Feast Of Christ The King
By Father Donald Dilger
LUKE 23:35-43
The feast of Christ the King permanently replaces the thirty-fourth and last Sunday in Ordinary Time, (unless a Pope decrees a different date, as has happened twice). This feast was established during a Holy Year by Pope Pius XI on December 11, 1925, in the encyclical Quas Primas. Honoring of Jesus Christ as king evolved out of honoring the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Devotion to the Sacred Heart emphasized gentleness, mercy, forgiveness, peace within families, and through families, international peace. Devotion to Christ the King emphasized attainment of international peace by a quasi-political reign of Christ through the Church. This may be seen in a quote from Quas Primas:
“It would be a grave error…to say that Christ has no authority whatever in civil affairs…. He is the author of happiness and true prosperity for every one and for every nation. If rulers of nations wish to preserve their authority, promote and increase the prosperity of their countries, they will not neglect the public duty of reverence and obedience to the rule of Christ. When people recognize, both in private and public life, that Christ is King,
society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony.”
Honoring Christ as King was not an invention of Pius XI. One might say, that from being a hidden king, Pius XI proposed Jesus Christ once again as the publicly triumphant king already revealed in our four gospels through his royal procession into Jerusalem. Palm Sunday is not the gospels’ only revelation of Christ the King. The Passion Narratives are full of this revelation, especially in John’s gospel. This year however the liturgy gives us this revelation in a scene from Luke. The scene centers on Jesus hanging on the cross. Luke’s dramatic presentation is an ironic threefold mockery of Jesus as king, followed by a genuine proclamation of Jesus’ kingship.
The first mockers are the “rulers.” These are members of the upper caste of priests and wealthy laymen, some of them members of the Great Council, the Sanhedrin. These are the men, historically speaking, most responsible for the arrest of Jesus and handing him over to the Roman authorities in Jerusalem. From their point of view, Jesus was disturbing the status quo in which they held comfortable and powerful positions under Roman occupation of their country. The Gospel of John quotes one of them, Caiaphas, as saying to the Great Council, “You know nothing at all. You do not understand that it is expedient for you that one man should die for the people, rather than the whole nation perish.”
Jesus entered Jerusalem as a king would enter his city. Now they mocked him as king, “He saved others. Let him save himself, if he is the Chosen One, the Christ of God.”
Kingship is implied in the title, “the Christ of God.”
The detachment of soldiers assigned to the execution of Jesus take their cue from the “rulers.” Offering wine to Jesus on the cross, as was the custom, they jeered, “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself.” Then Luke notes the inscription posted at the top of the cross, “This is the King of the Jews.” A third mockery comes from a real criminal crucified alongside Jesus. He cursed Jesus, and said, “Are you not the Christ?” (Christ is a royal title meaning one anointed as king.) “Save yourself and us.” Note Luke’s triple use of the verb to save in each of the three mockeries.
An unlikely source becomes Jesus’ defender, a rebel against Rome crucified alongside Jesus. He reprimands his fellow rebel, “Have you no fear of God, since you are subject to the same condemnation? We are justly condemned for our crimes. This man has done nothing criminal.” Luke, true to major themes of his gospel, repentance and forgiveness, attributes to the repentant criminal a proclamation of Jesus as king, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Luke attributes to Jesus the response we sinners all hope to hear from Christ the King, “This day you will be with me in Paradise.”
2 SAMUEL 5:1-3
The scene is the anointing of David as king over the tribes of Israel. As a basis for anointing David their king, the people claimed kinship with him. With guidance from St. Paul, we can do the same with Jesus our king. Paul teaches in Romans that we have received the same Holy Spirit as Jesus did. This makes us sons and daughters of God, and gives us the right, says Paul, to address God with the same familiarity by which Jesus addressed God, “Abba!” Created by the Holy Spirit as children of the same Father we approach our Brother and acknowledge him as our King, our Shepherd, our Commander.
COLOSSIANS 1:12-20
This reading also speaks of our kinship with our King, as the author thanks the Father, “who has qualified us to share in the inheritance….” The author refers to “the kingdom of his beloved Son.” This ancient Christian hymn now incorporated into this letter heaps upon Jesus title after title that proclaim his universal rule.
