Solemnity of Jesus Christ, King of the Universe
Fr. Ben Riley
Early on the morning of November 5th at about 5:45am, my alarm went off. I hit the snooze button one, or maybe two times, but eventually I rolled out of bed. I was on a mission. Can you guess what it was? You may think that I set my alarm early to have a morning work-out, or a distraction free Holy-Hour. But that’s not why. I woke up at 5:45 in the morning to walk outside, in almost freezing weather, so I could look at the moon. On November 5th for 45 minutes, there was a full lunar eclipse. If you have never seen a lunar eclipse, it’s a pretty surreal experience. To watch the shadow cast by the earth slowly creep over the white moon turning it a reddish-orange is worth the early hour. The next full eclipse won’t happen until March 2025.
Looking up at the blood-colored moon, in the perfect stillness of the cold morning, while still half-asleep, a wide range of thoughts and emotions swelled within me. First among them, “How incredibly beautiful and perfect is our universe?” Our earth is the perfect distance from the sun, so that we don’t freeze to death or boil. We have perfect seasonal changes that allow crops to sprout, grow, produce fruit, and die, replenishing nutrients in the soil. We have perfect gravitational and magnetic fields that protect us from solar winds and radiation. Our moon is the perfect distance from the earth to provide oceanic tides. Our atmosphere is a perfect mixture of oxygen, helium, nitrogen and other gasses. Life on earth would not be possible if even one of these things was out of order. Many atheists believe that this perfect balance is a statistical anomaly, a happy coincidence.
But as Christians, we know that there is no such thing as coincidence, only providence. Our Universe is perfect because Christ, the King of the Universe, made it so.
The Solemnity of Christ the King is celebrated at the end of the liturgical calendar, so that we can better reflect on the Power of Christ, as we prepare ourselves for His birth at Christmas. Jesus shows an incredible humility as King of the Universe being born a helpless infant, to poor, refugee parents. So, let’s begin this liturgical year, in anticipation of Christmas, delving into the Kingship if Christ. Saint Paul helps us in his letter to the Colossians.
“He is the image of the invisible God.” A perfect mirror image. The invisible God becoming man, incarnate, and made visible. He is divinity that assumed humanity without losing any of His divinity. “He is the first born of all creation.” He is the creator who became a creature, and yet is older than all of creation. He is the first cause, the unmoved mover, that which put the cosmos into motion.
“In him were created all things in heaven and on earth, the visible and the invisible.” Both the whole material universe and all kinds of angels, thrones and dominions, principalities and powers. God created all things in and through his Son, the Word, the Logos.
All things were created not only by him and, “in him,” but also, for him. He is the end, the goal, the purpose, the consummation, the point, the good of all creation. The Lord says to Saint John in Revelation, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. He is not only before all things, but right now in him all things hold together. He is the common cause of all things, the giver of existence to all of them at every moment, not just in the past.
He is the head of the Church, which is not just his people, but his body. Head and body are not like horse and rider or captain and ship, but one complete person, both human and divine. The Church is more than an organization, it is an Organism, a living body. He is the beginning not only of all natural life, but also all supernatural life, all immortal life, all resurrected life. He is the first to rise from the dead, and we rise only because we are in Him as members of his mystical body.
Finally, Saint Paul says that Jesus uses his divinity to reconcile all things to himself, making peace through the blood of his cross, whether those on earth or those in heaven. What he did on Calvary was not just to reconcile us to God but to reconcile everything, the whole creation. Christ the King of the Universe is also the savior of the universe.
But all these descriptions, true as they are, do not express how we relate to God, they express how God relates to us. For most of us, the idea of king, an all-powerful, all-knowing ruler and creator of the universe, makes us a little uneasy. Partly because its beyond our comprehension, but also because, in order to worship and give praise to the king, we have to trust Him. We are, of course, free to worship a different king, a false king, a king of our own desires, our own vanities, our lusts, pride, and arrogance. We are all ruled by something, whether we like it or not, and if we don’t trust the one true Kingship of Christ, we will become enslaved by a vicious king.
If you’re honest with yourself, there are times when you don’t trust Christ the King. I know there are for me. And that’s okay, trust is not something you either have or don’t. Building trust takes two things, understanding, and time. Consider the trust that is formed between a husband and wife, is it formed overnight? Of course not, it takes years spent getting to know the person before that trust is formed. The same is true for our trust in Christ the King. If you find yourself often doubting Christ’s love for you, believing our king is just an uncaring cosmic being, I encourage you to do two things. First, learn more about who God is and more about the Church He formed. Read Scripture, and commentaries on the Scripture. We have a scripture study here at the church, and more adult faith formation is coming. And second, spend more time in prayer. It doesn’t have to be two hours a day, but set aside some time every day for prayer. It will change your life. Without understanding and time, we will never come to trust Christ the King. How could we?
But thankfully, our king is merciful. He expects us, his subjects, to give Him the honor and praise He is due, but He also loves us. He loves us so much that he offered up His life to save us from sin and death. A debt we can never repay, but we can acknowledge, by turning away from our false kings, admitting our faults, and asking for forgiveness in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. If God has the power to order the stars, put the universe into motion, and turn our moon red, does he not have the power to forgive us of our sins? The time has come, for us to choose which king we will serve. The time has come to be bold, to take a leap of faith. To stop treating faith and religion as an insurance policy for heaven. Jesus said we are to let our “yes” mean “yes” and our “no” mean “no”. Let’s take Him at His Word.
He desires so much to give us His love and mercy, and to show us the fullness of His power, the power that destroyed death. But He will not force us to love Him, we have to choose it, every moment of our lives.
Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, speak, your servants are listening.