Homily for Solemnity of Christ the King

Homily for the Solemnity of
Christ the King

Nov. 20, 2022
Luke 23: 35-43
Col 1: 12-20
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx

“If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself” (Luke 23: 37).

For several weeks our Sunday readings have followed Jesus as he journeyed from Galilee up to Jerusalem.  In Jerusalem he fulfills the mission on which his Father sent him:  to save the world.

The Good Thief (Titian)

It’s a paradox; it’s the heart of the Christian mystery:  that by dying on a cross, Jesus of Nazareth has saved not himself but the whole human race.  He has become not just the King of the Jews but even the King of the Universe—Christ the King, anointed by God the Father as ruler and savior, “the firstborn from the dead,” as St. Paul writes to the Colossians (1:18), the 1st of many brothers and sisters who have become, thru him, God’s people, God’s children, “delivered from the power of darkness” and “transferred to the kingdom” of God, forgiven and redeemed (Col 1:13-14).

Crucifixion was the ultimate, most painful, most shameful form of execution that the Roman Empire had found—learned from the Persians—a fit punishment for slaves, rebels, pirates, highway robbers, murderers, anyone whom the Empire considered to be the scum of society.

How did the cross become the sign of Christ’s kingship?  How is that our churches proudly display Christ on a cross?  How is it that every September 14 we celebrate a feast called the Exaltation of the Cross, the triumph of the cross?

Because the Son of God became a human being—“was incarnate of the Virgin Mary,” we say in the Creed.  God assumed our lowly human condition, our flesh and blood, bones and nerves and emotions.  Jesus of Nazareth, Mary’s Son, suffered abandonment and unjust persecution, as so many people do, and he suffered the harshest punishment known to his society:  crucifixion.

Not the end of the story, as his enemies thought it would be:  “He saved others.  Let him save himself!” (Luke 23:35).  Rather, his identification with humanity, his solidarity with us, put him into a position to lead us to the wholeness and glory he enjoys as God—in a position to make a promise even to a wretched, dying criminal:  “Today you will be with me in Paradise” (23:43).  Those who identify with Jesus, who are in solidarity with him, will share in his triumph over the grave because the cross isn’t the end of the story.  As Paul Harvey might say, “the rest of the story” is the empty tomb and the ascension of Jesus to his Father’s side in heaven.  In anticipation of that, Christ reigns already from the cross and dispenses royal favor, a promise of salvation, a promise of eternal life.

Rising from the dead, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus the Christ, delivers all his followers “from the power of darkness,” from the power that our sins hold over us, from the power of the Dark Lord we call Satan—even as he delivered that condemned criminal on Calvary.

We don’t really know what crimes the 2 men alongside Jesus had committed.  Matthew and Mark call them robbers, Luke a more generic “criminals.”  One of these, whom we traditionally call “the good thief,” turns to Jesus and is immediately pardoned and redeemed; from being a wicked thief he’s transformed into a good person.

Whatever you and I have done in the past is immediately redeemable by our Lord Jesus, who suffered like a criminal but has the royal power of pardon.  He continues to exercise that royal power thru the Church he left behind for the express purpose of announcing the Good News of forgiveness of sins and of effecting divine pardon.  Back to St. Paul:  in him “we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col 1:14).