Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe 2022

Published: November 20, 2022

Bishop Anthony B. Taylor celebrated Mass at Our Lady of Sorrows Church in Springdale on Sunday, Nov. 20, 2022. He did not preach the following homily, but prepared it for this feast day.

Bishop Taylor

If you go to the geographic center of Mexico, what do you find? A famous mountain in the state of Guanajuato: El Cubilete. And what is on this mountain at the exact center of Mexico? A huge statue of Christ the King. The idea is that Jesus should be the center, the point of reference for everything their nation does, even if their government — like ours — still leaves much to be desired.

If you go to the geographic center of the 50 United States, what do you find? A famous mountain in the state of South Dakota: Mount Rushmore. And what is on this mountain in the center of the United States? The heads of presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.

The idea is that what these presidents stand for should be the point of reference for everything our nation does. But unlike El Cubilete, Mount Rushmore is not at the exact center point of the United States, which is in fact some 100 miles further north. That spot is still available.

I think we should go there and set up a statue of Christ the King for our country. Many of our problems stem from us not making Jesus the center, the point of reference for everything we do as a nation. But making Christ the King the center of our lives involves a lot more than just setting up a statue. Statues are simply reminders and there’s a lot we need to remember:

First, Jesus is our king, not our president. He doesn’t owe his kingship to us and he isn’t answerable to us. He is king because he defeated Satan, the previous ruler of this world and because God the Father gave him dominion and put everything under his feet.

Second, Jesus rules a kingdom, not a republic. He is all three branches of divine government: He rules, he legislates and he judges. Democracy is the best system of human government and separation of powers in our government is necessary because earthly rulers, legislators and judges are not all knowing, all powerful or all loving. But Christ the King is! So unlike any earthly government, his kingdom will never fail.

Third, Jesus is a king like none other. His power is most evident when we consider his apparent weakness. His crown is made of thorns rather than gold. He persuades rather than coerces. His kingdom is universal, not limited by time (king of all ages, all the living and the dead, from the creation of the world) or by space (king of all nations) already in this life and fully in the age to come.

Christ is king. All that’s left is to pledge our allegiance to him, embrace his program, make him the point of reference for all we do. It is only then that he truly becomes our king (in the full sense of the term) ruling — guiding — everything we do from the inside. And it’s not too late to get started.

The earthly lives of the two thieves crucified with Jesus would have been much more fulfilling and might have come to a more pleasant end if they had started earlier to make God’s will the center of their lives, but even at the very end it was not too late to gain admission into God’s kingdom.

And the same is true for us. Every time we say "thy kingdom come" we commit ourselves to do God’s will "on earth as it is in heaven," which we can do only if we make Jesus the center, the point of reference for everything we do.

If we align our will to that of Jesus now, his words to the repentant thief will be directed to us as well: "You will be with me in paradise!"