Homily for Solemnity of Christ the King

Homily for the Solemnity of
Christ the King

Nov. 25, 2018

Collect
Dan 7: 13-14
Rev 1: 5-8
Nativity, Washington, D.C.                   

“Almighty ever-living God, whose will is to restore all things in your beloved Son, the King of the universe…” (Collect).

When you studied English literature in high school, or perhaps Brit lit in college, you came upon a period called the Restoration, featuring poets like Pope and Dryden, plus Swift and Defoe and other writers.  The period’s name comes not from the authors, however, but from the restoration of the British monarchy in 1660 after the English civil war, the execution of King Charles I, and 12 years of Puritan government.  The restoration brought back to the British Isles kings and queens, a period of great literature, music, and architecture, but it didn’t auger peace with the other great powers of Europe or social justice at home.

Our beloved St. John Bosco was born in 1815 as another restoration was beginning, this one involving all of western and central Europe:  the restoration of numerous monarchs, of national borders, and of the whole social order to the way things had been in 1789, before the French Revolution and the wars of Napoleon had turned everything upside down and thrown Europe into turmoil, from Spain to the Russian Empire.  But that restoration’s foundations rested on sand, and it crumbled in just 33 years, leading to more upheavals, disorders, and wars.

Today on the feast of Christ the King we pray for a restoration of an entirely different order, an entirely different nature.  We pray for the restoration of “the whole creation” under the authority of the Divine Majesty of the “ever-living God” thru the kingship of his beloved Son, our Lord Jesus.  That very title “Lord” bespeaks royal authority.  It translates Dominus, from which we get such English words as dominion and domination.

Our Lord Jesus’ dominion, his manner of domination, however, doesn’t mean turmoil, disorder, injustice, and other problems for his subjects.  His domination is over our sins, over all the injustices that we human beings commit in our own lusts for power, glory, and selfish pleasure—those things that Puritans and kings, French revolutionaries and Napoleon sought, whether for good motives or bad—but could not deliver because they were, in the end, baseless, i.e., without a solid base, a foundation.

The only sure foundation is Jesus Christ.  The only “everlasting dominion that shall not be taken away,” the only “kingship [that] shall not be destroyed” (Dan 7:14), is that of Jesus Christ—because he has conquered the evil ruler of this world.  His cross, his blood poured out as a sign of his service to us, has bound him to our humanity forever—a binding that is “the one ring to rule them all”; all the rings with which Satan tries to bind us to his service have been shattered by Christ’s royal ring, a ring that tokens his marriage-binding to his bride, the Church—to us.

To this great king we, in our turn, bind ourselves.  When the rich young man came to Jesus—you know the story in the gospels—asking what he had to “do to inherit eternal life” (Mark 10:17), Jesus told him to keep the commandments.  When the young man said he was doing so, and asked what more he needed to do, Jesus told him to give up his wealth, give to the poor, and follow him (10:20-21).  Jesus tells all of us to practice the Beatitudes—to be poor in spirit, meek, pure of heart, seekers of justice, peacemakers—if we wish to be part of his kingdom, to inherit eternal life.  Our goal in life is not to make America great again but to honor the Great King, to serve the Great King, to follow Jesus.

We honor, serve, and follow the Lord Jesus so that he may set us free, personally, individually, from our slavery to sin, our servitude to the powers of darkness; free us from Voldemort, our death-wish, and deliver us instead to Almighty God, to proclaim his praise ceaselessly in the kingdom of light, the kingdom of all things set right in justice, the kingdom of everlasting joy.  “To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, who has made us into a kingdom, priests for his God and Father, to him be glory and power forever and ever.  Amen” (Rev 1:5-6).