November 19, 2016
Solemnity of Christ, King of the Universe – Year C
(2 Samuel 5:1-3; Psalm 122; Colossians 1:12-20; Luke 23:35-43)
19 November 2016 – Holy Name of Mary Parish, Croton-on-Hudson, NY
Today we celebrate that Christ is King of the Universe. All of our readings speak of kingship, but not necessarily in the ways that we expect. 2 Samuel recounts the crowning of David as the great king of Israel. And while David was favored by God and usually strived to walk with God, let us not forget that he was a violent man and an adulterer.
One common title for Jesus is “Son of David.” But where David tried to rise above his instincts to be a great king, Jesus had to restrict and humble himself to become our king. Our second reading – quoting one of the oldest hymns of Christianity – reminds us that Christ is so much more than just the human Jesus of Nazareth: Christ is the totality of the second person of the Holy Trinity.
Our gospel today presents Jesus as our king, at the very moment that the world views him as helpless.
On this final Mass of the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy, let’s pause to reflect how God has poured out his mercy on each of us. Have we done our best to share that mercy with others?
Imagine being at the crucifixion as described by St. Luke. It is a scene of chaos. People are mocking Jesus, laughing at this man who was called “the son of David,” betrayed by a disciple, abandoned by his closest friends, the pawn in a political battle for survival between secular Romans and religious Judeans. The faithful women who have accompanied him are sobbing as he bleeds and asphyxiates on the cross. Darkness covers the land. Yet amid the noise, amid the chaos, amid the darkness, Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, in his last breaths, assures a repentant thief of Paradise.
Oh, the irony! The other thief also asks Jesus to save him. But that thief is mocking Jesus – he doesn’t recognize that the man on the cross next to him is the Christ, the second person of the Holy Trinity. And indeed, the man on the cross actually has the power to save the thieves. Before time began, all thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers were created in him and for him.
The last time I visited Holy Name of Mary Parish, I told the people that I was a seminarian with the Paulist Fathers, and most people gave me a blank look. When I explained that our mother church was about 30 miles south of here in midtown Manhattan near Columbus Circle, they exclaimed, “Oh, you mean the PAWLists!”
The Paulists – or PAWLists – are the first community of Catholic religious men founded in the United States. Our founder, Isaac Hecker, believed that the Catholic Church had gifts to offer the United States and that the United States had gifts to offer the Catholic Church. He famously said, “I am a better American because I am Catholic; I am a better Catholic because I am an American.” Three of the sixteen documents produced by Vatican II were written in part by a Paulist. Those three documents addressed religious freedom, Christian unity, and interreligious dialogue – issues on which the American Church had wisdom to offer to the wider Church.
And, even today, the Paulists are among the most American of religious communities, in all the good ways and the bad ways that that entails. And I don’t just mean that the Paulists are a religious community governed by a Constitution that calls for the direct election of a President and a Vice President who can serve two consecutive four-year terms. For the Paulists and for the United States, there will always be a dynamic tension between the individual and the community. We each have a personal devotion to the Holy Spirit, but somehow, as a group, we must discern how God is calling us to work together.
At the crucifixion, we see a reality of the world: holiness and evil exist in all places together. This reality permeates us as individuals. We are God’s children, yet each of us falls short of the holiness God invites us to share. This reality also permeates every group of people. The Catholic Church has done more than any institution in the world to heal the sick, feed the hungry, educate the poor, and provide moral guidance, but it has also perpetuated prejudice, oppression, pedophilia, and slavery. The United States is a land of opportunity, freedom, and justice, yet the system seems to benefit some by oppressing others.
In 1999, Fr. Ron Rolheiser wrote a great book called The Holy Longing. It’s one of the few books that I think is too short: Fr. Ron has many wonderful insights, but he quickly jumps from one to another. He explains the nature of the Church by referring to today’s gospel passage. He says: “Jesus dies between two criminals. Anyone at the time, looking at that scene, would not have made a distinction between who was guilty and who was innocent.”
In the United States in 2016, the guilty and the innocent are clashing with such intense ferocity. But who is who? Whether we voted for Clinton, Trump, Johnson, Stein, or if we decided in good conscience not to vote, too many of us seem to think as if our side is the voice of Christ crucified and the other side is the unrepentant thief.
I’m trying to do my part on social media to create a space where people who have radically different views can try to talk to one another civilly, but it’s exhausting for me and for everyone else trying to listen to one another. It’s remarkably easy to misconstrue what another well-meaning person has written. That guy articulating conservative principles isn’t an alt-right whack job: he’s a free-thinking yoga instructor covered in tattoos. The one explaining liberal viewpoints may identify himself as a hippie, be he’s also a deacon in the Catholic Church.
And no matter where people sit on the political spectrum, there’s a temptation to rail against the other: “Why do I need to try so hard to understand them, when they are making no attempt to understand me?” But my experience is that there are plenty of liberals and conservatives trying to understand each other. Christ is always being crucified between two thieves. But none of us are Christ, and very few of us are the unrepentant thief. On Calvary, most of us should identify with the other thief, the one who has committed grievous sins, but is also striving to follow God’s will.
The Church is composed of flawed individuals. When others look at any of us from the outside, they’ll never know if we’re innocent, guilty, or something in between. But as Christians, we believe that the Church, despite its many flaws, is guided by the Holy Spirit. Today, let’s try to think of our country in the same way. We may disagree with the policies and decisions of many of our political leaders, but almost everyone is trying to do good.
As a Church, we pray for one another. As nation, we need to do the same. Our prayers are to Christ, King of the Universe. At the crucifixion, Christ had the power to come down from the cross and save himself. But if he had done so, the Father’s plan would not have been fulfilled. In this time of bitterness and division in our country, we must continue to see Christ in everyone, especially in those who disagree with us. As our King and Prince of Peace, Christ does not always appear as a small child born in poverty in a manger. Sometimes, Christ looks like a thief condemned for a serious crime.
During his earthly life, Jesus instructed us not to judge one another. It wasn’t just folksy advice. It was a commandment from our King, the King of the Universe. May the Holy Spirit provide us with the courage and wisdom to fulfill Christ’s command!