Fr. Roger J. Landry
St. Anthony of Padua Church, New Bedford, MA
Christ the King, Year C
November 21, 2010
2 Sam 5:1-13; Col 1:12-20; Lk 23:35-43
The following text guided today’s homily:
- There’s an aphorism, “be careful what you ask for.” That applies very much to the expression the Lord told us to pray, “thy kingdom come.”
- Last thing Jesus looked like as he hung upon the Cross on Good Friday was a king. He was bathed in blood, not clothed with royal purple. He was hammered to a Cross, not seated on a throne. He was crowned with thorns, not with gold and diadems. To ridicule him and Jews in general, Pilate had ordered that an inscription in three languages be placed above his head: “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” Rather than pay him homage, most in the crowd mocked him. The chief priests mocked him. The Roman soldiers and passers-by mocked him. Even the thief on his left mocked him. And all of them mocked him in the same way: “If you’re truly the king of the Jews, the Messiah, the Christ, come down from that Cross and save yourself.” Such visible force was the only demonstration of power and kingship that they could comprehend.
- This was a far cry from what the Jews had expected from a king. In the first reading, we see the beginning of David’s kingship in Jerusalem. They anticipated that when the Son of David came, he would rule in the type of way that David had treated the blind and the lame who didn’t want him. They thought that the King would use his power to subjugate. They were totally unprepared for a king who would serve.
- The Romans were likewise unprepared for a king like this. When Pontius Pilate interviewed Jesus, he asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” … Jesus answered, “My kingship is not of this world; if my kingship were of this world, my servants would fight, that I might not be handed over to the Jews; but my kingship is not from the world.” Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth. Every one who is of the truth hears my voice.” The Romans thought that kingship meant having the power to crucify or pardon. They thought it was associated with power. Jesus said it is associated with truth.
- Likewise, the apostles had a false idea about what it meant to be in the service of the king. They were fighting for spots. James and John. “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you; but whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave; even as the Son of man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” That is Jesus’ kingdom.
- Jesus’ regality was not lost on everyone. The criminal on Jesus’s right — at arguably the worst moment of his up-to-then bad life, during his excruciatingly painful public execution — had the ability to see how special the one being crucified beside him was. The Good Thief could understand in his own body the incredible, biting pain Jesus would have been experiencing a few feet away, and yet he could see that that pain had not gained the upper hand. He was able to glimpse that for Jesus, to reign is to serve, to reign is to love, and that love was triumphing beside him. The good thief knew that Jesus, mysteriously through suffering and death, was about to enter into his kingdom. He turned to him and humbly begged, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom!” And the King turned to him and promised that he would do more than remember him: he would take him with Himself into the kingdom of paradise.
- To enter into the kingdom means to be with Jesus, not in a generic sense, but to be with Jesus in the truth, to be with Jesus on the Cross, to be with Jesus in serving others. To pray, “Thy kingdom come!” means to bring about this type of kingdom, which begins in this world and passes to the next.
- It is a kingdom of the beatitudes. Not power, but peacemaking. Not riches, but poverty in spirit. Not adulation, but persecution for the truth just like Jesus was persecuted. Happening in many countries. Happens in some families even in our own parish.
The readings for today’s Mass were:
Reading 1 2 SM 5:1-3
In those days, all the tribes of Israel came to David in Hebron and said:
“Here we are, your bone and your flesh.
In days past, when Saul was our king,
it was you who led the Israelites out and brought them back.
And the LORD said to you,
‘You shall shepherd my people Israel
and shall be commander of Israel.’”
When all the elders of Israel came to David in Hebron,
King David made an agreement with them there before the LORD,
and they anointed him king of Israel.
Responsorial Psalm PS 122:1-2, 3-4, 4-5
I rejoiced because they said to me,
“We will go up to the house of the LORD.”
And now we have set foot
within your gates, O Jerusalem.
R. Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.
Jerusalem, built as a city
with compact unity.
To it the tribes go up,
the tribes of the LORD.
R. Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.
According to the decree for Israel,
to give thanks to the name of the LORD.
In it are set up judgment seats,
seats for the house of David.
R. Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.
Reading 2 COL 1:12-20
Brothers and sisters:
Let us give thanks to the Father,
who has made you fit to share
in the inheritance of the holy ones in light.
He delivered us from the power of darkness
and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son,
in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
He is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation.
For in him were created all things in heaven and on earth,
the visible and the invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers;
all things were created through him and for him.
He is before all things,
and in him all things hold together.
He is the head of the body, the church.
He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he himself might be preeminent.
For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell,
and through him to reconcile all things for him,
making peace by the blood of his cross
through him, whether those on earth or those in heaven.
Alleluia MK 11:9, 10
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is to come!
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel LK 23:35-43
The rulers sneered at Jesus and said,
“He saved others, let him save himself
if he is the chosen one, the Christ of God.”
Even the soldiers jeered at him.
As they approached to offer him wine they called out,
“If you are King of the Jews, save yourself.”
Above him there was an inscription that read,
“This is the King of the Jews.”
Now one of the criminals hanging there reviled Jesus, saying,
“Are you not the Christ?
Save yourself and us.”
The other, however, rebuking him, said in reply,
“Have you no fear of God,
for you are subject to the same condemnation?
And indeed, we have been condemned justly,
for the sentence we received corresponds to our crimes,
but this man has done nothing criminal.”
Then he said,
“Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
He replied to him,
“Amen, I say to you,
today you will be with me in Paradise.”