A reflection upon the kingship of Christ, Mt 25:31-46
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00:00 This Sunday, the Church celebrates the Solemnity of Christ the King.
00:07 What is that mystery all about?
00:09 To understand it, just think about when you have a problem.
00:14 What happens?
00:15 Three things.
00:17 We're aware of our need, we experience our powerlessness in front of our need, and we're
00:23 sad.
00:24 And Christ the King's kingship is ordered to changing all of our weakness and our inability.
00:35 He wants to raise us up and bless our life with a new chance and a new power that's found
00:43 only in him.
00:45 He has authority where we experience total need.
00:50 That is one of the first things that we hear Jesus say in the Gospel, which begins to reveal
00:55 his kingship to us.
00:56 He says, "Come to me, all you who are weary, and find life burdensome, and I will refresh
01:02 you."
01:03 He's saying, yes, there is need in life, there's suffering, but that doesn't define your life,
01:08 that's not who you are.
01:10 Those things happen for a purpose to lead you to me, who knows and understands and has
01:17 a great tenderness towards our needs to turn them from an experience of neediness and of
01:26 trouble into an experience of great hope.
01:30 And then secondly, our powerlessness is completely overturned in Christ the King, who is filled
01:40 with a power meant for us.
01:42 What's the difference between a tyrant and a king?
01:46 They both have power, but a tyrant uses all of his power for himself.
01:53 A king is a person who cares.
01:57 He wants to share the power he has for those who are entrusted to him as his subjects.
02:04 Someone who really understood this was the leper, who when he saw Jesus coming, acknowledged
02:10 him as king by saying, "If you will to do so, you can make me clean."
02:16 No matter how much he was suffering in his misery and affliction, he saw in Jesus something
02:22 special, something exceptional, something royal.
02:25 He saw the kingship of Jesus and he cried out to him, and Jesus loved the fact that
02:31 this man trusted him and immediately purified and healed his life with the power that he
02:38 had as a king.
02:40 And when our problem is solved, we feel not only relief, we feel a tremendous joy.
02:46 And Christ the King wants our life to be defined by that joy that we find when we live with
02:53 him as worthy subjects of his kingship.
02:59 As one spiritual writer, St. Albert the Great says, "The more we know our misery, the more
03:06 we behold Christ's majesty."
03:08 So let's let Christ be our king.
03:12 No matter what we're going through, his kingship will come with a power and a grace to overturn
03:19 everything that is sad and dark into a joy and a hope that is found only in Jesus.
03:26 Amen.
03:27 Amen.
03:28 [Silence]