The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, November 20, 2022 – 2 Samuel 5:1-3; Colossians 1:12-20; Luke 23:35-43

I am sure lots of you know where and what Touchdown Jesus is.  If you’ve ever watched a Notre Dame football game, you got a couple of really good shots of it.  It stands about three stories high, it’s a beautiful mosaic.  In his touring days, Elvis once booked out the Notre Dame stadium for a concert.  And as fans are wont to do, they were screaming to him, close enough to the stage that you could hear some of them. One girl kept screaming, “Elvis you are the King!” He stopped and looked in her direction and he said, “No honey, I’m only a singer. He’s the King.” And he pointed to Touchdown Jesus.  

We have a great fascination with royalty.  It came out again at all the beautiful ceremonies surrounding the death of Queen Elizabeth.  She truly was a noble lady. Like all of us, she had her faults and blind spots, but she was an amazing image of what kingship and queenship might be. 

They say that shortly after the end of the Revolutionary War, there was a movement to declare George Washington King.  Think about it. we had the Declaration of Independence, and we fought a long war to be free of King George, and someone wanted to make us another George for a King. Of course, George Washington squelched that right away.  But we have this itch toward royalty.

Today’s readings are fascinating in several ways.  The first reading describes the third time that David was crowned a king.  It finally stuck after three times.  And the Psalm reflects a royal coronation of a Jewish king.  In the second reading, St. Paul juxtaposes Jesus as the King of the Universe and Jesus as the King or head of the church.  But he winds up with a great deal of royal imagery.

And then we get to the Gospel, which is truly an amazing literary feat.  At the very beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, He goes into the synagogue at Nazareth and, as the guest of the day, He’s invited to read from the scroll of Isaiah.  He finds a passage that talks about the Lord’s anointed one.  He says, “I have created you to bring sight to the blind, healing to those who are lame and palsied, and to proclaim liberty to captives.”  Liberty to captives.  Then, for nineteen odd chapters, St. Luke gives us snapshots of Jesus doing all the things that were described in the little passage from Isaiah.  The one thing he does not do in all of his public life is proclaim the liberty to captives. 

In St. Luke’s description of the run up to the crucifixion, Jesus is proclaimed innocent three times.  The first time, Pilate sends him to Herod hoping to wash his hands of this whole problem because Herod had jurisdiction over the place where Jesus came from.  And, although Herod is terribly cynical, at the end of the brief encounter he says, “I find no guilt in this man,” and he sends him back to Pilate.  Pilate twice declares Jesus innocent in front of the people.  “I find no guilt in this man, I will have him flogged and let him go free.”  “I find no guilt in this person. I wash my hands. Do what you want.”  Three times the kings declare Jesus innocent.  Remember that, in the ancient world, your only hope of reprieve from some sort of criminal condemnation was a decree of clemency from the king.  So, three times, the earthly kings declare Jesus innocent.  They declare clemency and it doesn’t stick. 

But just before he dies, a real criminal asks for clemency and Jesus gets to do the one thing he hasn’t done all during his ministry.  He declares freedom to a captive. But the freedom is not what you would expect.  “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” Which is very interesting.  Because the word Paradise had not been used in any of the New Testament literature to describe eternal life.  It is a phrase from the Book of Genesis.  The Garden of Paradise.  An earthly garden, not a heavenly homeland.  An earthly garden. 

There is a wonderful commercial that they are running in prime time a great deal these days.  It’s for Catholic Health.  Have you seen it?  It begins with the seashore on Long Island. And, as you watch the waves, the announcer talks about the philosophy of the Catholic Health System.  There’s a whole bunch of hospitals on Long Island that have united into one corporation.  And the whole context of the description, which lasts maybe thirty-five seconds, captures in one sentence the essence of Catholic social and moral teaching. Captures the essence of it absolutely perfectly and focuses it on our ministry to the sick.  God bless them for doing that.  God bless them for doing that.  They got it exactly right in a way that everybody can understand.

But it’s focused on the good of human beings down here on earth.  It is not focused on what’s going to happen after we die.  That’s a very, very important distinction. Because, when we get to the Feast of Christ the King, our imaginations are encouraged to focus on the other world, about which we really know nothing.  But the Kingship of Christ is focused on this world.  It’s focused on this world.  This is where we are to reign as his regents.  Healing the sick, giving sight to the blind, giving hearing to the deaf, giving food to the hungry, clothing to the naked, and declaring clemency to the captives. 

If we want to follow our King, that’s what we really need to do.