Homily for Solemnity of Christ the King

Homily for the Solemnity of
Christ the King

Nov. 23, 2025
Luke 23: 35-43
Our Lady of the Assumption, Bronx
St. Francis Xavier, Bronx

The Crucifixion (by Ioannes Moskos)

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

In v. 33 Luke calls it “the place called The Skull.”  The Latin form is Calvary.  Calvary isn’t a kingly scene.  3 wretched bodies hang in pain from crosses.  A mob and soldiers—public executioners—jeer.  In v. 49, Luke reports that Jesus’ friends, including “the women who had accompanied him from Galilee, stood at a distance,” not allowed near the executions.

The mockery of crowd, soldiers, and one criminal meld together “Christ of God” (Anointed One, Messiah); King of the Jews; and salvation.  “He saved others,” the rulers sneer (23:35), as indeed he had—saved from disease, deformity, even death.  Both “the rulers,” the priests and scribes who governed the people under the Romans, and the soldiers challenge the one who has saved others to save himself from the cross.  That would prove his kingship, his power of leadership.  But the Chosen One of God didn’t come to save himself.

Somehow—only the gift of grace can explain it—the 2d criminal alongside Jesus recognizes that he does have the power to save; not from death on a cross but from something worse.  Luke doesn’t tell us what his crime was; Mark (15:27) and Matthew (27:38) call the 2 men “revolutionaries” or “insurrectionists” in some translations; others render them as “bandits” or “robbers.”  Pious legends call this criminal Dismas, “the thief who stole heaven,” and have generated stories about his past.  Regardless of his past, he now seizes the moment of grace, the chance for salvation, by acknowledging Jesus’ innocence and his power to save—his authentic kingship.  Having asked to be remembered, to be kept in Jesus’ mind and heart, he’s blessed with a promise of paradise “today” (23:43).

The word Luke uses for “paradise” is the same Greek word used for the Garden of Eden in Genesis 2 (vv. 8-10).  Jesus’ death on the cross restores his redeemed people—the collect speaks of God’s “will to restore all things”—restores us to the existence that God originally intended, a state of happy harmony with our Creator and with the whole of a most delightful creation.  That’s quite a kingly gift.  That gift is offered also to us, regardless of our past; we need only turn to Jesus and plead, “Remember me” (23:42).

Speaking on Friday to thousands of teens and young adults gathered for a youth conference in Indianapolis, Pope Leo reminded them, “Sin never has the final word.  Whenever we ask for God’s mercy, he forgives us. Pope Francis said that God never gets tired of forgiving—we get tired of asking!”  And he urged them to ask in the sacrament of Reconciliation, in “confession.”

Moreover, Jesus tells this repentant criminal, “you will be with me” (23:43).  Being with Jesus is salvation, for he truly is “the chosen one of God” (23:35).  Being with Jesus is being in the presence of God.

That’s why we come to Sunday worship:  to be with Jesus.  Our Eucharist anticipates the life of paradise; it puts us into a happy relationship with God our Father thru Jesus, the Son.  We become his people.  “In him we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Col 1:14), like “the thief who stole heaven.”  From his cross, Christ rules over “the power of darkness and transfers us to his kingdom” (Col 1:13), heirs with him in the kingdom of light, the garden of Eden, paradise.