{"id":2098,"date":"2007-11-24T20:36:00","date_gmt":"2007-11-24T20:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2007\/11\/homily-for-november-25-2007-feast-of-christ-the-king.html"},"modified":"2007-11-24T20:36:00","modified_gmt":"2007-11-24T20:36:00","slug":"homily-for-november-25-2007-feast-of-christ-the-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/11\/homily-for-november-25-2007-feast-of-christ-the-king.html","title":{"rendered":"Homily for November 25, 2007: Feast of Christ the King"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a> Among the many things I had to be thankful for this past Thursday, one of them was Google. <\/p>\n

Thanks to Google, I was able very quickly and easily to find out a little history about this feast we celebrate today. <\/p>\n

It turns out, the Feast of Christ the King is a very new one on the church calendar. It was added by Pope Pius XI in 1925. He created this feast as a reaction against the prevailing attitudes of his day \u2013 a way to refute the growing threats of communism and secularism. Two \u201cisms\u201d that made man the most powerful force in the world. Within a few years, of course, the world would have another \u201cism\u201d to confront, totalitarianism \u2013 making this feast even more significant. <\/p>\n

Well, communism isn\u2019t much of a problem anymore. But we still have an ongoing struggle against secularism \u2013 especially this time of year, when battles are renewed over Nativity scenes and Christmas trees and religious symbols in the public square. <\/p>\n

This feast, arriving at this moment, stands in defiance against that. It challenges us: \u201cWho \u2013 or WHAT — really rules our lives?\u201d That\u2019s a question we could spend all of Advent asking ourselves, and praying over. And maybe we should. <\/p>\n

But today, I want to spend a few minutes considering not just Christ the King \u2013 but Christ\u2019s kingdom<\/i>. Because this feast reminds us what we pray for, day after day, week after week, when we pray \u201cthy kingdom come.\u201d <\/p>\n

This kingdom doesn\u2019t have a castle or a court. It isn\u2019t a place of royal fanfare. It isn\u2019t even found on a map. <\/p>\n

It is a kingdom that exists within the human heart. <\/p>\n

And its great defining landmark\u2026is the cross. <\/p>\n

That is where we encounter Christ the King in today\u2019s gospel reading. It\u2019s a shocking moment. Usually, we hear this reading during Holy Week. But on this feast, when we celebrate Christ\u2019s triumphant presence in the world, we don\u2019t meet this all-powerful King in a moment of splendor. We meet Him at his most humble — and most humiliated. Stripped. Beaten. Dying on a cross. <\/p>\n

But this<\/i> is part of what we pray for when we pray \u201cThy kingdom come.\u201d <\/p>\n

We pray for a kingdom of peace and justice, of course. But we also pray for a kingdom of pure love — a place where the greatest honor isn\u2019t in how much you have or how much you control…but in how much you give up. <\/p>\n

A kingdom where true power lies\u2026in being powerless. <\/p>\n

It is a place where we are called to love, and to give, until there is nothing left. <\/p>\n

It is where pure love reigns. And it is in that<\/i> kingdom, where the \u201cgood thief\u201d wants to dwell. <\/p>\n

This exchange has a unique place in all of scripture. In this passage, Christ isn\u2019t called \u201crabbi\u201d or \u201cteacher.\u201d In the last moments of his life, someone finally calls Him, simply \u201cJesus.\u201d <\/p>\n

It is the only moment in the gospels where this happens: this is the only time that someone calls him by his given name. <\/p>\n

The man hanging beside our Lord speaks to Him as a brother, as a friend. <\/p>\n

He talks to him, literally, man to man. <\/p>\n

\u201cJesus,\u201d he says to Him, \u201cremember me when you come into your kingdom.\u201d <\/p>\n

Those words, passed down through history, have become our<\/i> words \u2013 the plea of anyone who has ever felt abandoned, or lonely, desperate or afraid. We pray that God doesn\u2019t forget us. And that He gives us, somehow, His grace. <\/p>\n

In other words: thy kingdom come<\/i>. <\/p>\n

And Jesus answers that simple prayer: \u201cToday, you will be with me in paradise.\u201d The kingdom WILL come. One man\u2019s faith, at the last moments of his life, saves him. It is something that should give all of us comfort and consolation. <\/p>\n

