I receive the weekly homily from a priest friend of my husband. This one brought tears to my eyes (because it filled me with hope), so I thought I'd share it with you.
Intro
Today is the last Sunday of the Church year. Next week, Advent begins. The Church always celebrates the feast of Christ the King on this last Sunday. We celebrate the power and glory of Christ our king. The Gospel chosen for us today is extraordinary. The Kingship of Jesus Christ is explained from the cross. Jesus is nailed to a cross and talking to the thief being crucified beside him. The Church would have us meditate on this image of a crucified Christ in order to understand the true and deepest nature of his kingship. What an amazing idea! He is king because he is crucified. He is powerful because he is weak. His glory is to be found in suffering and sacrifice.
I. Two stories, story 1, Diogenes and Aristippus
Two quick stories today to try to make sense of this strange and crucified king. First, from philosophy. The Greek philosopher Diogenes was eating lentils one day by the side of the road. He was seen by the philosopher Aristippus who became very rich by flattering the king. Aristippus said, “Diogenes, if you only learned to flatter the king, you would not have to live on such garbage as lentils.” Diogenes said, “Aristippus, if you only learned to eat lentils, you would not have to flatter the king.”
II. Application of Diogenes/Aristippus
The first point is that Jesus Christ is not a king, as worldly kings are kings. He does not require of us flattery and glory and adulation. His kingship and our allegiance to him are much simpler matters. He rules the domain of the human heart. He is our king and we are his subjects when, and insofar as, we love. Diogenes is far closer to the true king with his humble lentils than Aristippus is with his flattery of secular power.
III. Story II: Eaglet in the barnyard
The second story comes from one of Cardinal Newman’s homilies: Once upon a time a man found an eagle’s egg and put it in the nest of a backyard hen. The eaglet hatched with the brood of chicks and grew up with them. All his life the eagle thought he was a backyard chicken and he did what chickens do: He scratched the earth for worms and insects. He clucked. He flew in clumsy little bursts like a chicken, near to the ground. Once, when he was very old the eagle looked into the sky and saw the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. It was a bird flying high on the winds at the top of the sunset. It floated gracefully with hardly a flicker of its great, golden wings. The old eagle stared in wonder, “who is that? He asked. “That’s the eagle, the king of the birds, said his neighbor. But don’t think about him. You and I are nothing compared to him, we are just poor, pathetic chickens.” So the eagle never thought of it again and died thinking he was a chicken.
IV. Application: God became man
Jesus Christ is king. He is the eagle. Jesus Christ became human to show us who and what we really are. As Augustine said so perfectly, God became man so that man could become God. This is precisely the story we see in this morning Gospel. The Good thief is an eagle but he has forgotten who he really is and lives like a chicken: mean, small and scraping the ground. When he sees Jesus Christ, something in him wakes up, remembers that he is indeed an eagle, full of grace and beauty and God’s glory. Jesus Christ is king. But why? Because if we see him, if we truly see Jesus Christ, we are awakened and remember who we truly are. Jesus Christ is truly God and he became like us so that we could become like him. You see? We are eagles But too many of us go through our whole lives living like poor pathetic chickens. Wake up! Pay attention! We have such infinite possibilities my brothers and sisters. Because a Jewish carpenter rose for the dead, everything is possible.