Given in Czech at the Slovak Mass at St. Simon the Apostle's at 53rd and California in Chicago.
Readings - http://www.usccb.org/nab/112110.shtml
Today, we find ourselves at the Feast of Christ the King, the last Sunday of the liturgical year, which reminds us of our ultimate goal in life to become one with Jesus our Lord, that is, with God, who created us, who loves us, walks with us,and ultimately calls us to himself.
Now the image of Christ as King is actually a rather problematic one, as truly every culture on this earth probably has a different image of King.
In the United States, the idea of King is something that is almost laughed at. In the Untied States remember Elvis as King, Burger King, perhaps even Martin Luther King, but basically Kings are not respected much here. And that should not be altogether surprising as this nation was founded as a result of a revolt _against a king_, King George III of England, and ever since the people of this country have prided themselves that nominally no one is superior to anyone else, certainly not as a result of birth.
If one goes to Ireland, the idea of a King has an even more negative impression as the Irish remember centuries of oppression by the British Crown and Protestants, in fact, presenting themselves as those who were truly faithful to the British Royal Family, while Catholics were presented as people whose loyalty was considered divided or otherwise suspect. The Royal Regime has historically rewarded Protestants for their loyalty while punishing or oppressing Catholics, indeed, rendering them effectively landless in their own country for centuries preceding Irish independence. To an Irish Catholic, Kingship is something that is often despised.
In Mexico the image of Cristo Rey (Christ the King) has a totally different significance. After over a decade of chaos during the Mexican Revolution, the Catholics of the country finally rose up to demand peace. Many were martyred for their nominal backwardness, with their final words often being “Viva Cristo Rey!” (Long live Christ the King!) before being shot before revolutionary firing squads. Yet the “Cristoreyista” movement did finally bring peace and stability to the nation after over a decade of upheaval and war.
In Cental Europe, where my parents came from, the figure of the King was BOTH one of not too distant memory -- as there were the Kaiser (King) in Germany and the Emperor of Austria-Hungary and even the Czar (Emperor) of Russia, who only fell as a result of World War I -- AND yet, for the Czechs, whom my parents were, and probably for most common people in Central Europe, the figure of a King was one who appeared above all in fables and stories. In Central Europe it was possible for a King to be a “Good King” who was just and wise and under whom the people and even the land prospered. And it was possible to be an “Evil King” who oppressed, who mistreated the people and plundered the land. Yes, actual Kings existed in Central Europe up onto the not too distant past, but for most common people, Kings had become above all legendary to mythological figures from whose stories concepts for good governance could be ascertained. – a good King treated his people and the land well, a bad or evil King mistreated them. A King was above all a figure found in a morality tale.
Perhaps then, the image of the King in the Central European conception is the closest to that which appears in the Bible, excluding then the person of Jesus Christ himself. For no merely human King would live and “rule” in the manner of the Jesus of Nazareth who we encounter in the Gospels.
***
Very well then. We are presented with three very beautiful readings on Kingship and then the Kingship of Jesus in the Readings today.
The first reading, from 2nd Samuel reminds us of the kingship of David, the greatest or most beloved King of Israel. The Reading comes actually at a fairly “late part” of the story, or at least at its “middle part.” We hear in the Reading of people of Israel’s acclamation of David as King of Israel following the death of the previous King Saul along with his sons. We hear that the people recognized David as having been already a rather good military leader who led his soldiers well even under the reign of King Saul and that the people saw both in David’s leadership and in his survival a sign of God’s favor, hence anointing.
Yet, this is actually only a fairly “late” part of the story. The story actually began with the Prophet Samuel, disappointed in the pattern of decision-making by Israel’s first king Saul, going out to seek a new King, and on inspiration of God arriving at the house of Jesse, a lowly shepherd, living at the outskirts of a then utterly unimportant town called Bethlehem and declaring that he came here to anoint one of Jesse’s son to be the true King of Israel. Jesse presented Samuel his _seven_ oldest sons, and on inspection of them, Samuel asked if by chance Jesse had another son. Only then, Jesse remembered that he had his youngest son, David, out in the fields tending sheep. He called him, and it was David whom Samuel anointed as King.
