The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe (C)
Dear brothers and sisters,
It pertains to kings to be powerful, merciful, and just. If a king is a not powerful, he cannot maintain his kingdom. If a king is not merciful, he cannot maintain the loyalty of his subjects. If a king is not just, he cannot maintain his laws. In this way, we see that “supreme power, mercy, and justice are inseparable.”[1] But where do see the power, mercy, and justice of our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe? We see them displayed on the Cross.
BL Arundel 60, f.12v
His power is seen in
his willingness to lay down his life for us. “The rulers sneered at Jesus and
said, ‘He saved others, let him save himself” (Luke 23:35). And, indeed, he
could have done so; such power was within his authority, for “in him all things
hold together” (Colossians 1:17). But he chose to demonstrate his supreme power
through the seeming weakness of love.
His mercy is likewise seen in his willingness to lay down his life for us. “[O]ne of the criminals hanging there reviled Jesus, saying, “…Save yourself and us” (Luke 23:39). He could have saved the three of them, but had he done so we would have no means of salvation. He demonstrated supreme mercy when he chose “to reconcile all things for him” (Colossians 1:20).
His justice is also seen in his willingness to lay down his life for us. Humanity infinitely offended God because of our sin, both the Original Sin and our own personal sins, an offense so great we could never find a way to atone for it. But Christ Jesus could not only make an act of atonement on our behalf because of his humanity, he could make his act of atonement have infinite value because of his divinity. In the union of his divine and human natures, supreme justice was fulfilled when he “made peace by the blood of his cross” (Colossians 1:20).
Today, brothers and sisters, we confess and acknowledge that “the maximum revelation of God possible in this world occurs in Jesus Crucified, because God is love and the death of Jesus on the Cross is the greatest act of love in all of history.”[2] The universal kingship of Christ Jesus is founded in love.
We have seen his supreme power, mercy, and justice, but is this all that is necessary to be a king? The Latin word which we translate as king is rex. “Rex has its roots in the common ancestor of most European languages, associated with stretching, thus keeping straight (di-rect, cor-rect) and then governing.”[3] Clearly, Christ Jesus guides and governs us by his own example of selflessness when he says, “I give you a new commandment: love one another. As I have loved you, so you should also do” (John 13:34).
Even our English word “king” is itself revealing of his Jesus’ kingship. It comes from the old German kuning, a word related to kin and family, and means a leader of a people. Through its etymology, “the Anglo-Saxon "cyning" from cyn or kin, and -ing meaning "son of" evokes images of long-gone tribes choosing as leader a favoured son who is mystically representative of their common identity.”[4] He is certainly a favored son, as the Father himself testified at his Baptism (cf. Matthew 3:17).
A true king, then, is a leader who comes from among a people to guide and govern them along the straight path. Being “the head of the body, the church” and “the firstborn from the dead” Christ Jesus is, we might well say, the only true leader from among a people – indeed, from all people; he is the true law-giver and governor, not just of humanity, but of all creation.
Some may wonder why he chose to manifest his kingship on the Cross, why he chose to reveal his authority in humility. It is true that “the sinless Christ had a right, theoretically, to come as a glorious king, [but] freely surrendered that right out of love for the men he was to redeem. He voluntarily gave up that right out of love for the Father whose plan he was to fulfill.”[5]
In the kingship of Christ on the Cross, we see that what the Roman poet Virgil said is true: Omnia vincit amor; et nos cedamus amori: “Love conquers all; let us, too, yield to love.”[6] Amen.
[1] Saint Bonaventure, Breviloquium, VII.5.2
[2] Pope Benedict XVI, Homily, 25 November 2007.
[3] “The Vocabularist: Where did the word ‘king’ come from?”, BBC, 26 March 2015. Accessed 23 November 2018. Available at https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-32010563.
[4] Ibid.
[5] Michael D. Meilach, O.F.M., The Primacy of Christ: Doctrine and Life (Chicago: Franciscan Herald Press, 1964), 33.
[6] Virgil, Bucolics, X.69.
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