Today we celebrate to Solemnity of Christ the King. We are at the end of the Church year in a church calendar. Next week starts the season of Advent. As we get near the end of the year the readings are focused on the end times, when Christ returns. Our Lord and Savior will come in Glory, which is something we should all look forward to. When he comes the Kingdom of heaven will be fully realized. Why was the Solemnity of Christ the King instituted? It was done recently by Pope Pius XI in 1925 as a reminder of the spiritual loyalty of the Christian faithful of who their true King is, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He did so to battle the ideologies that were emerging at the times in Europe and Russia.
The concept of a king may be foreign to us who live in the United States. We battled for our independence from a King over two hundred years ago. Our form of government is a republic, and we have the privilege to elect our leaders. We just recently went through that. If we don’t like our leader, we can always vote to change them. In a Kingdom the subjects are supposed to be loyal to their king, whether they like the king or not. This can be a challenge for us in our American understanding of a leader.
The reading from Ezekiel give us an image of a king who cares for his people. The image given to us is that of a shepherd king. This was not what most of the Kings were like in Ezekiel’s time. Many of the kings were self-serving and only concerned about themselves. The people of Israel needed hope of a leader who would be merciful and just. A shepherd is one who cares for his flock and will give his life to defend them. The shepherd will rescue the sheep and seek out the lost that are scattered. He will lead them to pastures to feed them. The injured and sick he will heal. This shepherd king surely cares for his people. While this king cares for his people, he is also one who will pass judgement. We’re told that shepherd king will judge between one sheep and another, between rams and goats.
This is a reminder that there will be a judgement by our Lord.
The image of the sheep and goats is a good one. Have any of you ever been to a petting zoo? I’ve taken my children their when they were young. One of the common things to do is to feed the goats. After you get some food from the dispenser the goats start coming over. It starts with one, but usually ends up with many goats all trying to make their way in to get some food. There is usually a bully who nudges his way in front of all the smaller ones, even chasing them away. It kind of gets annoying after a while. The image of the goats is that they only seem to want something and don’t want to give.
In contrast sheep are usually more docile and humbler. They follow the shepherd leads. The sheep offer the shepherd their gift of wool that continually grows throughout their life. The wool is made into cloth for clothes and blankets. This image of the sheep is that they are giving of themselves. Jesus uses these images in the Gospel in comparing the subjects in the Kingdom.
Jesus tells his disciples that there will be a judgement coming when the Son of comes.
It will be like when a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, the right on the sheep and the goats on the left. Those on the right will be the sheep. They were giving of themselves to the king living the Beatitudes. They cared for the hungry, gave drink to the thirsty, closed the naked, welcomed the stranger, cared for the sick, and visited the imprisoned. When they cared for the King’s subjects, they cared for the King, Jesus, who came to them in each person who was cared for. The sheep would receive their eternal reward. The goats are the ones who did not care for the those in need in the Kingdom. In their negligence they did not care for the King, and for this they would go off to eternal punishment.
Our Lord, Christ the King, left us his Church to help us become the disciples that are the sheep that will be invited to the eternal reward. We are fed by his Word and the Eucharist to give us Grace to serve as his disciples. As his disciples we can serve those who are hungry, thirsty, sick and in prison through the ministries we have in our church. The Harvest Food Pantry and Thanksgiving food distribution helps us feed the hungry and thirsty. Our Care and Jail ministry volunteers visit those in sick and in prison. Our donations to the Christmas store clothe the naked. All our individual efforts in the little ways we show love to our neighbor help us care for our King, who we see in each person we help who is in need.
So, as we celebrate Christ the King, our shepherd King, who cares and nourishes us, let us strive to serve as his loyal subjects in his Kingdom. We can do so by caring for those in need, seeing the face of Jesus in each person we care for. By doing so we can be like the sheep who received their eternal reward to be with our Lord and Savior.
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