I mentioned at the beginning that this Feast is relatively new to the Church \u2013 but what it represents is as old as Christianity itself. An early saint of the Church, Justin Martyr, beautifully described how the first Christians received communion, saying that they \u201cmade their hands like a throne\u201d to receive the Lord. The very title \u201cChrist the King\u201d has outlasted most of the world\u2019s monarchies. Kings, of course, have fallen out of fashion — there are only about 40 real monarchs now ruling in the world. Most of them are just figureheads. <\/p>\n

But the one we honor and celebrate today, of course, isn\u2019t. As Paul describes him today: he is the \u201cfirtborn of all creation\u2026for in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell.\u201d <\/p>\n

This is the one we celebrate. This is the one we prepare to welcome in a few weeks. <\/p>\n

And, this is the one we will greet this morning, with our hands outstretched like a throne. <\/p>\n

When I was a teenager, a popular hymn was \u201cThe King of Glory.\u201d I won\u2019t torture you by singing it. But I remember the lyrics so well: \u201cThe king of glory comes, the nation rejoices, open the gates before him, lift up your voices.\u201d <\/p>\n

This morning, on this singular feast, this last Sunday of the liturgical year, we open the gates. We lift up our voices. We stretch out our hands. <\/p>\n

And we welcome this King of Glory into our hearts, praying like the good thief: Jesus, remember me, when you come into your kingdom. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Among the many things I had to be thankful for this past Thursday, one of them was Google. Thanks to Google, I was able very quickly and easily to find out a little history about this feast we celebrate today. It turns out, the Feast of Christ the King is a very new one on…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homilies"],"yoast_head":"\nHomily for November 25, 2007: Feast of Christ the King - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/11\/homily-for-november-25-2007-feast-of-christ-the-king.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Homily for November 25, 2007: Feast of Christ the King - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Among the many things I had to be thankful for this past Thursday, one of them was Google. Thanks to Google, I was able very quickly and easily to find out a little history about this feast we celebrate today. It turns out, the Feast of Christ the King is a very new one on…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/11\/homily-for-november-25-2007-feast-of-christ-the-king.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-11-24T20:36:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/R0jSKONXrCI\/AAAAAAAABhg\/bkUU01GOzro\/s320\/image001.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"deacon greg kandra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Homily for November 25, 2007: Feast of Christ the King - The Deacon's Bench","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/11\/homily-for-november-25-2007-feast-of-christ-the-king.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Homily for November 25, 2007: Feast of Christ the King - The Deacon's Bench","og_description":"Among the many things I had to be thankful for this past Thursday, one of them was Google. Thanks to Google, I was able very quickly and easily to find out a little history about this feast we celebrate today. It turns out, the Feast of Christ the King is a very new one on…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/11\/homily-for-november-25-2007-feast-of-christ-the-king.html","og_site_name":"The Deacon's Bench","article_published_time":"2007-11-24T20:36:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/R0jSKONXrCI\/AAAAAAAABhg\/bkUU01GOzro\/s320\/image001.jpg"}],"author":"deacon greg kandra","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/11\/homily-for-november-25-2007-feast-of-christ-the-king.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/11\/homily-for-november-25-2007-feast-of-christ-the-king.html","name":"Homily for November 25, 2007: Feast of Christ the King - The Deacon's Bench","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/11\/homily-for-november-25-2007-feast-of-christ-the-king.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/11\/homily-for-november-25-2007-feast-of-christ-the-king.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/R0jSKONXrCI\/AAAAAAAABhg\/bkUU01GOzro\/s320\/image001.jpg","datePublished":"2007-11-24T20:36:00+00:00","dateModified":"2007-11-24T20:36:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/052b8cd86cc713feaccdc8282b03cf10"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/11\/homily-for-november-25-2007-feast-of-christ-the-king.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/11\/homily-for-november-25-2007-feast-of-christ-the-king.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/11\/homily-for-november-25-2007-feast-of-christ-the-king.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/R0jSKONXrCI\/AAAAAAAABhg\/bkUU01GOzro\/s320\/image001.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/R0jSKONXrCI\/AAAAAAAABhg\/bkUU01GOzro\/s320\/image001.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/11\/homily-for-november-25-2007-feast-of-christ-the-king.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Homily for November 25, 2007: Feast of Christ the King"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/","name":"The Deacon's Bench","description":"Where a Roman Catholic Deacon Ponders the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/052b8cd86cc713feaccdc8282b03cf10","name":"deacon greg kandra","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a4e\/a4e07ce6fde3f10d4d9753243fd48d45x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/a4e\/a4e07ce6fde3f10d4d9753243fd48d45x96.jpg","caption":"deacon greg kandra"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/deacon-greg-kandra"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/365"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2098\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}