Homily Rev. Hezuk Shroff
Today is the last Sunday of the Church’s
liturgical year. Ever year, we end the
Church’s liturgical cycle by celebrating the Kingship of Christ. But what exactly do we mean when we say that
Christ is King? Even in the Gospel, we
see that Pontius Pilate is confused over the whole notion of kingship? “You are truly king?”, he asks Our Lord. And Jesus’ reply is very enigmatic, but also
very enlightening: maybe not for Pontius
Pilate, but it certainly is for us.
Jesus replies, “My kingdom is not of this world.” And then he adds, “I came into this world to
bear witness to the Truth. Everyone who
belongs to the Truth listens to me.”
Our Lord Jesus Christ, then, is truly a
King. But his Kingship is not of this
world. It is not a kingship founded on
worldly power and strength and might. It
is a Kingship that is founded on Truth.
Jesus Christ is King in the realm of Truth. What exactly does this mean, and how does it
apply to us today, we who desire to be his disciples, faithful to his
Commandments and his teachings?
In the Old Testament, the people of
Israel did not originally have a king.
They had patriarchs, elders, and then judges. But there came a time when the Israelites
looked all around them, and saw kings on all their borders. They became jealous, and so they cried out to
God, “We want a king! We want a
king! We want a king, just like all the
other people around us!” This cry for a
king saddened God. It was never in his
divine plan to give his people a king.
Why? Because he wanted them to
understand that he himself was their King!
They did not have a human king because their true King was God
himself. That is what God meant when he
said to his people through the prophets, “You shall be my people, and I shall
be your God.” And also, it is what we
heard proclaimed in the responsorial psalm:
“The Lord is King; he is robed in majesty!” Now you have to admit that having God himself
as your King is not a shabby deal at all!
And yet that was not enough for the Israelites. They insisted, “We want a king! We want a king!” And so, God finally said to them, “You want a
king? Fine. I will give you a worldly king.” And that is when the monarchy was founded
among the Israelites. Some of Israel’s
kings were good, others were horrible.
Every king in the Bible was measured against one standard alone: was he faithful to the Will of God? In other words, was he faithful to the true
King? Some kings instituted sacrifices
to idols or false gods. Others remained
faithful to the one true God of Israel.
Other kings were faithful in terms of how they governed the people, but
in themselves, they led very morally questionable lives or frequently fell into
sin. King David is an example of a king
who “was after the heart of God”, as the Scriptures say. And yet, he too fell into moral vices, such
as adultery and murder. But King David
repented, and that is what made him so blessed in the eyes of God.
Finally, the monarchy fell apart among
the Israelites. And despite their
attempts to restore it, it was never restored to Israel. And so, when Christ came into this world
among the Jewish people, they had long lived without a king of their own. The only kings they knew were representatives
of their oppressors, the Romans. And so
Our Lord’s response to Pontius Pilate was a bit of a surprise. He clearly told Pilate that he is truly a
king, but not a king in the worldly sense.
And he unites his Kingship to the notion of Truth: “Whoever belongs to the Truth listens to
me.” This is a very bold claim that Our
Lord made.
Psalm 22 (or 23 in some modern Bibles),
begins with the famous words, “The Lord is my Shepherd, there is nothing I
shall want.” This translation follows
the Hebrew version of that psalm. But
the Latin and Greek versions of psalm 22 are very different to the Hebrew. They both begin the psalm with the words,
“The Lord rules over me; there is nothing that I lack.” These versions of the psalm do not speak of
God as being a Shepherd (as the Hebrew version does): rather, they speak about God as being a ruler
over his people: in other words, God is
King! And so it seems that the
Israelites finally understood through the psalms and the prophets why the
monarchy had to die: because they came
to a realisation that God himself is the only King that they truly need, and
when God rules over you, how can you possibly be in want of anything else --
much less, of an earthly king?
The Church very consciously applies the
words of Psalm 22 (23) to Jesus himself.
