Word to the Wise
Sunday, November 20, 2011 - 34th or Last Sunday in Ordinary Time - A: The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ the King
[Ezek 34:11-12, 15-17; 1 Cor 15:20-26, 28; Matt 25:31-46,]When the Son of Man comes in his glory, all all the angels with him, he will sit upon his glorious throne, and all the nations will be assembled before him. And he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats......
The center of Christian faith is the person of Jesus Christ. How this "center" has been expressed in the more than 2000 years since his life, death and resurrection has developed from a small group of frightened disciples into the enormous reality of "Christianity." The feast of Christ the King is one effort to express the importance and centrality of Jesus Christ, but this effort arises from all the historical and cultural expressions that we humans are capable of creating to communicate our relationships with God and one another! The privileged place of the scriptures in this process offers us images that come from the culture and times in which the biblical writers lived. The "Shepherd King" is emphasized in Ezekiel to show how a true leader of the people should rule. The "cosmic" vision of Christ as transcending all creation and time is emphasized in the passage from St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians to remind us that all creation is subject ultimately to God's power. The famous "judgment scene" from the Gospel of Matthew emphasizes that the all-powerful "King" is actually present in every human person, which means our response to God's people is our response to God!
These are but three ways of imagining the notion of "king" as applied to Jesus Christ. If we go to the other two Sunday "cycles," we will find others that are used in our liturgical life, most notably the dialogue between Pilate and Jesus in the Gospel of John (18:33-37) as to what kingship might mean to Jesus himself! [Cycle B] It is you who say I am a king. The reason I was born, the reason why I came into the world, is to testify to the truth. Anyone committed to the truth hears my voice. Ultimately, we have to take responsibility for the many ways in which we think of and believe in Jesus Christ. Calling him a "King" may help us to know him better, or it may not! In celebrating this feast, all of us as Church and as individuals should remember what Jesus says to Pilate: "It is you who say I am a king." AMEN