the world. The French prophet and astrologer Nostradamus (1503-1566) foretold that the world would end when Easter fell on April 25. This happened in 1666, 1734, 1886 and 1943; it will occur again in 2038.
In the past several years, we have seen the popularity of the “Left Behind” series of books, movies, CD’s, computer games, and greeting cards, which focus upon people who will be taken up in a “rapture” and others who will be “left behind.” Over 17 million copies of Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins' novel Left Behind on the “Second coming,” were sold by July 27, 2000. People have always been fascinated, and often terrified, by the prospect of the end of the world, and here in mid-November, as we near the end of the church year, and prepare to begin the new church year with the first Sunday of Advent, our liturgy does focus upon the end of the world, and gives us the kind of Bible selections we just heard.
I. Apocalyptic literature:
The kind of Bible literature like our gospel, from Mark 13; our first reading, from the OT Book of Daniel; and especially the Book of Revelation, which ends the Bible, is called apocalyptic. The word means, “lifting of the veil” and usually interprets the present, or the future, or the end of the world, by means of dreams, or visions that the author experiences. The Catholic Church hasn’t generally taken this kind of literature too literally, though the very earliest Christians did, expecting Jesus to return again in glory very soon. And, obviously He hasn’t returned, at least not yet. So what do today’s readings mean for us; how do we respond? In fear, anxiety, worry? These readings are a challenge to each of us to look at our lives, where we are heading, what are our priorities and our values. These readings present us with a reminder to let God be #1 in our lives, in our decisions, in how we use our time, our talents, our opportunities, our material resources.
II. The scriptures tell us that the world will end, but don’t tell us when.
A. In today’s gospel, Jesus describes a time of tribulation, when the sun and moon won’t give their light any more, stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of heaven will be shaken. Then the Son of Man, the glorified Jesus, will appear in power and glory, and gather His chosen ones from wherever they are.
B. When this will happen, no one knows. Jesus tells us that “this generation will not pass away until these things take place.” But he also says, “Of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”
III. So what should we do?
A. Should we live in fear? Fear is not a Christian virtue. In fact, Jesus points out that fear is useless.
- How about anxiety – is it appropriate? No, we pray in Mass, right after the Lord’s Prayer, “Free us from all anxiety, as we wait in joyful hope, for the coming of our savior Jesus Christ.”
- Do we worry? Worry isn’t a Christian virtue either, though many of us engage in it. One survey shows why we shouldn’t worry:
40% of what we worry about never takes place
30% of what we worry about is in the past
12% concerns others, and is out of our control
That only leaves 8% of what we worry about that is worth worrying about.
B. Jesus preached about the end of the world for 2 reasons:
1) To try to get people to think about the ultimate results of our actions. He tries to teach us that our actions have consequences. In our first reading, we read that “the wise shall shine brightly, and those who lead the many to justice shall be like the stars forever.” We also read that “others shall be an everlasting horror and disgrace.”
- Our actions do matter. The sins we commit as individuals have evil effects on ourselves and others. The sins we commit as society affect the health, safety, and security of everyone. The sins we commit as a nation affect the environment of the whole world and the standard of living of people on other continents.
2) Jesus also wants us to avoid the pitfall of thinking that time will never run out on us. Soren Kierkegaard, the Danish theologian of the early 19th century, suggested that we should use hourglasses instead of clocks because clocks give the illusion that time just goes on, around and around, while the hourglass constantly reminds us that time is running out. An extremely immature person thinks that we will always have enough time to accomplish whatever we want to. Jesus reminds us that our time is limited, and we should exercise good stewardship of it, using our time wisely, and remembering that one day we will meet Jesus face to face, and then either “shine brightly like the stars”, or “be an everlasting horror and disgrace.”
Concl: so, as we approach the end of the liturgical year, and prepare to begin anew with Advent, in a couple weeks, may we be awake, alert, and ready for the ways the Lord will enter into our daily lives, and also be aware that our time on earth is limited, and we shall see the Lord face to face some day. This should not lead us to panic, fear, or worry, but simply to strive to let the Lord lead us through our time on earth; if we do, we know that He will lead us to our eternal home in heaven when that time comes.
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