CHRIST KING

CHRIST KING

Lk 23, 35

Introduction:          Our proclamation of the kingship of Jesus is the articulate witness to what is going on within us and in our Christian community, and is our faithful submission to the reign of Christ. The Kingdom of God, brought to us by Jesus, is the highest value a human being can realise.

Our Eucharistic celebration today is a thanksgiving for the gift of the Kingdom, the royal priesthood of the baptised. We pray our Heavenly Father to bless us with his mercy that makes us fit to belong.

THE HOMILY

          To make the point to his flatterers, the king was prepared to get his feet wet. Or so the legend says, the legend of Canute, Danish-born king of England in the 11th. century. You’ll remember that his fawning courtiers had flattered him by telling him that we was so powerful he could command the tide not to come in to the shore and it would obey him. So he allowed them to witness the ridiculous sight of him seated on his throne, his crown on his head with the sea-water swirling round his ankles. Then Canute made his point: “Let all the dwellers of the earth know”, he said, “that the power of the king is vain and worthless, nor is there anyone worthy of the name of king but he whose will, by eternal laws, heaven and earth and sea obey.” And, as legend says, Canute never again wore his crown, but placed it on a figure of Our Lord on the Cross.

          There’s something, isn’t it, about an image of the crucified Christ wearing a king’s crown ?  Just as, when you think about it, there’s an element of surprise in the Gospel of today’s feast. I mean, mention of Christ the King conjures up all the panoply of power...majestic...glorious. Yet today’s’ Gospel presents us instead with Christ rejected, ridiculed. humiliated, hanging as a criminal between heaven and earth. It makes a point, doesn’t it ?  A certain Japanese, Makoto Ohasi, member of the Ittoen community [non-Christian] has said: “Although my Christian uncle had failed to impress me with Christianity in my boyhood, I have since heard about the Gospels and found myself strongly drawn towards Jesus Christ. I feel very close to the breathing of Christ during his last moment on the cross. It stirs me more than many lectures and sermons. I picture him killed on the cross, all alone surrounded by scornful and contemptuous people. Very few, I think, appreciate the bliss he must have experienced when all were against him.”  Coming from a non-Christian !  Nearer home, listen to our own great Vivekananda who said: “If I see Jesus Christ before me, I shall put my hand into my heart and smear my blood on his feet.” I personally envy Vivekananda, since he said that before I could.

          The Gospel makes the point that Christ’s kingship is based not on position, privilege or power but service, love and compassion.....the love that is prepared to lay down even life itself for another.  One day a very ill person was picked up quite routinely from the streets of Calcutta and brought to the Sisters’ house. Mother Teresa happened to be in and she could see that the poor man would be dead in a few hours. What could anyone do for him ?  What did Mother do ? She took out a pair of nail clippers and pared the dying man’s toe nails. Within a few hours it would have made no material difference whether his toe nails were clipped or not. But it would make all the difference for eternity for this man that he was treated humanly.

          How human that exchange between that criminal and Jesus as they hung side by side on their crosses. ! It is true he had nothing to lose; death was inevitable, and no amount of power, wealth or control could save him. And yet in his agony he had a good word for Our Lord, defending his innocence. He recognised Jesus, put his trust in him, surrendered himself saying, “Jesus, remember me when you enter into your kingdom.” And at this moment that we need a trumpet blast or explosion of fireworks.....or both, for this is the point we need to take in. In the instant it took to turn to Jesus and ask to be remembered, the criminal was forgiven, reconciled, welcomed and granted eternal life. Jesus’ love and generosity went way beyond what the man had asked for, and that is how it can be for us.

          From King Canute in England to Mother Teresa of Calcutta to the criminal on Calvary. Now the final trip to Algeria. Early in the month of March 1996, Islamic fundamentalist rebels raided a Cistercian monastery high up in the Atlas Mountains in Algeria in North Africa. The rebels took seven of the monks hostage. The monks were aged between 82 and 45 years, all French nationals who had spent their lives praying, working and helping their poor Muslim neighbours around the monastery of Our Lady of the Atlas Mountains. With the monks as hostages, the fundamentalist group demanded the release of Muslim prisoners jailed in France. Their demands were not met by the French government. On Tuesday, 21st. May 1996, the rebels issues a terse and chilling statement: “We have cut the throats of the seven monks....the executions took place this morning.”

          One of the monks executed was Dom Christian de Cherge, prior of the monastery of Our Lady of the Atlas Mountains. Over a year before he was abducted, he had sensed the danger of the situation in which he was living in Algeria. So Dom Christian wrote a letter, a sort of last will and testament. After his violent death, the letter sent to his family in France. They opened it on Pentecost Sunday in 1996. It’s a very moving letter, particularly the final sentences, in which Dom Christian addressed directly the man who will kill him. This is what he wrote:

“And you also, the friend of my final moment who would not be aware of what you are doing. Yes, for you too, I say, ‘thank you’ and adieu. I commend you to the God whose face I see in yours. And may we find each other...in Paradise, if it pleases God, the Father of us both. Amen.”

          Now what sort of extraordinary generosity allows a man to write like that....to call his murderer the “friend of my final moment”, and to see the face of God even in the man who will kill him ?  Quite simply, I think, it comes from a life spent thinking about and praying about the regal generosity of the King whom he served. From that, Dom Christian and his companions gained the courage and the freedom to follow the pattern set by Jesus, a pattern foreseen by the Master.

          The mysteries of Jesus are our mysteries. Whatever happened to the King must happen to the subjects. Whatever happened to Jesus must happen to us. May the kingship of Christ be your rule of life.

PRAYER

Lord Jesus, I proclaim you King of heaven and earth. You are the transcendent Lord of my life, Master of my actions and the Supreme Teacher of the Truth. I beg you exercise your power and dominion over me; keep me your loyal and loving subject, and remember me and admit me into your Kingdom when my time has come. Amen.