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 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