Every year the last Sunday of Ordinary time, in fact the last Sunday of the entire liturgical year, is the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe; or simply called, Christ the King. We are literally saying that we have a good and merciful God who came to earth just like one of us to die for our sins who is our supreme ruler in Heaven and Earth and all of creation. So, what exactly does that mean?
Part of coming to know what that means involves understanding that if there is a king, then there must also be a kingdom. We call Christ the King of the Universe, so literally all of the universe is His kingdom. But most specifically, we want to get into His Kingdom in Heaven. That means coming to know Him better and striving to be with Him for eternity.
I'm sure many of you have at least heard of a series of books called the Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. A central character in each of the seven books is a lion named Aslan. As readers get more into the books, we find that Aslan is really a symbol for Christ. We see the lion at creation of Narnia itself, we see him at the end of creation, we see him appear at the darkest hour of the other main characters and impart wisdom and encourage virtues. He even breaths on them as Christ does for his Apostles to give them strength and courage and sacrifices himself for the sake of others. Aslan is clearly meant to symbolize Christ as King as well. Lewis chose to portray him as the “king of beasts” in his books. He is described as the son of the king over the sea and as the one true king of Narnia.
Some of the other main characters of the books are children from our world who go to this mythical land. At the end of most of the books, they have to return to our world. This return is always met with a mix of happiness and sadness: happy that the bad guys have been vanquished and all is well for Narnia, but sad that they must leave that land behind. They especially hate to leave Aslan behind. In one of the books, the children have an opportunity to enter Aslan's own country over the sea. They find out from Aslan that they cannot enter now, but there is a way to enter his country from their land. He says he will be telling them how to get there. When he tells them that they must leave now for their own world, they are sad and tell him that it is because they will never see him in their own world. “But you shall meet me, dear one” Aslan says. “Are – are you there too, Sir?” asks one of the children. “I am. But there I have another name. You must learn to know me by that name. This is the very reason why you were brought to Narnia, that by knowing me here for a little, you may know me better there.” Though this is from a children's novel, I would hope that all of us, adults and children, can apply this to our own faith life. We hear about Jesus in the Bible and from what people have told us. Maybe we have read books like the Narnia books that show us symbols of Him. But we are being called to know Him better in our real relationship with Him. This means taking time for prayer and spending time talking with Him and discerning what He wants us to do. This is our opportunity to enter into His own land; into His kingdom.
Our readings today speak about how we are to trust in our King in Heaven and come to know Him better. The first reading from 2 Samuel talks about King David's anointing as the king of Israel. The various tribes of Israel come together to choose him as their king. They talk about how he did great things when he was working as a servant under King Saul and how God himself chose him to be the shepherd and commander of Israel. This is not directly about Jesus, since it is clearly before the time of Jesus, but since Jesus is considered the son of David and is the fulfillment of the prophecy that says a son of David will sit on the throne forever, we are still talking about Christ the King. Christ's purpose is to watch over the people of Israel. That includes us, thanks to our Baptism through Christ.
The Responsorial Psalm speaks to where we hope to go as we get to know Jesus. “Let us go rejoicing to the house of the Lord”. This psalm can have several meanings. It was first written as song that the Israelites would sing as they entered the Temple in Jerusalem to pray. We Christians sometimes use it to describe us going to Church to worship. But both the Temple and the Church are earthly symbols of Heaven. So we are truly singing about going to Heaven; the Kingdom of Christ.
St. Paul's letter to the Colossians doesn't say anything about kings, but it does talk about who Christ is. The Apostle says, “All things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church.” St. Paul is making the profession of faith about who Christ is, because he wants his listeners to be working at being closer to this great person. And after an introduction like that, why wouldn't we want to know Him?
The Gospel caps all this off by showing us why we call Christ our King and letting us know our rewards for following Him. At first the kingship is seen as a mockery. The soldiers and the one criminal all taunt Jesus to do something miraculous. But He doesn't, because He knows He must die first to fulfill what He came to do. The good criminal or thief gets what must happen. This may be the his first time meeting Jesus, but he is not just getting to know Jesus, like meeting someone on the street. He realizes who Jesus is and what He must do. He knows that Jesus truly is a king and must come into His kingdom. He asks to come with (“Jesus, remember me”), and because of his faith, Jesus obliges (“Today you will be with me”).
Christ is our King and we desire to be with Him in His Kingdom. Next week we will enter into the season of Advent and begin preparing for the birth of our Savior. Let us take this time, these next four weeks, to get to know Jesus better and ask for His grace so that we do not have to be without Him, but can be with Him is paradise for eternity.
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