Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe (Solemnity)

Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe (Solemnity)

Ezekiel 34: 11-12, 15-17

Responsorial Psalm: Psalms 23:1-3, 5-6

 Corinthians 15: 20-26, 28

 Matthew 25: 31-46

The Church continually affirms the kingship of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Creed. In doing so, the Church repeats the announcement made to Mary by an angel, “He will be called the Son of the Most High and the Lord God will give to Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom, there will be no end” (Lk 1: 30-33).

The kingly dignity of Christ was already proclaimed in the Old Testament. Ps 2: 6-9, speaks of the kingship of the Messiah who will rule over the whole world. In Is. 9: 5 we read, “for us a child is born, for us a son is given, the royal ornament is laid upon his shoulder, and his name is proclaimed wonderful counselor, mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Verse 6 says, “to the increase of His powerful rule there will be no end, vast will be his dominion. He will reign on the throne of David and over all his kingdom forever.”

In the first reading today, the Prophet Ezekiel tells us that God Himself is the Shepherd of His people. Kings are shepherds of their people. Throughout the Old Testament, God is spoken of as the Shepherd of His people. The responsorial Psalm today says, “The Lord is my Shepherd I shall not want.” He is the one who leads us to the place of still water, He restores our souls and prepares a table for us even before our enemies. When Isaiah spoke of the coming of the Messiah in chapter 40: 11, he pictured Him as the Shepherd of God’s people who will feed His flock like a shepherd and gather the lambs in his arm. Christ is our Shepherd. As our Shepherd, He desires to lead us personally as a loving father would. He wants to enter our lives personally and intimately, without imposing Himself but always offering Himself. The difficulty with this kind of kingship is that it is easy for us to reject it. His desire is to become the absolute ruler and monarch of our souls if we allow Him. He wants us to come to Him for everything and depend on Him like the sheep on the shepherd.

Christ’s declaration of Himself as the Good Shepherd in John chapter 10 actually belongs to a wider corpus that talks about His claim to be the Son of God. The Jews gathered round Him in verse 24 and said to Him, “how long will you continue to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly. In response Jesus said, I have already told you but you will not believe because you are not my sheep.

Every first century Jew knew that just as with God, the kingship of the Christ is equiparated to the status of shepherd of the people. Ezekiel adds that He will judge between the sheep and goat. In other words, He is both king and judge.

The contemporaries of Christ were familiar with the idea of the Messiah as king. When the three wise men came to Jerusalem, they asked, “where is He who is born king of the Jews?” (Matt 2,2). When Nathaniel recognized Jesus as the Messiah, he exclaimed, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the king of Israel (Jn. 1, 49). But because they Jews had such a material and earthbound idea of the Messiah and His kingdom, Jesus refrained from making direct reference to His kingship. When He multiplied bread and fed the 5000, in their amazement, they wanted to grab Him and proclaim Him king, but He withdrew from them (Jn. 6, 15). But at a particular solemn juncture, replying to Pilate’s question, ‘are you king,’ Jesus affirmed, “you say that I am” (Jn. 18: 37). The earliest Christian creed which we find already in Acts 2, 36 simply says, “Jesus is Lord.” When Caesar, the emperor of Rome was declared Lord, which is the highest title of God Himself, and to be worshipped, the Christians proclaimed that Jesus Christ is the Lord and were ready to die for it.

What kind of king is Jesus? Jesus said to Pilate, ‘my kingdom is not of this world.’ Yet, Jesus exercised his royal function in the establishment of His kingdom through acts proper to a king – gathering His people together and establishing the laws of the kingdom whose supreme judge He Himself is. It is precisely as a king that Jesus promulgated the New commandment of love. His kingdom is essentially a spiritual kingdom in the hearts of men and women. In Luke 17, 21 He said, “the kingdom of God is within you.” But insofar as the kingdom is made up of men and women, it is also something visible, a people, it is the Church which continues to make its way on earth towards the eschatological fullness at the end of time. That is what we ask for when we pray, “thy kingdom come.”

His rule consists in serving. In Luke 22: 27, Jesus said, “I am among you as one who serves.” In Matt 20: 28 he says, “I did not come to be served but to serve and to give my life as a ransom for many.

Jesus prefers to show Himself to His followers as a shepherd. Shepherds serve the sheep. In Jn. 10: 11, He says, “I am the Good Shepherd, the Good Shepherd lays down His life for His sheep.” He is the Shepherd-king who gives His life to establish the new people of God who live His very own life, forming a kingdom of holiness, grace and love, a kingdom of justice and peace.

To be under Christ’s rule is to be saved. Remember the parable of Luke 19. A man went on a journey to receive royal title. The citizens hated him and sent emissaries to go and say, “we do not want this man to reign over us.” After receiving the royal title and returning, what did he do? In verse 27, he says, “as for those my enemies who do not want me to reign over them, bring them here and kill them before me. To reject the reign of Christ is to perish, it means rejecting salvation.

Let us beloved brothers and sisters, accept His reign in our lives. We accept His reign by living a life of service of one another, we accept His reign by exercising power according to the mind of Christ, we accept his reign by accepting His will in our lives like Mary who responded to God by saying, “let it be done to lme according to your word.” If we accept the reign of God, He will fill us with His love, provide for us, bring us peace and joy. We must become witnesses of this kingdom that is in our midst. The kingdom of God is a place of happiness, peace and joy. We have to accept His reign freely and wholeheartedly. It is only when we freely accept Him that His kingdom becomes established within us and through us to the whole world.

At the end of the mass today, we shall proceed to do a procession in which we proclaim to the world that Jesus is our king. We are going to sing and dance for him. In Luke’s account of the triumphant entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, (Luke 19) in verse 39, the Pharisees who were unhappy the people were hailing Jesus “blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord” asked Jesus to rebuke them to stop, Jesus answered them in verse 40, ‘if these shall stop, the stones will cry out.’ What Jesus is saying in effect is that the heart that will refuse to sing praises of his kingship is more dead than a stone. Let us sing praises to him who Ps 22: 3 says is holy and is enthroned on the praises of His people.

Happy Solemnity of Jesus Christ the King.

Fr. Chidi Onwuka MSSCC