Christ the King Sunday

This past weekend I had the opportunity to give the homily at all of our weekend Masses. It's been a while since I last did that, so I felt a bit of dismay when Fr. Tim also asked me to include a few words about Catholic Community Services during the homily, since next week is when we'll take up a special offering for it. (Don't get me wrong; I don't mind asking people to be generous, and I totally support CCS --in fact, I just sent them my own check this morning.) I solved my dilemma as follows below.

Good morning. This weekend we celebrate the feast of Christ the King. And sure enough, in all three readings today we hear the words king, kingship, kingdom, dominion, power, and glory. Even though we live in a democracy, we do have some notion of what an earthly king and an earthly kingdom might be like. But our gospel plainly reminds us that God’s kingdom is different from any earthly kingdom – as Jesus says, “My kingdom is not of this world.” And that makes the difference not just one of degree, as in big or small; it's also a difference in kind. One of the best illustrations of that difference comes in that famous scene in Matthew’s gospel of the King at the Last Judgment, with all the nations gathered before him, where Jesus separates the sheep from the goats, according to how they have treated the hungry and thirsty, the sick, the immigrant, the prisoner, the homeless – and the reason for this, the king says very plainly, is because he is present in all of these – in the least of those who are all around us.

It’s very fitting that around the time of this feast day our Catholic Church in Western Washington asks for us to join together and affirm the work of this Kingdom. This is the time of year when we’re called to support the Kingdom right here, locally, by making a Stewardship pledge for the running of our parish and all its works over the next year. You know, I really love our parish. I think St. Bridget is an outstanding community – and I really support the work we do in the adult education programs we offer, the strong parochial education we offer at Assumption-St. Bridget school; I support our youth programs and Mission trips, and our outreach to Children’s Hospital and Namitembo and more; I thoroughly enjoy our efforts to build up our community through our Welcome Committee with its Nametag Sundays, with our social events, and all the ways we gather and work together through our parish organizations; and of course, I especially find life in our worship together, whether it’s a wedding, or a funeral; daily or weekend Mass; our music, our common prayer, lifted up to our God. This is where we can begin to experience the Kingdom right here, in our life together … we must all support it, with our giftedness and our energy, our prayers, and our contributions – otherwise we will miss our calling. For it is of course possible for a gifted people of great potential to be a great disappointment...

Likewise, next weekend our diocese calls on us, and invites us to support the works of the Kingdom through all the great programs offered by Catholic Community Services. These are works larger than any one parish. You have all heard about one of those works, the Sacred Heart Shelter; it’s been one of our parish charities for about 17 or 18 years now, and we’ll support it once again through our Giving Tree this Advent. But of course, there are so many other good works -- a few days ago a number of our parishioners in the JustFaith program took time off during their busy week to go visit at another one of those programs, the Matt Talbot Center downtown, to just spend time talking with the poor: the men and women that the Center serves. I could go on and on, but I won’t; but the bulletin this weekend has a great brochure inside. Please take it home and read it; and over the next week, please make a decision about how you will support the Kingdom as represented in all the good works of Catholic Community Services.

And THAT kind of kingdom, whether it's our parish or CCS, is SO very far from what Pilate understood as kingdom! That’s why Jesus says to Pilate, “It is you who say that I am a KING. The reason I was born, the reason I came into the world, is to testify to the truth. Anyone committed to the truth hears my voice.” Let’s hear that again: “I came into the world to testify to the truth; anyone committed to the truth hears my voice.”

So come now, this statement says something even stronger, doesn’t it? This statement calls for even more than supporting the works of our parish, or the works of Catholic Community Services. Those things are absolutely very important, because those are about the daily tasks, and how we work and pray together, and give service to God’s Holy Ones: the hungry and thirsty, the sick, the immigrant, the prisoner, the homeless. But this statement to Pilate … it’s even more than that. It’s all about following Jesus, isn’t it? It’s about discipleship. It’s about hearing his voice, letting his words get inside of us, recognizing those words as truth, and then committing ourselves to Jesus and to the truth. It’s really about becoming authentic human beings, fully alive, in the best sense possible.

Christ the King Sunday marks the end of our liturgical year, and it might be good to hear again some of the truths from St. Mark’s gospel that Jesus has revealed to us over this past year… [The following were said with a different inflection for each quote, and a pause between each.]

“Come follow me, and I will make you fishers of living human beings.”

“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”

“Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me and the One who sent me.”

“If anyone wishes to be first, he should become the last of all and the servant of all.”

“Let the children come to me and do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”

“What profit is there for one to gain the whole world but forfeit his very self?”

"Amen I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it."

“Go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”

“How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”

“Many that are first in life will be last, and the last will be first.”

“Whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant; whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.”

“Repay to Caesar what belongs to Caesar; but give to God what belongs to God.”

“Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury. For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.”

“Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come.”

“Go then into the world and proclaim this good news to all the people.”

I think these truths resonate even more clearly in our hearts when we hear them like that, one after another, like truth being piled upon truth. The message is inescapable.

Amen! And good morning to you.

Mark doesn't have a lot of "teaching" material; it's the shortest gospel, and Jesus is shown "in action" much more than as a teacher. Still, the sayings of Jesus that he includes are striking, particularly if you hear them all at once.