Homily for Christ the King
November 26, 2017
Obedience to the King
Mother
Teresa decided to become a nun when she was eighteen years old. She wrote a
letter to her older brother, who was studying at a military college in Albania,
explaining her decision to give her life to the Lord. Her brother was not
impressed with her vocation – he wrote back, telling her, “You’re wasting your
life! Why not get a regular job and do something with your life? Look at me – I
will soon have an excellent job in the government when I am finished with my
college!”
Mother
Teresa wrote back and said, “Yes, it is excellent that you will have a job
serving a King who has two million subjects. But it is infinitely more valuable
for me to serve the King of the entire universe!” She knew that Jesus Christ
was King – and serving Him was worth everything.
But recognizing
someone as king means that we are his subject. And subjects must do something
that we as Americans don’t like to do – we have to obey.
We don’t
like that word, “obedience”. We’d rather be masters of our own destiny. There
is a humorous story of a wealthy woman who said to her parish priest, rather
haughtily, “Oh, Father, I really do want to serve the Lord.” The priest
responded, “Yes, but you only want to serve Him in an advisory capacity!” We’d like
to say, “Jesus, I love You, but don’t tell me what to do!” Or one I hear a lot,
“I’m Catholic, but I don’t believe in the Church’s views on…” Fill in the
blanks – birth control, gay marriage, the death penalty, immigration.
But if Jesus Christ is King,
then we owe Him our obedience. How do we know what He commands? He has revealed
it to us in the Scriptures, and in His Church which He established to teach in
His Name. And some of the things He commands us to do are difficult! Take up
your cross and follow Him… If you look at a woman with lust, you commit
adultery with her… It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle
than for a rich man to enter into Heaven… Love your enemies, and pray for those
who persecute you… Divorce and remarriage without an annulment is equal to
adultery in the eyes of God. Some of His commands are difficult, and we’d
rather pick-and-choose which ones we obey. But true obedience, true submission
to the King means that we obey not only the convenient ones but also the ones
we don’t like, that we don’t agree with, that we find difficult and
sacrificial.
Today’s Gospel offers us
similarly difficult commands. He tells us that whatever we do for the least
ones, we do for Him. Yes, it’s easy enough to write a check to a charity, but
to see Christ in that difficult in-law or co-worker? To treat that weird kid
who sits alone as Christ? A little bit more difficult, and we might be tempted
to make excuses. “Jesus, I can’t treat my mother-in-law like I would treat You;
after all, don’t you know how difficult she is? She’s the one who is always
starting fights and she gets insulted over nothing!” And Jesus will say, “Will
you obey me, or will you not? Whatever you do to your mother-in-law, you do to
Me.”
Obedience is the key to recognizing
Christ as King. Not only must we obey what He says in the Scriptures, but also
what He says through His Church, which makes present His teachings in the world
today. But the good news is that His laws are for our benefit – to help us live peaceful, ordered lives of holiness.
Consider this. One of my
greatest pet peeves is people who don’t know how to understand four-way stops.
You’ve probably had the experience – you arrive at a four-way stop and someone
else is there, and it’s his turn to go but he keeps motioning for you to go. So
you start going, but then he realizes he has right of way, so he starts, and
then you slam on your brakes, and he slams on his, and the whole thing becomes
a big mess and a big confusion. Driving laws are written so that traffic flows smoothly.
Likewise, God’s laws are given
to us so that we find peace and order. His laws are not arbitrary! They help us
to become excellent Christians and excellent human beings. No matter how difficult
one of Christ’s laws are, they are for our benefit. For example, it is
difficult to turn the other cheek when someone insults us, as Christ commands
us to do. But in forgiving our enemies and overlooking their insults, we foster
peace within the community. We ourselves become more peaceful people, rather
than angrily retaliating. We grow in self-control and humility. Yes, it can be
difficult, but His laws are for our benefit and ultimately our salvation.
My friends, we cannot say that
Jesus Christ is King if we are not willing to obey everything that He has
revealed through the Scriptures and through His Church. But our obedience to
Jesus as King is not a servile obedience out of fear, but an obedience of love.
Our obedience is what shows that Jesus Christ is King over our entire lives.
