November 23, 2025

Celebrating for the 100th Time the Hope Christ the King Gives, Solemnity of Christ the King (C), November 23, 2025

23 minutes

Msgr. Roger J. Landry

Convent of the Missionaries of Charity, Bronx, NY

Solemnity of Christ the King, Year C

November 23, 2025

2 Sm 5:1-3, Ps 122, Col 1:12-20, Lk 23:35-43

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/11.23.25_Homily_1.mp3

The following text guided the homily:

Today the Church celebrates with even greater joy than normal the Solemnity of Christ the King, the culmination of the Church’s liturgical year. Today across the world we make the proclamation that Jesus is the King of the Universe, Lord of all, judge of the living and the dead and that all of time and history is heading toward this climax when Christ will be revealed to people of every race, nation and religion as the universal King of Kings. Today we announce in unison, as St. Paul described today in the second reading, that Christ the King is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, the creator of all things in heaven and earth, the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, the one in whom all the fullness was pleased to dwell and the peacemaker and reconciler of all things both on earth and in heaven.

We celebrate with special joy because this year we mark the 100th anniversary of Pope Pius XI’s establishing this feast at the end of 1925 Jubilee. Because the first celebration of this Solemnity happened the following year, today, therefore, is the 100th time we are celebrating this feast liturgically.

Why was it established? Within a decade after the terrible devastation of World War I, in the midst of social and political instability flowing from the dissolution of four historic European monarchies, the rise of militant atheism seeking to repress belief in Christ and suppress Christian presence in the world, revolutions against the “old order” leading to ferocious anti-clerical persecution, bishops and faithful around the world were petitioning the Holy Father for a response, one that would be the capstone of the celebration of faith that was taking place in the Jubilee Year and fill them with courage to live out their vocation in the midst of a confused world. Pius XI gave it in his encyclical Quas Primas in which he said that the manifold evils and destruction present in the world “were due to the fact that the majority of men had thrust Jesus Christ and his holy law out of their lives; that these had no place either in private affairs or in politics: and … that as long as individuals and states refused to submit to … our Savior, there would be no really hopeful prospect of a lasting peace among nations.”

He led us first through Sacred Scripture, showing how the Old Testament demonstrated that God was king, his scepter was righteousness, and that the Messiah, as son of David, would be called Prince of Peace and execute judgment and justice on earth. In the New Testament the Angel tells Mary that “the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of David his father … and of his kingdom there shall be no end,” Jesus affirms it before Pontius Pilate and tells the apostles that all authority in heaven and on earth had been given to him, and in the Book of Revelation, we join the hymns of the angels and saints in proclaiming his kingdom.

Pius XI then guided us through the Church’s liturgical tradition as well as the writings of the fathers, saints and previous popes, in demonstrating the Church’s recognition of Christ’s reign, emphasizing that Christ’s kingdom is, as Jesus himself said, not of this world. It’s a spiritual kingdom, won by Christ’s blood, opposing the work of Satan the power of darkness, but one that is meant to extend to all social relations, from the family to civil affairs.

Upon establishing the feast, Pope Pius said he was praying for three benefits. The first was freedom for the Church to fulfill the task given to her by Christ. The second was that rulers would recognize that they, too, are answerable to God. The final was that the faithful would “gain much strength and courage, enabling them to form their lives after the true Christian ideal,” and allow Jesus to reign in their minds, wills, hearts, and bodies, thereby drawing others into Christ’s kingdom and together be accounted Christ’s good and faithful servants who would inherit the kingdom prepared for them since the foundation of the world.

So, today, we thank God for the 100 years of celebration of this feast, for all of the graces given, and for the fruits we have seen in those who have spent and even given their lives, like Blessed Miguel Pro 98 years ago today, proclaiming, “Viva Cristo Rey!”

The second reason for greater joy today is because it is taking place within the Jubilee of Hope. We remember what hope is. Pope Benedict XVI, basing himself on St. Paul’s words to the Ephesians that before the Gospel came to them, they were “without hope” because they were “without God in the world” (Eph 2:14), taught that hope is essentially living with God in the world. To live with God in the world is to live in his Kingdom. As he as Cardinal Ratzinger said 25 years ago this December, “The Kingdom of God is God. The Kingdom of God means: God exists. God is alive. God is present and acts in the world, in our, in my, life. God is not a faraway ‘ultimate cause,’ God is not the ‘great architect’ of deism, who created the machine of the world and is no longer part of it. On the contrary: God is the most present and decisive reality in each and every act of my life, in each and every moment of history.” The Catechism, in its definition of hope, shows us how the hope is tied up not just with living with God in the world but living with God forever. It states that hope is the “the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ’s promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit” (1817). Hope orients us to God, to his kingdom, to eternal life, grounding us in Jesus’ promises of that kingdom. Hope helps us to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in entering the kingdom, remaining in the kingdom, and announcing the kingdom. Hope sustains us even when it seems like so many things happening in the world are leading us away from what Pius XI called the “peace of Christ in the kingdom of Christ.” Hope also points us to the “great hope” to live in the Kingdom of God forever.