The story of David, reads like a story that you’d find in various legends or stories, perhaps not altogether different from that of Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” with whom most of us are familiar today. In the world of the “Lord of the Rings” it was three hobbits (little people) led especially by Frodo, who ended up saving that world, and all the Kings of that world ended up bowing down to them. The story of David, even though it has been generally understood that David actually existed rather than being a creation of a good writer, sounds not altogether foreign to a figure that could have fit into a Tolkien novel.
***
The Second Reading is a truly beautiful reading, a canticle coming from the first chapter of St. Paul’s Letter to the Collosians, that we, Servites, and really all Catholic religious pray each week on on Wednesday during Evening Prayer of the Liturgy of the Hours. It is such a lovely reading that it would be worth it for you to look it up, copy it or cut it out and put it on your refrigerator, on your bathroom mirror on beside your bed. It reminds us of the Cosmic dimension of Christ’s Kingship, that through him all things were created, and that He is the head of the whole Body, the Church and indeed all Creation. The second reading reminds us of our goal, to become in life one with our Creator and as we see then in the Gospel, our Savior/ Redeemer ("big words" as they may at times seem).
The atmospherics/praise of the Second Reading are so high that it requires, in fact, that the Gospel to return us back to Earth. It has, in fact, been understood in Christianity that Jesus Christ incarnates (enfleshes, brings down to earth, down to our level or experience) that which the Old Testament and even the New Testament otherwise merely talked or sang about. And it is the Gospel Reading today that brings down to earth, makes real, the Second Reading, and perhaps even the first today.
In the Gospel Reading, we find Jesus -- the King of the Universe, the First Born of All Creation -- crucified on a Cross with truly EVERYONE laughing at him (the religious Authorities of his time, the Soldiers carrying out his sentence and even the Criminals being executed along with him). It is true that one of the Criminals to his side, does come to recognize the absurdity of the situation and asks Jesus to remember him/forgive him as a result. Still the image here is one of seeming total failure and humiliation. Yet it is perhaps precisely in this contradiction that we can find Jesus truly worthy of his titles of King of All, Son of God, the True Anointed One (Messiah) and so forth.
For it is easy to be “King” of the Beautiful, the Easy, the non-Problematic where everything goes Well. It is a whole different story to be King of an imperfect Kingdom, one with problems, defects, facing disaster, annihilation, humiliation. Jesus, nailed to a Cross, exposed to all, exposed to ridicule by all, becomes capable of being united with all who have ever found themselves exposed and/or humiliated before all as well. In his manner of death/destruction Jesus becomes capable of truly becoming the King of all, again, NOT MERELY of the beautiful, successful, those who’ve always had it easy in life, but precisely those who’ve taken life on the chin, and have had some experience with being put down and humiliated before others or the world.
We proclaim Jesus as King of all of those who made it in this world and of those who have not -- the good, the bad and the ugly -- of everyone and everything.
And in this rests the Kingship of Jesus Christ and why he becomes a worthy goal. We are the beloved children of God, each of us, and whether we succeed or not, we are God children, and it is perhaps precisely because Jesus experienced disaster – and being arrested, tried, convicted and NAILED TO A CROSS TO DIE is to EXPERIENCE DISASTER – that Jesus is capable of being with us, to be our Advocate, indeed King, in our worst moments as well.
And it is perhaps for this reason that it has always been the oppressed, the poor and the humble who have always been the greatest of believers because they can best experience both Christ on the Cross AND Christ being with them when _they_ find themselves nailed to their Crosses as well.
May we never forget that Christ is, indeed, Lord of All, and that it is precisely because he suffered that he can be with us in our times of suffering as well.
God bless you all and “Viva Cristo Rey!”
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