Christ the King C

The Feast of Christ the King is not one of those that goes back centuries. It was established by Pope Pius XI in 1925 in the aftermath of the First World War and in the midst of poverty and deprivation all over Europe the likes of which we can hardly imagine today. Like the doctrine of the Assumption in 1950, after the Second World War, it was meant to give encouragement to those who had lived through those terrible years, our own parents and grandparents, and, in the light of the way things are today, it’s interesting to hear what the Pope had to say at that time. Proving once again that there is nothing new under the sun, he wrote in 1925 that ‘the manifold evils’ in the world of his day are due to the fact that, ‘The majority of men had thrust Jesus Christ and his laws out of their lives; that these had no place either in private affairs or in politics,’ and that as long as this state of affairs continued, ‘there would be no really hopeful prospect of lasting peace among nations.’ So much, then, for the idea that the world is in a worse state today than in the past. Human nature is the same in every age and what Pius XI offered the world in 1925 is the same thing we offer it today, Jesus; the Jesus we have been meeting throughout this latest journey through the Church’s year; the Jesus we will meet again next year; the Jesus St Paul speaks of so eloquently in that second reading.

And what he says about Jesus – what we have to say about him to the world today – is that, ‘in Jesus, God has brought us out of the power of darkness and created a place for us in the kingdom of the Son that he loves, and in him we gain our freedom, the forgiveness of our sins’ And how important that message was in 1925. The First World War had been an experience of the most profound darkness. Never before in history had man’s inhumanity to man been seen on such a scale. Millions had died in the trenches and those who were left were struggling to come to terms with the enormity of what had happened. And to that world Pius XI offered the only hope he had to give; the Feast Christ the King. And who could say that in the age of Iraq, Palestine and the world-wide threat of terrorism, we are in any less need of it than people were in 1925. The whole world needs hope and, as Christians, we believe it’s to be found in Jesus.

Mind you, the use of the word ‘king,’ to describe Jesus is a strange one given that the Jesus of the Gospels has nothing in common with the kings and queens we read about in history books. We see that in the first reading today where David, already king in the Judah, is invited, in the absence of any other candidate, to become king of Israel as well. Several years earlier, however, when David’s predecessor, Saul, was made king, Samuel had warned the people against this and told them what having a king would involve. A king, he had said, would take their sons as soldiers. He would make them plough his fields and gather in his harvest. He would take their daughters as perfumers, cooks and bakers and demand the best olive groves and vineyards for his own use. They would have to pay tithes and taxes on everything they had and would become his slaves. And how right history has proved Samuel to be. Kingship as we have known it over the centuries has meant all that and much more. It has become part of a political system in which powerful, ambitious people have pursued a predominantly male desire, it has to be said, to dominate others and satisfy their almost insatiable lust for power and riches. There has been the odd good monarch down through the centuries, but in general their record is one of exploiting the poor and abusing power for their own ends. Our own queen, for all her years of service to the nation, remains one of the richest people on the planet, surrounded by privilege. And we, for all our democracy, three thousand years after Samuel, remain subjects, not citizens.

And into this world comes Jesus, ‘The image’ Paul says,’ of the unseen God and the first-born of all creation. Before anything was created’ the second reading said, ‘he existed and he holds all things in unity.’ And yet, as we celebrated at the beginning of this latest journey through the Church’s year and will celebrate again soon, he came among us, not as an earthly king, but as a helpless child born in the midst of poverty. And as he came into the world so he left it, in poverty, hanging on a cross between two criminals jeered at and mocked by the passers-by. And what all this is telling us, the whole point of today’s feast, is that, if we are to enter the kingdom of God as opposed to all the other kingdoms the world has seen, if we are to share in Jesus’ death and resurrection, then we must abandon the road of ambition, power-seeking and the domination of others – the very things that caused the tragedy that had engulfed the world between 1914 and 1918 – and embrace a whole new set of values which make no sense in traditional human terms but which offer the world a way out of the vicious circle of war and violence which is our history. And as we end another year in the Church’s never-ending journey through the story of Jesus’ birth, death and resurrection, I think it is worth asking ourselves a few questions about all this.

First and foremost, do we believe it? Maybe we don’t put in into practice all the time, but do we recognize the rightness of it, do we desire it deep within ourselves, or is our coming here each week an empty ritual which has ultimately no real impact on our lives? The consumer society we live in promises us happiness and fulfillment through the acquisition of more and more material things along with the illusion of power they bring. Are we swallowing this lie, doing what everyone else is doing, or are we struggling, even if not always successfully, to swim against this tide of materialism? Many of us have made the annual journey through the Church’s year many many times. Are we moving? Are we changing? Or are we no further forward than when we started?

These, I believe, are the kind of questions the Feast of Christ the King is inviting us to ask ourselves today.


BIDDING PRAYERS


Everything that is happening in the world today shows the need for a profound and radical re-think of the way we live and relate to each other. Unless we learn to respect every human being plus the planet we live on, we are in serious danger of pressing a self-destruct button which will have long-term consequences for the whole of humanity. And so, on this Feast which holds up Jesus as our hope and inspiration, we pray that the world will listen to his teaching………..………...Lord hear us

Most of us never acquire great riches or exercise power the way kings, queens, emperors and rulers of every kind have done over the centuries. But that does not stop us seeking to do so. Responding to the values of a consumer society we are conned into thinking that the more we possess the happier we will be and that having possessions will somehow give us status or power and make us important people in the world. And so we pray for the insight to see through this lie………....Lord hear us

The seeking of power and the desire to dominate others and lord it over them has been a characteristic of men throughout history. And so we pray that as women begin at last to take their rightful place in politics and public life, they will show us a new way of doing things rather than imitate the ways of men down through the ages. And we pray that boys and young men today will see all that is wrong in traditional male behaviour and choose something new for a new age………………….….Lord hear us

Throughout history, those with power have expected to be served rather than serve. Along with power have always gone privilege and status. Jesus, however, tells us that the greatest among us must become the servants of all. He himself washed his disciples feet, called us not servants but friends, and gave his life on the cross for every single one of us. And so we pray for the grace we need to exercise any little power we may have in a Christ-like way.…………………...Lord hear us

All power, we are told, corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Many good men and women go into politics filled with ideals and good intentions, only to be led astray little by little until they finally lose sight of what initially inspired them. And so we pray for politicians of every party, especially our MP and MSP, Des Browne and Willie Coffey, that God will preserve them from being corrupted in any way by the power we have given them……………………Lord hear us

And as another year in the life of the Church comes to an end, we pray for a deep sense of gratitude for all we have celebrated together here in this church over the last year. There have been happy times, like baptisms, weddings, First Communions and so on, and there have been sad times as we have celebrated the funerals of loved ones. But we pray for the grace to see God in all of these experiences and ask him to lead us into even deeper faith in the weeks and months ahead…………...Lord hear us