Solemnity of Christ the King, Year A: Homily by Fr Isaac Chima

Theme: He is coming to judge the living and the dead

Readings: Ez 34:11–12,15–17; 1 Cor 15:20–26.28; Mt 25:31–46

Homily: The solemnity of Christ the King marks the end of the church’s ordinary time and, of course, the entire liturgical calendar of year A. It is a solemnity that invites us to acknowledge and adore Christ as the King of kings, the Lord of lords, and the beginning and the end of time.

This feast was instituted by Pope Pius XI in 1925 in response to growing nationalism, modernism and secularism in our world. As we know, the Nineteenth Century and Early Twentieth Century were marked with problems that shocked the world. At the background of the growing Modernism, Secularism, religious intolerance, and anti-clericalism that dominated that era, there were all manners of thinking that sought for a total re-examination and, in some cases, abandonment of all religious and traditional values about God, man and human life. These new ways of thinking led to the First World War, which caused the loss of many lives. The lesson these events have for us is to understand that when we throw away religious and traditional values of life, human life will hardly be respected, it would be treated like nothing. Our present world is also seriously pushing for this abandonment of religious and traditional values of life. Many people have come up with arguments to show us how archaic our religious and traditional values are. They have come up with arguments supporting abortion, euthanasia, same sex union, in vitro fertilization. We live in a world where human life is gradually losing its value in the hands of science and technology, politics and the culture industries — the entertainment industries. Thus, homicides, wars, violent attacks on the street and everywhere in world are on the increase.

In its efforts to depart from classical and traditional forms and values, and to re-evaluate religious and traditional beliefs, Modernism introduced a way of thinking that made God irrelevant in the public space and enthroned man in his place and, consequently, caused widespread atheism. So, the solemnity of Christ the King was instituted at a time when the world started seeing man as the measure of all things, a time when the world began to make the church irrelevant in the public space, a time when the world’s political, social and cultural institutions started to suppress the mention of the name of Jesus Christ in their gatherings and rejected the kingship of Christ over all nations and hearts. It was instituted at a time when the powers in Europe started the promotion of a model of thinking that sought to banish God from the people’s life and encouraging people to live and organize their life as if God does not exist. It was instituted as an antidote to the problems of caused by Modernism in order to promote the worship of Christ both in the privacy of people’s hearts, as well as in the public domain. The title of the feast was “Jesu Christi Regis” (Jesus Christ the King).

In his motu proprio “Mysterii Paschalis” of 1969, Pope Paul VI gave the celebration a new title: “Iesu Christi universorum Regis” (which means Jesus Christ, King of the Universe). He also moved the celebration to the last Sunday in the liturgical calendar and transformed it from a feast to a “Solemnity.” This title that Christ is the king of the universe is a special call for our world of today where many people are losing hope in the saving power of Christ, a world where evil appears to be fashionable, desired and celebrated by many people, a world where those who profess their faith in God and want to live according to His commandments are often seen as unintelligent, ridiculed and made to feel irrelevant. We must remember that Christ is still the king of the universe and the king of kings.

To remind us of the obvious fact that Christ is King of the universe, the readings of this Sunday talked about the final judgement when Christ will sit on his throne as king and judge the living and the dead. In the first reading, the prophet Ezekiel told us that God himself will care for his sheep that have suffered in the hands of bad shepherds, and then judge between sheep and sheep, rams and he-goats. In the gospel reading, we were told that on the final day, Christ will separate the sheep from the goats, and judge them according to their actions. Special attention should be paid to the criteria of this judgement. In this gospel, Christ said that everyone will be judged according to what he did to help those who were hungry, thirsty, exiled, naked, sick and imprisoned in our world. It could be said that Christ is telling us that our judgement on the last day will be based on our diligence and zeal to help the needy, it will be based on works of charity and love towards the neediest in our midst.

The awareness of the fact that Christ will judge us on the last day is necessary because some people are already living and acting as if life ends here on earth and they are teaching others to believe that heaven is a mirage. Today, the church reminds us that there must be an end to earthly existence and that it will be followed by judgement for all that we did here on earth, especially on the impacts we made in the lives of others.

Happy Feast Day, and have a blessed week

Fr Isaac Chinemerem Chima