Christ the King Sunday
November 22, 2015
Rejected King
Today
throughout the world, there is a Catholic religious community of monks and nuns
called the Carmelites. They live a structured life of prayer, work, sacrifice,
and listening for God through Scripture. But there was a time when the
Carmelite community was falling apart…
Like
many groups, they started out on-fire with love for God, but over time, the
fire was cooled. They began to abandon some of their earlier disciplines –
instead of prayer, they spent more time on worldly pursuits. Instead of penance
and sacrifice, they slowly introduced more pleasure into their lives.
But then
came two saints: St. Theresa of Avila and St. John of the Cross. Both of them
saw value in the Carmelite religious order – but they realized that reform was
needed. So they set out to reform their order.
Naturally,
no one likes to be told that they’re not doing the right thing, and both saints
suffered a lot of rejection from the Carmelites. John got the worst of it – his
fellow Carmelite priests actually kidnapped him and imprisoned him in a tiny
closet for nine months, giving him weekly beatings and feeding him only bread
and water. He was finally able to escape by taking his door off its hinges, but
not without being severely injured and weakened by the experience. Amazing –
fellow Catholic priests would kidnap and torture one of their own! But John –
and Teresa – were calling them back to holiness, and eventually their reform
prevailed, and the Carmelite order returned to its original fervor. The saints
had to first experience rejection before triumph.
The only
time Jesus accepts the title “King” in the Gospels is at His crucifixion. We
are following a King who was rejected, who was hated, who was an outcast in the
world that He Himself created. He came to bring us life and light – but the
world preferred (and still prefers) death and darkness. The world does not want
Christ as its King!
Truth
is, we who follow Him can expect nothing less than the rejection He endured. It
is absolutely impossible to be “cool” in the eyes of the world and be a
faithful Christian. We have to choose – which one is more important: to be “cool”,
or to be a disciple?
I was
speaking with a dear friend of mine this past week, a woman who has five kids
and one more on the way. She was telling me that often, when she takes her kids
shopping or to a park, she gets all kinds of odd remarks. People often say to
her, “Oh, are you running a day care?” Or when her doctor found out she was
pregnant a sixth time, he snidely remarked, “So you’re one of those Catholics…”
She was
telling me this in frustration, as she said to me, “I just want to be a faithful
Catholic, open to life, following the teachings of the Church!” But the reality
is, we live in a world that chooses not to be under Christ’s Kingship, so when
we decide to allow Christ to be OUR King, the world looks at us askance.
You see,
Christ must be King of our entire
lives. Our thoughts, our relationships, the TV shows we watch, the way we spend
our time and money, how we vote, what we love and what we despise, our hobbies
and interests, all of that must be
under Christ’s Kingship – and all of
that might be called into question and rejected by our family and friends. They
will ask, “Why don’t you watch the latest dirty movie? Why don’t you approve of
my sinful lifestyle? Why do you make God a priority in your life?” We must
expect that it isn’t popular to worship and pledge our allegiance to a rejected
King.
This is
the King we worship: a King who dies on a tree! A King who embraces a shameful
death! A King who humbles Himself! A King who is rejected! And…a King Who truly
rules the universe with His merciful and just love. At the end of time, no one
is going to care what the world thinks. When Jesus comes again, He will no
longer be the rejected King but the triumphant King. I want to be on His side
when that day comes.
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