Fr. Roger J. Landry

Conversations with Consequences Podcast

Homily for the Solemnity of Christ the King (C), Vigil

November 23, 2019

 

To listen to an audio recording of this short Sunday homily, please click below: 

https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/catholicpreaching/11.22.19_Landry_Con_Con_1.mp3

 

The following text guided today’s homily: 

* This is Fr. Roger Landry and it’s a joy to have a chance to ponder with you the consequential conversation Jesus wants to have with us this Sunday, on which the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Christ the King.

* The dialogue we’ll enter is the one that took place on Calvary. The first dialogue was provocative. Soldiers, the chief priests, passers-by all cried out, “If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself!” The thief on his left reviled him saying, “Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us.” But Jesus didn’t respond to their derision with a direct response in words, but with silence, prayer and mercy — “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” But then there was another conversation with the thief crucified on his right. He turned to the one being crucified in the middle, and said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And Jesus replied to him, “Truly I tell you today, you will be with me in paradise!”

* The latter is one of the most incredible dialogues of all time, one in which we’re called to echo the prayer of the good thief. Thousands of times a year, we Christians pray, “Thy kingdom come!” As we prepare for the Solemnity of Christ the King, it’s important for us to ponder what type of kingdom we’re praying will come so that we may enter, dwell and rejoice in it.

* When Jesus inaugurated his kingdom, it had nothing to do with the expectations of almost anyone at the time. 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 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 just mocked him to put on a show and come down from the cross, as if he were a professional wrestler about to make a dramatic comeback. Such visible force was the only demonstration of kingly power that they could comprehend.

* For most Jews at the time, Jesus’ crucifixion was the proof that he was precisely not the long awaited Messiah-king for whom they had been waiting for centuries. The Jews anticipated that the descendent of King David 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. 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 force.