Homily for the Solemnity of Christ the King, Year C

“Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Tim 3:12), so says St Paul. It happened to Christ, and it will happen to us at some point as well. How should we respond?

Look at Christ on the Cross. The rulers scoff: “let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God”. The soldiers say: “If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!” The inscription above the Cross reads: “This is the King of the Jews” – an act of mockery, in part saying that He wasn’t, and in part declaring the might of Rome: look what we’ve done to your so-called king! But Jesus is the King of the Jews, and of the whole world. And the whole world is going to see something amazing happen on Easter Sunday.

But going back to Good Friday, even one of the thieves crucified next to Him

has a go: “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” He is misled by the

crowd and not thinking with his head. So the second thief corrects him,

effectively saying to Him: you’re about to die and meet God. Behave

yourself! The second thief acknowledges that he has done wrong and seeks

forgiveness whilst there is still time. Jesus shows His authority as King and

Lord by saying, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise”.

The second thief is willing to join Christ in His humiliation, rather than add to

it. He is the one who is more concerned about what God thinks, rather than

what other people think. And he is the one who hears of his reward.

What happened to the first or bad thief? We aren’t told. The month of

November is a time when we remember and pray for those who have died,

whom we sometimes refer to as the Holy Souls in purgatory.

The whole concept of purgatory is a consolation and it shows God’s mercy. It

means that if we don’t die completely free of all sin, which will probably be the

majority of us, then we won’t be barred from heaven. We may not be ready to

enter heaven yet, but there is something called purgatory which can purify us of

all sin and its after-effects so that we are able to enter heaven. We don’t know

how “long” each individual soul might need to be purified, but it is a teaching

of the Church that we can assist the Holy Souls in their purification by offering

the Mass for them and by our prayers; hence the purple box before the altar

during November.

Today we proclaim Christ as King, and purgatory is really a sign of the

conquering love of God. Despite the imperfections of our own decisions in

life, God’s merciful love still works through all of that and brings so many to

be with Him. There is hell too, and Our Lord warned us that the road there is

easy and wide, and there are many that take it. We pray that they may have a

change of heart, even at the very last minute. There is the true story of a man

who, back in nineteenth century France, was going to be executed. St Therese

of Lisieux read about him in the paper and wanted to do something for him so

that he wouldn’t perish. So far, the signs hadn’t been good. But on the day of

his execution, she read that before he went to the gallows, he kissed the cross

belonging to the prison chaplain, and she saw that as a sign that God had made

use of her prayers to give him at least a bit of a change of heart. The good thief

had been a thief, and that is why he was being crucified next to Our Lord. But

at the last moment, he asked Jesus to remember him when He entered His

Kingdom. Our Lord did more than just remember him, He forgave him.

So there is hope for us all. How will we respond?

Curious about exploring things further?  If you would like to ask further questions about the topics raised in these homilies (or maybe think it wasn’t explained too well!), please feel free to e-mail Fr Michael at stjoseph.thame@rcaob.org.uk