We don’t often think about kingship today, a concept foreign to us, yet one we must ponder if we’re to understand the depth of the feast we’re celebrating.
In the first scripture reading of the day, taken from the Second Book of Samuel, we’re given an
account of the tribes of Israel gathering to anoint David as their King. They declare
him as their shepherd, their protector, and their commander. David will
eventually betray this trust by using his sacred position to orchestrate the death of one of his most trusted commanders in order to take his wife as his own. We learn, through David, that the exalted position of kingship can easily become self-serving, and even tragically destructive.
St. Paul, in his Letter to the Colossians, the second reading for the day, breaks into a rhapsodic hymn of praise as he describes Jesus being lifted up as the Christ. He pro- claims Jesus the image of the invisible God, and the first born of all creation. He
tells us that he is be- fore all things, and in him all things hold together. Through him we have redemption. “For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell, and through him to rec- oncile all things for him, making peace by the blood of his cross.” In awe and wonder, Saint Paul describes the King- ship of Christ crucified.
In the Gospel passage Luke sets a scene that stands as the antithesis of the tribes of Israel gather-
ing to anoint David as their King. The proclamation of execution nailed to the cross is as clear as any written statement could be: “This is the King of the Jews.” As the people gather around Jesus as he hangs on the cross, they taunt him shouting, “He saved others, let him save himself if he is the chosen one, the Christ of God.”
On the cross Jesus teaches us that true and authentic Kingship does not bring with it absolute power over people. Rather, Kingship demands the total emptying of the self. Jesus was anointed King on the
cross. That act of self-giving lifted Jesus up to the Father as Christ. His anointing aa Christ is what we celebrate today.
The Feast of Christ the King reminds us that, as children of God, we’ve too have been anointed “king.” Whether a political figure, a CEO, the principal of a school, a manager, a teacher, physician, mother, father, guardian, or priest, each one of us is invited to raise our eyes to gaze on Jesus as our model – Jesus on the cross. If we empty ourselves as he did, if we live for others and not ourselves, he will say to us what he said to the criminal crucified with him, “Today you will be with me in paradise.”
