Feast of Christ the King 2002

When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne... Then the King will say to those at his right hand...

What are we to make of the declaration in today's Gospel that Jesus is the King who will one day return to earth with his legions of angels, take his seat upon a royal throne and pass judgement on the whole human race, every single person who has ever lived in this world, and that judgement will reward some with the blessedness of heaven and will condemn others to the punishments of hell, and it will be final, forever, determining for all eternity these two opposite destinies of the human race?

Does not much of this strike the modern mind as weird, impossible to believe, fantasy from a long past age. Have we not gone beyond these kinds of beliefs in our modern world? And yet the Church continues to proclaim this Gospel today as the final truth about this world and human history, as she did 2000 years ago, without a flinch, without blushing or apologizing in any way. Why? It's simple. Because she believes that Jesus Christ is truly God, God made man, and so she trusts his word absolutely, as the Word of God, absolute truth and wisdom, and like her divine Master she stands fast before an unbelieving world and suffers its rejection and mockery as He did, without resentment or anger, a faithful witness to God's message. In doing so she is not only remaining faithful to God, but also faithful and loving toward mankind, for the truth is the truth, and nothing is more important for man than he believe the Gospel of truth and live life in accord with its truth.

These are the facts that our Gospel declares. There is a God, and there will be a final judgement, and Jesus will be the judge of every man and woman. He will be the judge because He is their King by divine right and human right, and the true King is always the ultimate judge of his subjects. We Americans don't have much sympathy with such notions of an absolute ruler, and our nation was born from a rebellion against just such a kingship. Kings in this world tend to be absolute in ways that free men and women do not tolerate.

Indeed Jesus himself did not fare well with kings, for he himself was victimized by a Roman empire and a Jewish petty monarch, and when his followers wanted to make him their own king, we know he fled to the desert, and always avoided the term being applied to him, until he was forced under oath to answer Pilate's question whether or not he was a king. And then he makes that startling reply, I am. And then he quickly qualifies his answer, but my kingdom is not of this world. The two parts of this reply are most mysterious, and their meaning is the key to our understanding of Jesus as King and Judge, and the basis of our hope in relation to that final determination of our own destiny.

First, Jesus is truly a king, in fact He is the only king who ever lived who was king by nature. All others either made themselves king either by conquest, or were chosen by others to lead them, or simply inherited the kingship from a line that began in one of those two ways. But Jesus is a king by his very nature, for he is not only the Son of God made man, and surely God is an absolute sovereign by nature, but also Jesus is Himself the progenitor of the new human race. Not only did he create the first Adam, but He is himself the second Adam who has brought forth a new humanity in this world derived from his own.

Paul speaks of this kingship of the new or 2^nd Adam in today's second reading: For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father.

Yes, Christ is the progenitor of a new humanity. He not only created the first progenitor of mankind, the First Adam, but he has brought forth from that First Adam a new race, and this time with a life that will be eternal, for in Christ shall all be made alive, all who have died to their old life and are now living in Him. Therefore He is truly their King, their creator and their Lord, and today the Church honors him with the title that belongs to him in all these ways: Jesus Christ King of the whole creation.

But the Gospel today focuses on a particular aspect and manifestation of this universal kingship of Jesus, the concurrent role of His being universal judge. Because He is our king, He will also be our judge. Moreover, and this is the frightening part, his judgement will be absolutely in accord with the truth, which makes him quite different from all other kings and judges who can be fooled or who can ignore the truth in making their judgements. Because he is God, as well as man, He cannot be taken in by any of our self-deceptions, and he cannot judge us contrary to the truth, which includes justice. And thus it behooves us to take seriously this final judgement that we must reckon with, and live our lives according to the truth he came to this world to teach us.

However, there is also the second part of his answer, my kingdom is not of this world, and fully understood, it should give us great comfort and hope as we look toward that final reckoning. Now it is true that Jesus cannot be unjust in judging us according to the truth, but he can be merciful without being unjust to anyone. We can find hope that his mercy will accompany his judgement in the words, my kingdom is not of this world. This does not mean that Jesus' kingship has no relation to this world, but that it his rule is significantly different from the rule of any earthly monarch. First of all, his kingship is not limited to one nation or one people, but is truly universal. Secondly, while his kingship does not directly touch the political order as such, as with earthly kings, the extent of his rule over men is in fact greater not less than that of earthly kings. Why ? Because his rule extends to our very souls and our conscience, which no earthly ruler can claim to rule. But we cannot claim that our soul and conscience are not subject to Christ's rule, for his word is truth, and that makes his word the ruler of our very souls, as he teaches us when he says, keep my commandments.

Yes the territory of Jesus' kingdom is found within the souls of all mankind, and that is why he is our judge. And yet there is another aspect to His kingship being "not of this world," different, that is, from earthly kingdoms, that is very comforting indeed. For Jesus is a most unusual kind of King in that he is a king who acts like a Shepherd more than a king. Isaiah speaks about this in today's first reading

I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord GOD. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the crippled, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will watch over; I will feed them in justice.

While Jesus did not refer to himself as a king, lest he be misunderstood, he certainly identified himself with that prophecy of Isaiah when he said I am the Good Shepherd. He is a king who acts as the Good Shepherd, having special compassion on the weak, the suffering and the poor. He is a king who while earth never sought anything for himself, and everything for the least of his brethren. He wore no purple garments, and his throne ended up being the Cross, and he did it all that he might give everyone a share in his Kingship. He promises us nothing less, if we imitate his style of kingship, and take care of his little ones as he did when He walked this earth.

Surely that is what the Gospel is pointing to today when it speaks about the last judgement. We will certainly be judged according to the way we live our lives, as his subjects obeying his laws, shaping our conscience by His word, etc. In all that we have reason to be concerned, for we know our frailty and God's holy justice. But today Jesus gives us a clue as to how we can look forward also to his mercy in that judgement, by imitating his own manner of kingship, by the way we take care of the least of his brethren. He himself strengthens us to do just that right here in the Eucharist: and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will watch over; I will feed them in justice, just as he binds up our wounds in the Sacrament of Confession. He Shepherds us in these ways today, so we can take care of his little ones today, and in doing so we build up our own hope for a merciful judgement by the King who is also our Shepherd. There is a clear connection between today's Gospel and the words of Jesus in the Sermon in the Mount, Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.

That is our hope as Christians. It is not presumption on our part that we will stand fast before his judgement, so long as we take advantage of the food and mercy he constantly extends to us in this world as the Shepherd of our souls, and then honor the kingship of Christ by imitating his kingship in the care of the least of his brethren. The wise Christian is the one who honors Christ as King by submitting to His word and honors Christ as Shepherd, by showing His mercy to others. If we follow Him, cling to him, imitate His Mercy, we will not be lost, for he will always find us close to his little ones, and he will carry us home on his shoulders, and let us one day hear those glorious words, Come, O blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; His Kingship is itself, properly understood, the very ground of our hope, and that hope will not leave us disappointed.