Pope John XXIII
(Nov. 25, 1881–June 3, 1963)
Feast of Christ the King
November
25, 2012, Feast of Christ the King
The word
of the Lord
Thanks
be to God
Alleluia,
alleluia.
A reading
from the holy Gospel according to John
Glory to you, Lord.
Pilate said to Jesus, "Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus answered, "Do you say this on your own or have others told you about me?" Pilate answered, "I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me. What have you done?" Jesus answered, "My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not here." So Pilate said to Him, "Then you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice."
The Gospel
of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord
Jesus Christ.
Introduction
Crowning the old year with a feast
Today is the 34th
and last Sunday in Ordinary Time. Today marks the end of the Church’s
liturgical year. After having celebrated all the feasts of Our Lord and His
saints through 52 weeks, the Church crowns her fast-departing old year with a
feast in honor of Christ the King. Next Sunday, December 2, is New Years Day in
the Church with the arrival of the first Sunday of Advent in preparation for
Christmas 2012.
A recent feast
The feast of
Christ the King was instituted as recently as 1925 by Pope Pius XI.[1] At that
time, the pope was battling various kings of this world. He was fighting
anticlericalism in
A bit superfluous feast
This late November feast of Christ the King
seems a bit superfluous; already in early spring we have a feast honoring Christ
as king. On Palm Sunday, the Church cries out, "Hosanna to the Son of
David! O King of Israel, hosanna in the
highest!" Holy Week is a better context for proclaiming the kingship of
Christ. It sets Jesus upon a donkey and not upon a throne. It places a palm
branch in his hand and not a scepter. It plants a wreath of thorns upon his
head and not a tiara. And the Passion read on Palm Sunday sets the records
straight for anyone who might be tempted to build an earthly kingdom for Jesus.
He tells Pilate, "My kingdom is not of this world." (Jn. 18:36)
Rogue
kings
The human race has
a long history of rogue kings. King Herod, leery about Jesus, “the new-born
king of the Jews, slew all baby boys two years and younger.” (Mt. 2:2-16) In
the second half of the 20th century, Saddam Hussein lived as a king
in the eight palaces he built for himself, but ended up hiding in a hole in the
ground. Hussein dotted the landscape of Iraq with kingly statues of himself, and
he filled the dumps with the remains of people who didn’t want him as king.
Scripture: Jesus is
king.
However we might
feel about kings, Scripture is clear: Jesus is a king. He is king as He comes
into the world, and as He leaves it. At his conception, the angel Gabriel
announces to Mary that the Lord God would give her Son the throne of his
ancestor David, and of his kingdom there would be no end. (Lk. 1:32-33) At his trial, the Roman governor Pontius
Pilate asks Jesus, “Are you a king?”He answers, “Yes, for this I was born, and
for this I came into the world.” (Jn. 18:37) Accordingly, a gang of Roman
soldiers wove a crown of thorns and pressed it down on Jesus’ head. (Mt.
27:29) Then they forced Him to climb the
hill of Calvary and nailed Him to a cross. On the top of the cross Pilate hung
a notice written in Hebrew, Latin and Greek: Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum - Jesus
of Nazareth, King of the Jews. (Jn.
19:19)
Today Nov.25 - the birthday of a great man
Today Nov. 25 is the birthday of a great man. He was born poor like
Jesus, 131 years ago in 1881. Some of us very senior citizens were fortunate
enough to be his contemporaries, and we remember him with very deep affection.
His name was Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli. He was born in a little Italian village
called
Then the very next day after his `coronation,’ John sped
off through an elaborate Vatican gate to serve. He visited aging brother
priests in nursing homes. He visited inmates in the nearby Regina Coeli Prison
along the Tiber. “I come to you,” he told them, “because you couldn’t come to
me.” When he celebrated his first Holy Thursday as pope, he revived an ancient
custom of the Church; like Jesus John girded himself with a towel and bent down
to wash the feet of 13 young priests. That foot-washing rite had fallen into
disuse for many centuries, and the disuse itself was symptomatic of a
prevailing institutional attitude of being served instead of serving.
A `man’s man’ close
to tears
Good
Pope John’s example emanating from the lofty heights of the Petrine office drew
the whole Church and world. It drew Morris West, an Australian writer
(1916-1999). In a little volume entitled, A View from the Ridge written in 1996, Morris West (then in
his eightieth year) writes that he feels like a mountain climber who after a
long and arduous ascent has reached a height and then pauses to catch his
breath, in order to muster up enough courage for the last lap of his journey. Then writing of his own personal life
experiences in and with the Church, West paints a portrait of two Popes: John
XXIII and John Paul II. Though West was a kind of `man’s man,’ when he writes
of Pope John XXIII he becomes quite emotional.
I am
very close to tears as I begin to set down the words. What can I say of a man
so manifestly good?
In his hands the crosier of the bishop has meant what it was meant to mean—the
crook of the kindly Shepherd, to whom the way-worn
and the stragglers meant more than those penned up safely in the sheepfold.
I believe I can say
with certainty that I remained in communion with the Church even when the
Church itself excluded me[2],
and I remain there still, principally because of the presence of John XXIII,
the Good Pastor, whom I never met, though I did meet his predecessor (Pius XII)
and his successor (John Paul II). Goodness went out from this man to me. I
acknowledged it then. I acknowledge it again.
Conclusion
King according to Jesus
& John
Angelo Giuseppe
Roncalli, who was born in Bergamo
at the `Foot of the Mountain,’ made it to the top of the hill as Pope John
XXIII. When he got to the top, John like Jesus played a completely new game of King-on-the-Hill. In the old game, when
you got to the top, you drove everyone down, and proclaimed yourself king. In
the new game when Jesus got to the top (when He was lifted up on the Hill of
Calvary) He drew everyone up to Himself. (Jn. 12:32) When Good Pope John got to
the top, when this kindly shepherd was seated on the lofty throne of Peter, he
drew Morris West and the whole Church up to himself. And when John lay dying
on June 3, 1963, it’s no exaggeration to say that the whole world was
there kneeling at the bedside of this great man, who was capable of bringing `a
man’s man’ very close to tears.
[2] Though West was and always remained
a Catholic, his various writings contain a good deal of criticism about the Church, and the Church
was not always pleased with him.
