Homily – Fr. Carlos Rodriguez – Christ the King 11/20/22

Homily – Fr. Carlos Rodriguez – Christ the King 11/20/22

Jesus said that His Kingdom is not of this world, how then can we as His subjects relate to Him and His kingdom when we are still in this world.  How is it that Jesus who walked among men and women has his kingdom out of this world where he lived in it – for a good 33 years.  From the outset we can say then that His Kingdom lies outside the category of all earthly kingdoms.   For Jesus himself is not of this world.  It is not tangible but very real because it exists in men and women as he himself said.  It is within and it has no end.  He the King is transcendent and immanent at the same time.   No end because it cannot be overcome by any enemy.  The greatest enemy of all kingdoms and its subjects is death.   Yet Christ the King is conqueror of death, the nemesis of living things.  He did this by meeting death in its own terms; he submitted to death itself and conquering it, thus showing that death has no power over him.  He descended to the realm of death to remove its sting.  This is the true Kingship.  A king who can protect His subjects from the ultimate enemy of all living beings.  How did this come about?  Jesus Christ in person, God, gives himself to human beings.  It is not an external giving.  It is sharing in our humanity God as God, in human form, gave Himself to us.  This self-gift of God, in Jesus bound by time and place, in history is the anticipation of the Kingdom of God not of this world but by nature of his being.  He, the King, cannot be confined by any power of this world.   And in this acceptance of the gift of God is found the people of God, the Church, namely we believers.  This self-gift of God is like an irritant to the kingdoms of this world as proclaimed by His church whose function is to point that all kings and kingdoms are accountable to Christ King and His kingdom is not governed by any principles of earthly kingdoms.   And so, His subjects, the faithful, become the irrevocable presence of God in the world, the witness to the absolute presence of God in this world.  His subjects, as Church, will be in constant protest against any worldly kingdoms that restrict the freedom and fullness of all humanity.  They will protest against saviors who are acclaimed to save the world or societies by men and women of all ages.  He exists both as God’s self-gift to the world and for us.  His subjects attest to the fact that humanity by nature is open to the possibility of God’s entry into the world and claim it for himself as Lord and master.  No matter how many kingdoms have gone against His subjects, against His Church, they have not prevailed upon it and continues to be a mysterious entity that refuses to be constrained, circumscribed by any earthly norms and it lies beyond all definition as the reason and depth of all that exists.  God as God becomes present in his people the Church, the harbinger of his Kingdom here on earth.  It is a mystery, because God in his little flock destroys all threats of limitation and ultimacy (death) held by the powers of this world.  And this little kingdom of His on earth will never be enticed by any idolatry with their many “gods,” as earthly kingdoms offer such as power, authority, wealth and knowledge.  These need not be outward images and idols, like figurines of gods and goddesses.  The worst idols are those of the mind and the heart, like a god who could only be and act within the confines of man’s understanding.  The kingdom of God cannot be eradicated because it sits in the heart of men and women giving them power and hope that there is a kingdom prepared for them because Christ the King by his Resurrection has eliminated all enemies that threaten the existence of the Church, the Body of Christ the King.  And because the Kingdom of God is in the hearts of the believers, they will judge the world for not being true to itself, namely, its denial that a God is in the world despite his transcendence.  It is there; its veracity cannot be contested.  Human denial of this transcendence does not negate its existence.   We have the power to go beyond ourselves to be bigger than life and yet all must end, unless this transcendence becomes a Person to us that addresses us – unless we recognize Christ as our King and can lead us to an existence that cannot be limited, constrained, confined by any power of any king or kingdom on earth.   As for his subjects, his believers, Christ comes without cease in them, with or without intermediary, and demands of us enjoyment and activity – and demanding that we should not be constrained but affirm one another.  Joy is possible in this interim state because the kingdom is waiting for us.  Christ the King’s subject enjoys this in-between existence because we His subject are longer threatened by any conceivable power.  This threat is only found outside Christ’s Kingdom.  Unlike earthly kings who govern only externally and organizationally, Christ joined us from within.  He became like us.  He strengthened weak humanity and divinized it.  So, this King has decisively announced that the power of His Kingdom is now shared by all His subjects.  Hail to Christ our King.