Praise Our King

Homily for the Feast of Christ the King

By Deacon Thomas Stephenson

November 23, 2014

As Father Paul mentioned at the beginning of Mass, today is the solemnity of Christ the King, the final Sunday of the Liturgical year. We may sometimes lose sight of the fact that the Church has its own calendar, its own seasons. It’s difficult for us to ignore the seasons of nature – with the snow and cold we experienced this past week, we couldn’t help but be aware that winter is fast approaching. With the Liturgical calendar, some of the signs are obvious when the seasons change – the colour of the vestments and altar dressings, the different hymns, the changing tone of the readings – but there is more to it than that.

Next week, we’ll start the cycle again, we’ll begin a new year with the First Sunday of Advent. As we go through the various seasons, we are involving ourselves in the life of Christ – in Advent, anticipating His coming; celebrating His birth at Christmas; then Epiphany and the Baptism of the Lord; a brief period of ordinary time; Lent, Holy Week and Easter; the Ascension and Pentecost; ordinary time again, as we hear more of the teachings of Jesus and events in His life; culminating today, acknowledging Christ as our King, and celebrating our anticipation of the time that He will come again. That seems like a lot when we say it all at once, but we experience it over the course of the year, and paying attention to the Liturgical seasons can really help us to enrich our faith life.

That brings us back to today, the last Sunday of the year. During November, we have been remembering our deceased loved ones, and praying for all the souls in Purgatory. We are also reminded of our own pending departure, our own passing to eternal life. So it is fitting that we recognize Christ as our King, as the King of all creation. He is not just a king to those who believe in Him; He is the ruler of all. In both creeds that we use at Mass, the Nicene Creed and the Apostles Creed, we proclaim that Christ will come again to judge the living and the dead. He is King, and as King, He will pass judgment on us all. Hopefully, that judgement will lead to us joining Him, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, forever in Heaven. Yes, Jesus is our brother, but He is more than that, He is our God and sovereign.

Today’s Gospel speaks of this judgment. It tells us about how the King will separate the people, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. This analogy is clearly a reference to the passage from the prophet Ezekiel that we heard in today’s first reading. And note that the Lord tells Ezekiel that He will search for His sheep, rescuing them, healing them, and strengthening them. He wants the best for them. He wants them to be with Him. But He also says that He will judge between one sheep and another. The Gospel indicates one of the ways that the Lord will judge us – based on how we treat those less fortunate than ourselves. Our King is not one who asks us only to serve Him directly, but to serve Him by serving others. A few weeks ago, we discussed how we are called to love our neighbour, as this shows how we truly love God. When we take care of those who are disadvantaged or marginalised, we are taking care of the Lord. This is our individual responsibility, to be done to the best of our abilities, in whatever way is suitable to our situation. And sometimes, those who require our help and care are not strangers, but even closer to home, among our family and friends, and their needs may be spiritual as well as physical. Remember the corporal and spiritual works of mercy – they go together. We may meet someone’s physical needs, but we cannot then neglect their spiritual needs. And, if we take care of them spiritually, but leave them hungry or homeless, we have not helped them as well as we should have. The needs of God’s people are without limit; we should not be concerned that we cannot meet all of them, but we should be concerned if don’t meet the ones that are within our ability to address. Through our works, we can bring a glimpse of His Kingdom to those around us. The people in the Gospel, the righteous and the unrighteous, were surprised when the King told them that their actions toward others were in fact directed toward him. We know better, and should not be surprised. Christ is a King who cares about His people, He rewards us for caring as well. And, as is quite explicitly stated in the Gospel, there is punishment for not caring.

What we do on behalf of others is an expression of our interior disposition towards our King. We must first allow Him to be the ruler of our hearts and souls. For, how can He truly be King if we deny Him dominion over ourselves? A passage in today’s Office of Readings, from Origen, one of the Church Fathers, says in part: “…he who prays for the coming of God’s kingdom prays rightly to have it within himself, that there it may grow and bear fruit and become perfect.” “There should be in us a kind of spiritual paradise where God may walk and be our sole ruler with His Christ.” He concludes “Then God will reign in us, and we shall enjoy even now the blessings of rebirth and resurrection.” The Lord must reign over us now, if we expect to later enter the kingdom where He reigns forever. This is what we are striving for; this is what the Church, the sacraments, our faith, our prayers, are preparing us for – our salvation, eternal life in the presence of our King.

I’ll close by paraphrasing today’s Collect (which I’m sure everyone remembers), adding just a few words: Almighty ever-living God, whose will is to restore all things in your beloved Son, King of the Universe, grant, we pray, that the whole creation, especially those of us gathered here before you, set free from slavery, may render your majesty service and ceaselessly proclaim your praise. Amen.

The corporal works of mercy are:
To feed the hungry;
To give drink to the thirsty;
To clothe the naked;
To harbour the harbourless (shelter the homeless);
To visit the sick;
To ransom the captive (visit the prisoner);
To bury the dead.
The spiritual works of mercy are:
To instruct the ignorant;
To counsel the doubtful;
To admonish sinners;
To bear wrongs patiently;
To forgive offences willingly;
To comfort the afflicted;
To pray for the living and the dead.