by Father Alonzo Cox
Today is the last Sunday of the liturgical year. It is on this Sunday that the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Christ, King of the Universe. It is one of my favorite solemnities. The Church gives us this powerful image of Christ as King, ruling over all the earth.
Jesus is that King who leads us, his people, to the everlasting kingdom of heaven. Here at my parish, we have Faith Formation classes on Sunday mornings. Each year on this solemnity, I ask the students this question:
“What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word ‘king’ ”?
Each year, I get the same answer: royalty. Kings are associated with royalty, prestige, honor, and respect. Kings are powerful men who exercise their power in mandates and proclamations. In some cases, kings are meant to be feared.’
That is not the kingship of Jesus we celebrate today. Jesus is not a King in the way Pilate wanted him to say he was. We hear in today’s gospel the depiction of Jesus before Pilate on that Good Friday.
We are all very familiar with the dialogue Pilate and Jesus had before he was sent to be crucified. Pilate wants to entrap Jesus into saying that he is King of the Jews, therefore giving Pilate the cause to execute Jesus for threatening the authority of Caesar.
But we hear how Jesus responds to Pilate: “You say that I am a king.” Jesus is not a king among other kings, but a king in the way God is a king. Our psalm today depicts imagery of Jesus as king, robed in majesty and splendor. As we conclude this liturgical year, our second reading from the book of Revelation gives us this image of Christ as ruler of the kings of the Earth.
He is the true and eternal king who will come again in glory and majesty. This is how Jesus, as king, rules. Jesus gave of himself on the cross so we may inherit the kingdom that awaits us. Even those who pierced him, who put him to death, will witness his coming in glory to lead this kingdom to our heavenly Father.
Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. As we end this liturgical year and begin the season of Advent, we keep in our hearts the words from our first reading from the book of Daniel: “His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not be taken away, his kingship shall not be destroyed.”
Our king, Jesus Christ, does not rule with a sense of royalty or nobility but out of pure love. Our Lord rules with his mighty and strong arm out of love for us and all of God’s holy people. Our king calls us to serve one another with that same love, caring for the poor, the lonely, and the forgotten. Our king calls us to build up the kingdom of God here, bringing our brothers and sisters closer to the king of love himself.
We know that our final destination is the kingdom of heaven. Let us pray that our hearts will be filled with the love of the king, so that we may share it with others. Long live Christ the King.
Readings for Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe
Dn 7:13-14
Rv 1:5-8
Jn 18:33b-37
Father Cox is pastor of St. Martin de Porres Parish, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and coordinator for the vicariate of Black Catholic Concerns for the Diocese of Brooklyn.
