The King of Hearts

What is your idea of a “king?” Is it a romantic King Arthur  and the Knights of the Round Table? Is it Henry VIII? Or  King David,  the man after God’s own heart – type of the Messiah–yet, an adulterer and murderer? Or Wise Solomon, the magnificent, with his 700 wives and 300 concubines? Or is it  Burger King, Mami King, or Siopao King? Or Shabu king? Your image of a king is important, for it influences your reaction to today’s feast.

What does “Christ the King” say to you? Frankly, I don’t know. But let’s consider three questions: Why does the Church insist on a liturgy like this in an age of democracy? What does God’s Word  add to our understanding? What does the kingship of Christ  mean to our daily living?

The Church instituted the Feast of Christ the King in  1925 to  counteract the growing secularism and atheism  of the time. For this reason, the Feast is all the more important and relevant to our atheistic and materialistic world today. We need to affirm the  sovereignty of Christ over persons, families, society, state, and the whole universe – over political, and economic programs, over profit and personal interests of politicians.

Our  liturgical cycle  had moved from a whole world’s waiting for its Savior in Advent, through his coming in infant helplessness at Christmas, his dying-rising in Lent and Easter, his return to the Father, the Church’s own pilgrimage in the image of Christ, to his final coming in trailing clouds of glory. Today we reach in our ritual the end of the story.

Today the liturgy reaches the high point of creation in ritual celebration, when humankind and all that is, even death itself, will be subjected to Christ, “when he delivers the kingdom of God to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.”

Now, it is one thing to agree that today is where the  feast of Christ the King fits. It is quite another thing to  make sense of Christ’s kingship, especially in our  democratic society.

How does God’s Word help us to understand this? Here the Gospels raise problems and offer an insight. On the one hand,  “king”  was not a title Jesus particularly liked. After the multiplication of the loaves and fishes, people wanted to make him king .Jesus fled to the mountain.

On the other hand, at a critical moment of his life,when asked by Pilate,  “Are you then a king?”  (John  18:33) Jesus  did not deny,  when denial could have saved his life. The point is - Jesus did come to establish a kingdom. He made it clear the moment he began to preach. His words were, “The time has come, and the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matt.  4:17) His parables were mostly about the kingdom.

But what does kingship mean here? Not political power: “My kingship is not of this world,” Jesus told Pilate.

Christ is not about to take the oath of office at the United Nations or the Vatican. And yet, we are dealing with  dominion,  with  rule, with  authority, with that dirty word –  power. The question is not whether there is dominion, kingship, in our lives. The question is:  Who or what rules our lives? Who or what exercises dominion over our human existence?

When Jesus came to live among us, a  powerful trinity of tyrants  terrorized every man, woman, and child. I mean  Satan,  sin,  and  death. Jesus himself called Satan  “the ruler of this world.”

For St. Paul,  sin  was an evil force, almost personal, evil power that tyrannized every human born into the world.

Death  was not simply an inescapable experience;  death seemed to destroy. Listen to Job addressing God, “… For soon I shall lie down in the dust; and should you seek me I shall then be gone.” (Job  7:21)

What did Jesus do?  He crushed the three tyrants. Not that they are no more – disappeared from the face of the earth. The forces of evil are diabolically active across the world. Even in the grace  we remain paradoxically sinful. But  their despotic power has been broken. We need  no longer be slaves to Satan and sin. We  die only to live more gloriously still.

Yes, Jesus has conquered the three tyrant kings. Remarkably, not by force of arms, not by pomp and power, he defeated them  by dying… and rising again.

A unique coronation – for  Christ’s only crown is woven with thorns. Ever since that first Holy Week “None of us lives to himself, and none of us dies to herself. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s” (Rom. 14:7-9) -  Lord both of the dead and of the living.

But though the Lord has saved us with his blood –  he will not force us to obey. I am really and truly the Lord’s  to the extent that I acknowledge him as Lord.  Only  if God’s will shapes my will in freedom do I allow Christ to rule over me.

If the ruling principle in my life is my independent will, that rebel will is the  Satan  and the  sin in me.

In the last analysis,  Jesus Christ is a King of hearts.

Now, what does it mean to have  Christ as our king in daily life? Here the Gospel reading today gives us the answer. The point is this: You and I  will be judged  at the end of our life on how well we served Christ the King in the least of our brothers and sisters.

Recall the words of Jesus in the Gospel reading, “Then the King will say…‘I was hungry and you fed me, thirsty and you gave me drink. I was a stranger and you received me in your homes …I was sick and you took care of me…’

“The righteous will then answer him, ‘When, Lord, did we ever see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink?’ The King will reply, ‘I tell you, whenever you did this for one of the least important… of mine, you did to me!’” (Matt. 25:14-40)

There is an Irish legend about a king, who had no children to succeed him on the throne. So, he had his messengers post signs in every town and village of his kingdom inviting qualified young men to apply for an interview with the king. This way the king hoped to be able to choose a successor before he died.

Two qualifications, especially, were stressed. The person  must have a deep love for God  and  for his neighbor.

A young man saw one of the signs. He indeed had a deep love for God and neighbor. He felt a kind of inner voice telling him to apply for an interview. But the young man was so poor that he didn’t have decent clothes to wear to an interview. He also had no money to buy provisions for the long journey to the king’s castle. So the young man prayed over the matter. He finally decided to beg for the clothes and the provisions he needed.

When everything was ready, he set out. After a month of travel, one day the young man caught sight of the king’s castle. It sat high on a hill in the distance. At about the same time, he also caught sight of a poor old beggar sitting by the side of the road. The beggar held out his hands and pleaded for help. “I’m hungry and cold,” he said in a weak voice. “Could you give me something warm to wear and something nourishing to eat?”

The sight of the beggar moved the young man. He stripped off his warm outer clothes and exchanged them for the tattered old coat of the beggar. He also gave the beggar most of the provisions he had been carrying in his backpack for the return journey.Then, somewhat uncertainly, he walked on to the castle in tattered clothes and without enough food for his return trip.

When the young man arrived at the castle, guards met him at the gate. They took him to the visitors’ area. After a long wait, the young man was led into see the king.

He bowed low before the throne. When he straightened up, the young man could hardly believe his eyes. He said to the king. “You were the beggar beside the road.” “That’s right,” said the king.

“Why did you do this to me?” asked the young man. “I had to find out,” said the king, “if you really did love God and neighbor.”

My brothers and sisters, these are  the same two qualities required to enter the Kingdom of Christ to have him as our King: love God  and  people  with  our whole heart, our whole mind, and  our whole soul.

If we want to be ready to meet him when he comes in clouds of glory, we must be  ready to meet him in the least of our brothers and sisters.