CHRIST THE KING

Christ the King-feast day 

Good evening/morning everyone, I am so happy to welcome you all for today’s Holy Mass.  

As a man was reading a newspaper, his wife came behind him and hit him with a frying pan and he looked at her and said, ‘What is wrong with you and what did I do now?” She said, ‘I found this piece of paper in your pocket written Monica and who is she?” He began to laugh and laugh and said, ‘Honey, Monica is the name of the horse that I was betting on”. Then she apologized and went away. Within three days, she again hit him with a bigger pan and got mad at him. He said why are you hitting me again. She said, “Because this morning your horse called here”. 

Today we celebrate the great feast of Christ the king. Christ the universal king or we may say, the cosmic king. Kings and queens sent people to fight their battle, to suffer their suffering and die for them. But there was only one king Christ our Lord suffered for others, fought for His people and at last died for His people and He is our eternal king. 

We celebrate Christ the king. Christ means Anointed one. For example, the Holy Bible says, in those days, the prophet Samuel went to Bethlehem and found the right person to rule the people of Israel. Yes, He with the oil anointed a shepherd by name David. Christus means anointed one. Christ is the anointed one to be King of the universe. He is our eternal king, and, in His kingdom, there is no end. 

Some years ago, a Canadian soldier on a bus in Sweden told the man sitting next to him, “You know what in Canada, anyone can go to the parliament and freely talk to our prime minister. We live in a wonderful country. The man said, “That's nothing, in Sweden, the King and the ordinary people can travel on the same bus” 

When the man got off the bus, the Canadian soldier was told by other passengers that he had been sitting next to the king Gustav Adolf VI. 

Our King is the king of all kings. He who humbled Himself to be like you and me, He who accept willingly humiliation and suffering and ultimately death on the cross, is our eternal king. He lowered Himself to our level, so that we can get up to His level. 

In today’s gospel, Pilate asks Christ saying, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus says, ‘Do you ask on this own? Or did others tell you about me?” He says, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own people handed over to me and what have you done? 

My kingdom is not from here. If it were from here, my disciples were fighter over to keep me from being handed over to others. So, you are the king. You say so and anyone who belongs to the kingdom will know the truth. 

There is a beautiful story of a king before whom people brought a man accused of murdering people. The king listened to everything and then said, ‘In my kingdom nothing ever happened like this. This is the first time, a man was brought before me accused of murder and before serving my judgment, the accused may talk. But the man stood still and didn’t say anything, anything at all. Then the king looked at the man and all and said, “I order him to be executed...” then the amazing thing happened, the king got up from his throne and took off his outer robe and went down to the people and said, “As your just king, I served you all judgement but now as this man’s father, I will accept his punishment and thus He died on the cross”. 

Yes, friends, this is the story of Christianity. This is the story of salvation and this is the story of you and me. Christ the king came to accept your sin and guilt. As we humble ourselves, we too will enter into the kingdom of truth and peace, the kingdom of serenity and harmony and the kingdom of love and forgiveness. 

Amen.