Ordinary 34 – Christ the King

The Thirty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

2 Samuel 5:1-3; Psalm 122; Colossians 1:12-20; Luke 23:35-43

“The LORD God said: It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suited to him. So the LORD God formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the air; but none proved to be a helper suited to the man. So the LORD God cast a deep sleep on the man, and while he was asleep, God took out one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. The LORD God then built the rib that he had taken from the man into a woman. When God brought her to the man, the man said: “This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh…” That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one body”.*

And so it is with monarchy. When the tribes of Israel approach David, they use the words of Adam: “Here we are, your bone and your flesh”. The people and the monarch are one.

You can watch the transformation happen before your eyes if you watch the televised coronation rite of Elizabeth II. Princess Elizabeth of York is seated on the throne but after the anointing, the crowning and the bestowal of the orb and scepter Princess Elizabeth is transformed into the embodiment of Britannia. Elizabeth and her people are one.

For those who can remember, we had a similar experience when John F. Kennedy was assassinated. President and nation were one. It was as if the nation was assassinated.

Is not the unity between man and women, between monarch and people, not also true of the unity between Christ and humanity? Through the Incarnation which we celebrate at Christmas, the Only Begotten Son of God became a human being “and shared our nature in all things but sin”** and through Baptism we became one with Christ. The two of us are inseparable. As the Liturgy proclaims: “you have bound the human family to yourself through Jesus your Son, our Redeemer, with a new bond of love so tight that it can never be undone”***.

Christ shares our human nature in all things but sin. So how did Jesus overcome the sin within us? It is found in the taunting words of the criminal crucified and dying alongside Jesus: “Save yourself and us”. The criminal unknowingly gives voice to the bond between Christ and humanity. For in dying Jesus did save us.

If we are one with Christ then, how are we to overcome evil? As the German Lutheran pastor and theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer answered: By forgiving [evil] without end.How do we manage this, he asks? By seeing our enemies as who they truly are, as someone Christ died for, and whom Christ loves.

It is the response the Amish community gave to the West Nickel Mines School shooting.

How might that response, seeing our enemies as who they truly are, as someone Christ died for, and whom Christ loves transform Nicholas Cruz recently sentenced for the Parkland School murders, transform the perpetrators of clergy sexual abuse and the leadership who covered it up, transform Vladimir Putin for waging aggressive war and committing war crimes, transform the person who has slandered or worked against us at work or in our families, transform…whom in your life?

How might that response, seeing our enemies as who they truly are, as someone Christ died for, and whom Christ loves transform us? For that is who forgiving evil without end really transforms. For only when we forgive without end will we be fully one with Christ. Monarch and people. Humanity and divinity.

_{*Genesis 2:18-24}

_{**Eucharistic Prayer IV Preface}

_{***Eucharistic Prayer for Reconciliation I Preface}