Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church

Homily for November 26, 2006
Liturgical Year B - Cycle II
34th Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Fr. John Carney
 Topic: Christ the King
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Reading 1
Dn 7:13-14
As the visions during the night continued, I saw one like a Son of man coming, on the clouds of heaven; when he reached the Ancient One and was presented before him, the one like a Son of man received dominion, glory, and kingship; all peoples, nations, and languages serve him.
His dominion is an everlasting dominion  that shall not be taken away, his kingship shall not be destroyed.
 
Reading II
Rev 1:5-8
Jesus Christ is the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead and ruler of the kings of the earth.  To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, who has made us into a kingdom, priests for his God and Father, to him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen.  Behold, he is coming amid the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him   All the peoples of the earth will lament him.  Yes.  Amen.

"I am the Alpha and the Omega, " says the Lord God,
"the one who is and who was and who is to come, the almighty."

Gospel
Jn 18:33b-37
Pilate said to Jesus, "Are you the King of the Jews?"  Jesus answered, "Do you say this on your own or have others told you about me?"  Pilate answered, "I am not a Jew, am I?  Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me.  What have you done?"  Jesus answered, "My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews.  But as it is, my kingdom is not here."  So Pilate said to him, "Then you are a king?"  Jesus answered, "You say I am a king.  For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth.  Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice."
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This is the last Sunday of the Liturgical year.  Next Sunday is the first Sunday of Advent, so we begin the new Liturgical year 2007.  Isn’t that something?  How did it get to be here?  On this last Sunday we celebrate the Feast of Christ the King.  Christ is our King.  We have been celebrating this feast in the church since 1925, for 81 years, and its history is very interesting, and (I think) very important, even for today’s situation in the world.  It was declared the Feast of Christ the King in 1925 by Pope Pius XI, and the reason he declared this as the Feast of Christ the King is that he looked around the world at that time.  Now, 1925, we are in between the “War to End All Wars” and World War II.  Fifteen million people died in World War I, sixty-two million people died in World War II.  Therefore, we’re just after World War I, and the Holy Father looked around the world and didn’t like what he saw.  It made him afraid for the future of the world, the future of mankind.  He looked to Russia, the beginning of the Soviet Union and those 15 Republics that were enslaved by an ideology known as Communism.  This was where whole towns and villages of people were made in effect slaves and displaced from their land and where a system of economics were imposed that simply didn’t work.  Many were starving; many were in the gulags and the prisons.  It was an iron-willed man of Stalin who ran Russia. 
 
Pope Pius XI looked at Spain.  Spain was preparing to have their great civil war, which was an incredibly bloody civil war.  On the one side were the Communists, the Socialists, and the Anarchists.  On the other side were some Fascists as well as Nationalists.  Many, many were killed.  One of the major aspects of the Spanish Civil War was an attack against the Catholic Church.  Tens of thousands of priests and religious were slaughtered for being Catholic. 
 
In our own country, the KKK, the Ku Klux Klan, was at its peak, persecuting not only African-Americans but Jews and Catholics as well.  I am very happy and proud to be in that group. 
 
Mexico was in turmoil.  The president of Mexico at that time, Calles, said that the Church was the unique cause of all of Mexico’s misfortunes.  There is a tremendous long history of anti-Catholicism in that very Catholic country.  The president forbade public worship, chained the doors of the church, and executed priests.  A group called Christeros, most of them unarmed, stood up to them.  Christeros, meaning “Christians.”  They said, “We won’t tolerate this,” and they were gunned down by the thousands. 
 
Of course, closer to home for the Pope, in Germany, Adolph Hitler had just got out of prison.  One of conditions, in effect, he was released from prison was because he promised he would be nice.  He had just written Mein Kampf and it was published in 1925.  We all know what happened with Adolph Hitler.  Indeed, the Pope just had to look out his window and there was fascist Italy, with Mussolini coming to power. 
 
Wow, what a scene it was in 1925.  The Pope was a wise man.  He knew that this was going to end in disaster.  He published a decree that this would be the Feast of Christ the King.  In the decree, what he meant was this.  Christ is our King.  Before any nationality or ideology, we are Christians, and we take our values from Christ.  Of course, He is a King who had a throne that was a cross, and a crown, not of diamonds but of thorns, because He is a King of service, who came to lay down His life for others.  The Pope was reminding Christians everywhere that we are to be that kind of royal family, where we sacrifice for one another. We have true values; not arbitrary values, but values that respect the dignity of every human person.  The Pope’s document on this feast reminded the world and Catholics in particularly and Christians especially, it reminded the world that the underpinnings of all governments or economic systems or culture or art must be the values of God however you define God.  If you look at the religions of the world, they pretty much agree on what’s right and wrong, the established religions of the world.  In other words, put spirituality before ideology.  I don’t know, but I guess you could say that Pius XI wasn’t very successful in changing the world, but I think at least he reminded them of where our values must be. 
 