“The Lord rules over me” means, for us Christians, “Christ rules over
me.” Christ is therefore the true King,
in the fullest sense of the word, because he is not only a man, but God
himself, the King of Heaven and earth, incarnate in human flesh. There is a
very traditional and triumphant hymn in the Catholic Church that always used to
be sung on the Solemnity of Christ the King.
The words and melody were both triumphal in nature, very regal we would
say. In that hymn, we would sing, Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus
imperat! which means, “Christ
conquers, Christ reigns, Christ rules!”
Sadly, it is not heard very often today, except in places where the
Traditional Catholic Liturgy is still strong and alive. Perhaps it is not used today because it
appears to sound a bit triumphalistic to modern ears. But there is nothing triumphalistic about it,
in the negative sense. It is simply a
hymn that proclaims the universal Kingship of Christ, over all peoples, all
nations, all men and women. Many who do
not accept Christ can deny his kingship over them; but that does not make him
any less of a King. Christ must
reign in our hearts, for without him, we can do absolutely nothing.
Ultimately, saying that Christ is our
King means that we give over all that we have, and all that we are (our very
being itself) to him, to do with as he wills, according to his good will and
pleasure. Saying that Christ is our King
also means that we must humbly submit ourselves to him, and to his Truth. Remember what he said to Pontius Pilate: “Whoever belongs to the Truth listens to
me!” Saying that Christ is our King
means allowing all that we do to be offered up to him for his greater
glory. In the Church’s liturgy, we show our
reverence to Christ the King is various ways.
For example, the priest bows his head slightly whenever the Most Holy
Name of Jesus is said aloud (as we do also at the Holy Name of Mary). And we genuflect in the presence of Jesus,
once again to acknowledge that we are in the presence of our King. In ancient times, whenever a King entered a
room where his subjects were present, they would bend the knee to the floor in
order to acknowledge his kingship over them.
In the Middle Ages, this custom was maintained, but with a very
important difference: the right knee was
bended only to God (so, for example, before the Real Presence of Jesus
in the Blessed Sacrament), whereas the left knee was bended in the presence of
the earthly king. This was done to show
that we never give the same honour and veneration to a human king that we would
give to God himself. That is why even
today, we always bend the right knee before the Tabernacle or the Real
Presence of Jesus on the altar. This is
also why we kneel to prepare ourselves for the consecration, to remind us that
Christ our true King is about to become present on the altar.
One of the natural consequences of
acknowledging Christ as our true King is that we also acknowledge the Virgin
Mary as our true Queen. She is Queen of
Heaven and earth, because she is the worthy Mother of the King of Heaven
and earth. Images of Jesus as King and
Mary as our Queen are not meant to distance Christ or the Blessed Virgin from
us: on the contrary, they are meant to
show us how much we are loved by God.
True kingship is not about lording it over one’s subject. The true king is the one who serves his
people, and that is exactly what Christ came to do for us out of love. As our King, he serves us: “I came not to be served,” he says, “but to
serve, and to give up my life for the multitude.” Christ the King shows us that true power,
authority and kingship always imply humble service; they imply taking the last
place, becoming the servant of all.
Today, we give thanks to God the Father,
for sending us his Son to be our Saviour, our Lord, our King. We pray that one day, all things may be
restored to God the Father in and through Christ his Son -- just like the
Collect (opening) prayer of this Mass says.
And as the same pray says, we ask for the grace of being set free from
slavery and sin, so as to render service to our Majesty, Christ the King, and
to proclaim unceasingly his praises for all eternity! Christus
vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat!
Christ conquers, Christ reigns, Christ rules...in our hearts! May his Kingdom come, here on earth, as it is
in Heaven. Amen.
Rev. Hezuk Shroff is the Associate Pastor: of Divine Infant Parish
6658 Bilberry Drive
Orleans ON K1C 2S9
Rev. Hezuk Shroff is the Associate Pastor: of Divine Infant Parish
6658 Bilberry Drive
Orleans ON K1C 2S9
