Jesus said to his disciples: "During that period after trials of every sort the sun will be darkened, the moon will not shed its light, stars will fall out of the skies, and the heavenly hosts will be shaken. Then men will see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. He will dispatch his messengers and assemble his chosen from the four winds, from the farthest bounds of earth and sky. Learn a lesson from the fig tree. Once the sap of its branches runs high and it begins to sprout leaves, you know that summer is near. In the same way, when you see these things happening, you will know that he is near, even at the door. I assure you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. The heavens and the earth will pass away, but my words will not. "As to the exact day or hour, no one knows it, neither the angels in heaven nor even the Son, but only the Father."

Text from Lectionary for Mass
© 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine
© 1969 International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc.
All rights reserved

My Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

We celebrate today this great solemnity of Christ the King.  Today most of us are no longer familiar with the absolute power of a king or of any monarch or ruler.  Instead, almost all countries today recognize that those who have authority over people need to have a limited authority.

When we think of Christ the King, somehow we often think that His authority is without limits.  We forget that God Himself has put limits on His own authority:  the limit of our human freedom.  God can only invite us to share in His life and to live under his authority. 

We can think that if we do not accept the authority of God we may end up in hell.  We must be cautious, however, in discerning what is God's authority and what is the merely human exercise of authority.  All religions tend to justify their power and authority by claiming that it comes directly from God.  Our Catholic faith is no different.  History shows us clearly the abuses to which all human authority is subject.

What we celebrate today is not an arbitrary rule of God over our lives, but our accepting Jesus as the authority in our lives.  We truly celebrate this solemnity each day when we base our lives on that of Jesus Christ.  The more we accept the authority of Jesus and allow Him to be the basis of our life, the more we see changes happening in our lives.

God also forms us into a people.  We are not just individuals who happen to be good or bad.  We are a people.  We share responsibility for one another because we live in Christ.  To become a people means that we are challenged to live with one another and to love one another without judgment.  That is a really tough and strong task in our Christian lives. 

It is really easy for us to put a big distance between ourselves and the other people who do things that we disapprove of or things that are really terrible.  One thinks of the horrible killings that still go on today.  Many of us think of ourselves as the type of person who would never do things like that.  We can think of those who abuse spouses or children.  Again, we almost instinctively distance ourselves from such people.  We would not do such things. 

Perhaps we might not do such things.  Perhaps we lead fairly good moral lives.  The scandal and the challenge of following Jesus are always there for us:  can I forgive those types of persons?  Can I love them?

If Jesus is truly the authority in my life, then I must learn to forgive all others--no matter how awful the atrocities that they might have committed.  I am challenged to love the sinner and to invite the sinner to live in grace once again by my love.  Then I truly acknowledge Christ as King.