We see the virtue of Christian hope, as well as the way by which Christ wants to reign in our hearts, minds, wills and bodies, on full display in today’s readings. The 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 humiliate the Jews, Pilate had ordered that a derisive 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 thieves crucified with him mocked him. And all of them derided 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 kingly power they could comprehend.

For most Jews at the time, Jesus’ crucifixion was the proof that he was precisely notthe long-awaited Messiah-king for whom they had longed for centuries. In the first reading, we see the beginning of David’s kingship in Jerusalem. The Jews anticipated that when the Son of David came, he would rule in the way that his ancestor David had ruled. He would defeat all foreign powers and would be brutal to those who opposed him. When David marched into Jerusalem, right after the end of today’s first reading, the inhabitants of Jerusalem who opposed David told him that even the blind and the lame of the city were united in opposition against him and would defeat him. So when David’s men took the city, they went up and attacked even the blind and the lame. The Jews anticipated that the Messiah-King would use his power to subjugate all those who made themselves his adversaries, not take their abuse and die a horrible death to save his abusers. They were totally unprepared for a king who would serve at all, not to mention to the point of death.

The Romans were likewise unprepared for a king like Jesus. When Pontius Pilate interrogated 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 be fighting that I not be handed over to the Jews; but my kingship is not of this world.” Then Pilate retorted, “So you are a king?” Jesus replied by describing more specifically what type of king he was and what type of kingdom he was establishing. “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. Everyone 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 force. Jesus said it is associated with truth and that the meek and humble like him would inherit the earth.

Even the apostles had a false idea about the kingdom and what it meant to be in the king’s service. We see throughout the Gospel that they were competing against each for the greatest positions in the messianic administration they imagined Jesus would inaugurate. After James and John pathetically got their mother to go up to Jesus to ask him to do whatever she asked and grant that her baby boys sit on his immediate right and left as he began his kingdom, Jesus used it as a lesson for all the apostles, who similarly were hungering after the same worldly positions: “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men make their authority over them felt. 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; for 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. To enter into his kingdom with him, to be his right hand, to be his cabinet ministers, means to be willing to give our life as a ransom for God and others, to serve rather than be served, to give rather than get.

Jesus’ true regality, however, was not lost on everyone. After initially joining in the mocking of Jesus, the criminal on Jesus’s right — at arguably the worst moment of his up-to-then probably bad life, during his excruciatingly painful public execution — had a change of heart. How this came about we don’t know, but I’ve always thought that it was a result of the prayers of the woman standing with hope, not swooning, before the three Crosses, the woman who had not lost hope even when she saw the child whom she used to bathe now bathed in blood. Somehow something happened in the heart of the one on Jesus’ right and he now began to see what up until that point he hadn’t, how special the one being crucified beside him was. The Good Thief could grasp 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, to reign is to give witness to the truth, and to reign is to forgive. The good thief perceived what almost everyone else was missing, that Jesus, mysteriously through his suffering and death, was not about to lose a kingdom, but to inaugurate He wasn’t about to experience an ignominious defeat but a glorious triumph. With faith and hope, therefore, he turned to the Malefactor in the middle — who would breathe his last before even the thief himself would! — and humbly begged, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom!” He was asking a seemingly dying man to remember him, something that would be possible only if the thief realized that the dying man would somehow still live and be capable of memory. Jesus the King turned to him and promised that he would do more than remember. With the largesse befitting the most magnanimous monarch, he declared that he would take him with Himself into the eternal kingdom of paradise. We learn here a very valuable lesson. The ancient Christians used to say, Regnavit a ligno Deus!“God has reigned from the Cross.” They prayed, “O Crux, Ave, Spes Unica!,” “Hail, O Cross, our Only Hope.” To say, “Thy kingdom come,” to seek to enter his kingdom, is to resolve to pay him true homage on his throne, to try to live with him on that throne by picking up our own cross and following him, making of our life a true sacrifice out of love for God and others. It means to live with hope even our own sufferings, crucifixions and death, like the Good Thief or Blessed Miguel Pro. It means to make Christ Crucified and Risen the defining reality of our life and live and reign with him in the middle of the world seeking his kingdom.

