Solemnity of Christ the King, Year B: Homily by Fr. Isaac Chima
Theme: Let's
make Christ king over our lives and choices.
Reading: Dan
7:13-14; Rev 1:5-8; Jn 18:33b-37
Today, the
Church celebrates the solemnity of Christ the King of the Universe. The
solemnity of Christ the King marks the end of the Church’s ordinary time. So,
we have reached the end of the liturgical calendar of Year B. Today, we
acknowledge and adore Christ as the King of kings, the Lord of lords, and the
beginning and the end. Let us pray in today’s Mass that our lives will be ruled
by Christ in everything that we say and do.
This feast was
instituted by Pope Pius XI in 1925 in response to growing nationalism,
modernism, and secularism. As we know, the nineteenth century and early twentieth
century were marked with problems that shocked the world. In the background of
the growing modernism, secularism, religious intolerance, anti-clericalism that
dominated this era, there were all manners of thinking that sought a total
re-examination of all religious and traditional values about man and human life,
which championed a departure from religious and traditional values about life.
All these led to the first world war, which caused the loss of many lives. When
you throw away religious and traditional values of life, human life will hardly
be respected.
So, this
solemnity was instituted at a time when the world was seeing man as the measure
of all things, a time when the world sought to make the Church irrelevant in
the public space, a time when the world’s political, social, and cultural
institutions suppressed the mention of the name of Jesus Christ in their
gatherings and rejected the kingship of Christ over all nations and hearts. It
was instituted at a time when the powers in Europe promoted a model of thinking
that sought to banish God from the people’s lives and encouraged people to live
and organize their lives as if God did not exist. It was also instituted as an antidote to the
problems of that era in order to promote the worship of Christ both in the
privacy of our hearts and in the public domain. The title of the feast
was “Jesu Christi Regis” (Jesus Christ the King).
In his motu
proprio “Mysterii Paschalis” of 1969, Pope Paul VI gave the celebration
a new title: “Iesu Christi universorum Regis” (which means Jesus
Christ, King of the Universe). He also moved the celebration to the last Sunday
in the liturgical calendar and transformed it from a feast to a Solemnity.
Dearest friends,
both our first and second reading bear witness to the lordship of Christ.
Daniel prophesied about Christ’s eternal and peaceful reign. He identified
Christ as the “Son of Man.” Then, in the second reading, John called Him “the
first born of all creation…the Alpha and the Omega.” Both readings
also remind us that Christ’s reign shall be that of peace, justice, love, and
truth.
In today’s
gospel, Pilate and the Jews ignorantly castigated and crucified Christ their
King. They did not accept the truth that Christ preached about his kingdom.
Rather, they hardened their hearts, thinking that everything ends here on
earth.
Like Pilate and
his collaborators, many people in our world today are deceived by what we see
in this world. That is, they believe that everything ends here on earth.
However, the truth is that the kingdom of this world will pass away, but the
kingdom of Christ, which is to come, will last forever.
One of the most
important goals of today’s celebration is to acknowledge and worship Christ
as the king of the universe. We must allow Christ to reign in
our lives. If He reigns in every heart, our families, society, and our entire
world would be a better place.
If we look around
now, we would see that those teachings and ideologies that led to the
institution of this solemnity are still present and growing stronger again. Global
leaders, celebrities, secular groups, and activists are renewing their attempts
to render God irrelevant in our lives and in the world. We see this in what
these people promote as human rights, which clearly stand against God and
nature. For example, homosexuality, abortion, treating human life as if it were
a commodity to be chosen and discarded at will, and a lack of regard for human
life and God. While governments around the world use the force of the law to do
this, celebrities are subtly incorporating them in their songs and movies.
Activists, on the other hand, are willing to demonize whoever chooses to uphold
God’s commandment in the face of the aggression from this evil wave, which they
refer to as human rights. Their major aim is to dethrone God and create their
own deity who will accept and condone any lifestyle they want. They have also
infiltrated the Church.
I would say that
God’s kingdom has never been threatened more than it is in our own time. But
what should true Christians do? Today’s feast is telling us that we must accept
Christ as the king and model of our lives; we must allow His teachings to guide
our choices and our lives. We should teach our children to choose Christ and
His teachings in the face of the world’s governments’ efforts to teach them
things that are against God and Christian morality in schools. We should always
find time in our homes to teach our children the truth of the gospel and to
accept a lifestyle inspired by Christ and not by immoral celebrities.
Peace be with
you.
Fr. Isaac
Chima