Homily on the Solemnity of Christ the King

Jesus Christ is King! But What Does It Mean?

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily on the Solemnity of Christ the King, Year A

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church

Sunday, November 26, 2023

At the end of every liturgical year, we celebrate something centrally important to our faith, and that is the stubborn fact that Jesus Christ is the King of the universe and the Lord of our lives. But what does it mean to say that Jesus is King? It means we totally belong to him. It means it is “In him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:27). In the words of the great Apostle, St. Paul, it means “It is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20). If our professional life, business life, family life, religious life, entertainment life, social life etc. is not lived in him, if we don’t move and have our being in him, then we are messing around with Christianity. If we pay lip service to Jesus, and don’t submit completely to him, we are fooling around with Christianity and not taking him seriously. If we pay attention to Christ only a few minutes on Sunday, if Jesus matters more only on Sunday, if your religious life is the only place that Jesus matters, but when it comes to your professional, social, political and entertainment life, you keep him at bay, you are not making him your King. If we pretend that Jesus is just one religious figure among the many, that he is just another interesting philosopher, then we are playing around with Christianity. It means we are not treating Christ as King.

Concretely, what does it mean to say that Jesus Christ is King? If we are asked if Jesus is the King of our house where we live, everyone here will say yes. But what does it mean? It means that Jesus is welcome in every room of your house? If he is only welcome in one room and not in the rest, then He is not yet your King. When I was coming of age in Nigeria, I used to hear stories of wealthy men who belonged to secret cult. Stories had it that in their mansion, they would reserve a special room where an altar is erected and where they worshipped the prince of darkness, Satan. I also heard that that very room is never accessible by other members of the family. The wife, children, house-helps, etc were never allowed to enter that special room. Most of my African brothers and sisters have heard of this story too. Now, a Christian who indulges in such a practice is toying with Christianity; that person is not making Jesus his or her King. If we keep Jesus on the outer edge of our life, on the fringe of our society, and not declare him sovereign of every aspect of our society, we are sequestering him, and not treating him as King. That Jesus is King means he is the Lord of everything. He is Dominus— that is the Latin rendering of Kyrios, which means Lord. The word “Dominus” has the overtone of “domination.” Yes, Jesus is Dominus in every aspect of our life. He either dominates all sectors of our life or we are not treating him as King. 

If we are asked if Jesus is the King of your family life, everyone here will say yes. But what does it mean that Jesus is the King of your family life? It means you must treat everyone in your family as the end and never as the means. It means you will never use anyone in your family. As a priest for 16 years, I have heard and seen situations where parents use their children and children use their parents. Think of parents manipulating their children and wanting them to realize their own dreams and aspirations through their children. Think of adult brothers and sisters manipulating each other and using each other as means to an end and to get ahead. You want to accomplish something  and you use a family member to accomplish it. I hear stories of family members in Africa telling tall stories to their relatives that live overseas just to get money from them. I know of someone who lives in Europe. Members of his family in Africa were always “sick” and always asking him to send money for their medical treatment. He suspected that his brothers and sisters were using him. When he traveled to his country, he struck a deal with a hospital. He said to his relatives, “Whenever you are sick, go to this hospital, they will treat you and then bill me.” Guess what happened? None of them was sick again. When I was in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, my parish paid the supposedly co-pay of a young man to refill his medicine every month. Towards the end of the month, he will come to my office, and I will hand him a $20 bill so that he can get his life-saving medicine. After almost four years of doing this, I discovered he gets that medicine totally free. The government pays for it. To make Christ the King of your family means treating everyone in your family and in your life as an end, and not as means. 