The question is whether this is what we really want when we pray, “Thy Kingdom come!” We live at a time that, just like 2,000 years ago, has many false ideas about Jesus, many erroneous expectations about the kingdom he came to establish, the way he reigns and the way he calls us to reign with him. In his most famous homily, Christ the King said that the kingdom of heaven belongs to those who are poor in spirit, and yet so many — even those who call themselves his followers — set their hearts not on spiritual poverty, but on riches, houses, cars, and material things. Christ the King likewise proclaimed that to enter his kingdom, we need to be willing to be persecuted and hated because of him, and yet so many seek popularity and to be liked so much that they buckle in their fidelity as soon as anyone gives a hint of disapproving the Gospel. He similarly emphasized that, as King, he had come not to be served but to serve, and that in his kingdom, his followers would not seek to be lords over others but would become great by serving the rest, and yet so many are dominated by petty worldly ambitions and a selfish desire to be served by others. Do we really want Christ’s true kingdom to come? Do we want the whole world to enter it?

This points to the crucial missionary dimension to the kingdom, as we seek to bring the hope, peace and values of the kingdom to others. When Jesus spoke about the kingdom, he talked about growth, saying that the kingdom is like a tiny mustard seed, which begins as among the smallest of seeds but grows into a tree so that all the birds can come to rest in its branches, like a tiny pinch of yeast that can make rise the dough of the whole world. He said that when we receive the message of the kingdom not with stubbornness, or superficiality, or worldly cares and anxieties but with good soil, the seed of the Kingdom will grow within us to bear 30, 60 or 100-fold fruit that will last. That fruit is not just supposed to be in us but also in the world. He urges us to make entering this kingdom and inviting others to enter it our great priority in life. If we wish to seize it, he emphasized, we have to be all in, because a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. But it’s worth it, he tells us, because the kingdom is like a pearl of great price or a treasure buried in a field worth giving everything else in life to obtain. He has told us that he has chosen us to be the laborers in his kingdom, and promised that, whether summoned at this early time in the morning or at five in the afternoon, if we labor together with him in his great harvest of souls he will give us generously a full life’s wage. And he has compared the reward of his kingdom to an unending wedding banquet that he urges us to prepare with lamps lit and properly vested, vested ultimately in the garments of our baptism, which we were instructed to keep unstained for the eternal life of heaven, and from which the missionary dimension of our Christian life flows. Baptism is the day on which, as St. Paul tells us in the second reading, we were made “fit to share in the inheritance of the holy ones in light.” Baptism is the day on which Jesus “delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son.” To preserve and intensify our baptismal graces is to remain in the kingdom by living out our vocation as missionary disciples in communion.

And so, as we mark for the 100th time the liturgical celebration of Christ our King as King of the Universe, we recommit ourselves not only to living in his Kingdom but in helping everyone else imitate the Good thief in today’s Gospel. St. Thomas Aquinas taught us to pray, in his famous Eucharistic hymn Adoro Te Devote, “I ask for what the Good Thief asked,” “Peto quod petivit latro poenitens.” We turn to Christ the King about to reign on this altar and ask to be with him not only in a paradise to come but to live with him in the world now, because the Kingdom of God is indeed God, it means that God exists, is alive, is present and active in the world, in my life as the most present and decisive reality in each and every act of my life, in each and every moment of my history. And we ask Christ the King to grant us all the help he knows we need so that we may always live in his kingdom as missionaries of his regal loving service and help others to become with us true pilgrims of hope on earth and seize the same kingdom as the most precious pearl and treasure. Viva, Cristo Rey!

These were the readings for today’s Solemnity:

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

R. (cf. 1) Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.

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

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

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.”

The post Celebrating for the 100th Time the Hope Christ the King Gives, Solemnity of Christ the King (C), November 23, 2025 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

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By Father Roger Landry

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November 23, 2025

Celebrating for the 100th Time the Hope Christ the King Gives, Solemnity of Christ the King (C), November 23, 2025

23 minutes

Msgr. Roger J. Landry

Convent of the Missionaries of Charity, Bronx, NY

Solemnity of Christ the King, Year C

November 23, 2025

2 Sm 5:1-3, Ps 122, Col 1:12-20, Lk 23:35-43

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below:

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/11.23.25_Homily_1.mp3

The following text guided the homily:

These were the readings for today’s Solemnity:

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

R. (cf. 1) Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord.

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

R. Alleluia, alleluia.

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.”

The post Celebrating for the 100th Time the Hope Christ the King Gives, Solemnity of Christ the King (C), November 23, 2025 appeared first on Catholic Preaching.

...more