If you are asked if Jesus is the King of your relationship, you are most likely going to say yes. But what does that mean? To make Jesus the King of your relationships means not looking at your friend or friends as means to an end. Let me use this example. You are a young woman, a young man approaches you, and you agree to go out with him. You are a young man and you notice a young woman with great potential, and you approached her and asked her out. With the passage of time, you realize he or she is not your  type. You realize the two of you are not compatible. Yet, a few months later, this utterly incompatible man proposes to marry you, and you accept. In the case of a man, even after realizing that this lady is not the one, you still went ahead and asked, “Will you marry me?” Why? Because there are some great material benefits to gain. You say to yourself, “I will marry him.” “I will marry her.” “I will tolerate until I get what I want.” You say to yourself, “Once I get what I want, I will leave.” Christians who do this are not making Jesus the King of their lives. They are treating the foremost sacrament, the sacrament of marriage as means and not as an end. If Jesus is the Lord of your life, if he is the King of all your activities, you will not engage in this kind of cruel venture. 

More to it, if you are asked if Jesus is the King of your professional life, a lot of people would say yes. But what does it mean to say such? If Jesus is the King of your professional life, you will not take up a job that is fundamentally immoral in its purpose and orientation no matter how much you are going to earn. If in your place of work, you are asked to indulge in an activity that is morally problematic, that will haunt your conscience for a very long time, you cannot get yourself involved if Christ is your King. Yes, you may make a lot of money, but then at what cost? If your company is pursuing policies and strategies that are immoral, you should at least raise your voice in protest and opposition. Don’t isolate religion as a private matter. Don’t convince yourself that your religious faith is in the heart alone and that this is your public and professional matter. If you do,  Jesus is not the King of your whole life. 

Finally, if you are asked whether Christ is the King of your body? You are mostly certainly going to answer in the affirmative. But what does it mean? It means you treat your body with respect. You won’t abuse it through alcohol, drugs, excessive eating and sex. It means you practice self-control. It means you are physically committed as much as you can to carry out the mission given to you by the Lord. It means you take the resurrection of the body seriously. Don’t forget this fact: Jesus Christ is the King of everything— soul, spirit, mind and body too. Put this in mind: spiritual life is not like democracy. In democracy, you can vote a politician in and can also vote him or her out. But not so in spiritual life. Don’t think you can vote Jesus in and out. We  don’t surround him with checks and balances. We don’t subject him according to our whims and moods. Jesus is not like the president or the prime minister or the secretary. He is King! He wants to reign even in the life of presidents, prime ministers, and secretaries.

To make Christ the King of your life is to bring Christ into everything you do— private and public. It is to bring your Christian faith into everything you are involved within the church and outside the church. Don’t play the public and private dichotomy thing. If your organization, your society, be it the Men’s Group, Women’s Group, the Choir, the Knights, or any group in the church is pursuing an agenda you know would harm someone or some people and you believe that Jesus Christ is your King, you will raise your voice in opposition. If Christ is your King, use every opportunity you get to evangelize. Do not be ashamed of witnessing for the Lord. Jesus says, “Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this faithless and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels” (Mark 8:38). The Responsorial Psalm on Monday, November 20, 2023 was “Give me life, O Lord, and I will do your commands.” The implication is that the life that God has given to us is for us to propagate his name, his will and purposes in our office, at home, wherever we are. Do the people who know you know that you are Christian? Do they know you are a Catholic? Have you ever shared with anyone the joy you found in Christ? If you have, when was the last time you did that? If Jesus is your King, when was the last time you announced it? Are you ashamed of being his mouthpiece? If Jesus is your King, how often are you in contact with him through prayer? If you claim that God is your friend and the most important person in your life, how often do you talk to him? If you say that Jesus is your best friend, do you talk to him often? Everyday? Every hour? Every time? Or only when you come to Mass? In prayer, we talk to God. We lift up our minds and hearts to him. We commune with him. And we let him talk to us as well. But if you talk to Jesus once a week on Sunday, or once a month or occasionally, then he is not your best friend. For us Catholics, what’s the great prayer? The Mass! At every Mass, the Word of God is proclaimed to us. We hear it in the reading, and hopefully in the sermon. So, we are fed with the Word of God. But only that. We are also fed with the Eucharist, which is the source and summit of the Christian life. Sadly, 75% of Catholics stay away from the Mass. If Christ is your King, you won’t miss the Mass unless you are ill or looking after someone who is ill. If Christ is your King, you will participate regularly in the Sacraments of the Church especially Confession and the Eucharist.