I would like to look at the situation that Benedict XVI sees when he looks out his window today.  Think about that.  We all know what happened in World War II.  The war was devastating, again, 62 million killed.  What is going to happen in the next 10, or 20, or 30, or 40 years?  What does Benedict XVI see?  So far, his pontificate really has focused on Europe.  With the emergence of the European Union, with the emergence of a new and wealthier Europe, the Pope is concerned that it has lost its Christian faith, and the underpinnings of its value system with it.  And it’s true.  We live in the post-Christian West, not only in Europe, but in America as well.  He looks at Europe and sees no solidarity among any of those nations.  They are each out for themselves.  Their values are wealth, comfort, and convenience.  Polls and focus groups have replaced transcendent values of right and wrong.  In other words, the West today says, “How do you determine what’s right or wrong?”  They say, “Let’s take a poll.”  Of course, as arbitrary as human nature is, those values continue to change.  Right and wrong are not determined by our vote.  Right and wrong is a value that is determined by God’s law and God’s way.  That is what Christ the King is all about.
 
The Pope looks to Eastern Europe, past his own Germany and into the former Soviet Union.  Only God knows what will happen there.  One thing is for sure, that crass materialism and the power of money have replaced the other ideology of Communism, and it may be just as destructive.  He looks at Poland.  The Polish people have said, “Under Communism, it was hard to be Catholic in Poland, but it was easy.  Now when we have so much, it’s easy to be Catholic, but it’s really hard.”
 
I look at Ireland where my mother and father were born.  Ireland has a major seminary in Maynooth, a massive campus.  It used to ordain hundreds of priests a year.  Last year, not one priest was ordained for the Dublin diocese out of Maynooth, not one.  Now, the incompetence of the leadership of the church is responsible for some of that, but not all of that.  Really what has happened in Ireland is money.  Ireland is one of the wealthier countries in the world today.  If you drew a diagram and put two lines on there, as Ireland has increased in wealth, there would be a corresponding line where it’s decreased in faith It’s as if, if we have money, we don’t need God.  Until we hear, “Its cancer,” then, money means nothing.
 
The Pope looks south at radical Islam.  Every night we see wholesale carnage in the name of God.  We are used to wholesale carnage, but in the name of God?  A few days ago, a 64-year-old grandmother blew herself up as a human bomb, trying to kill an Israeli soldier in Palestine.  In southern Asia, in Iran, there’s a national leader, elected by the people, backed by the Mullahs, who has pledged the destruction of Israel, and he’s in the process of acquiring the means to do so.  Now, we are all aware.  That’s enough.  There’s more.
 
Is this exaggeration?  We are in difficult times.  I know you worry about your children and your grandchildren, because they are going to live through these times.  The Pope is looking at a world in crisis, not unlike his predecessor did 81 years ago.  So, what can we do?  Why do we have this Feast of Christ the King?  Well, we get back to our values.  We put God where He belongs, and that is first and foremost in our lives.  He is our King.  We pledge our fidelity, our loyalty to Him and His ways. 
 
I say there’s three things we can do, because preachers always say there’s three things.  First, we can really live those values in this community; at work, in the home, and in the voting booth. 
 
Second, we can set an example by our lives of people who do love, and care for the poor and the dispossessed, and the disenfranchised, who are generous, who are full of forgiveness. 
 
Finally, and most importantly, we can pray.  Prayer can change things. 
 
St. John Vianney, he is the patron saint of diocesan priests, he said, “I know something stronger than God; the man who prays.  He makes God say ‘Yes’ when He had already said ‘No.’” Now, don’t send me any e-mail or write to the Bishop.  That’s poetic language from a very orthodox saint.  St. John Christendom, in the 4th century said, “God governs the world, but prayer governs God.”  St. Ignatius said, “Pray as if everything depended on God, and work as if everything depends on you.”  Today we proclaim Jesus as our King.  Not nationality, or nationalism, or ideology.  Not Republican or Democrat or Independent.  Not American, or Mexican, or Canadian, or Italian.  But Jesus.  That’s who we all owe our first loyalty to.  We pledge that once again in this mass to Him.
 
I’d like you to join a spiritual pilgrimage this week.  The Knights of Columbus in our parish, and throughout the United States, have asked Catholics to “go with the Holy Father” to Turkey.  He flies from Rome Tuesday morning to Ankara, and he spends four days there, meeting with orthodox leaders, Catholic Bishops, and, of course, with leaders of Islam.  It’s a very dangerous trip, and there are already some demonstrations, people are worried about his safety.  It is important to understand something.  Benedict XVI is not a politician.  He is not the leader of a nation.  He has no army.  However, he does have, in his family, 1.1 billion Catholics.  Therefore, he represents us, he speaks for us, and perhaps he is the only one in the West who can speak and be heard by those who are bent on destruction.  Pray for him.  He is our Holy Father, and he is prepared to die for us this week.  We can at least pray with him and for him.
 
I would like to conclude by reading this prayer that the Knights have composed.  If you bow your heads, we will pray.
 
Heavenly Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name, we humbly ask that you sustain, inspire and protect your servant, Pope Benedict XVI as he goes on pilgrimage to Turkey, a land to which St. Paul brought the Gospel of Your Son, a land where once the mother of Your Son, the Seat of Wisdom, dwelt, a land where faith in Your Son’s true Divinity was definitively professed.  Thus our Holy Father, who comes as a messenger of truth and love, to all people of faith and good will, dwelling in this land so rich in history, and the Power of The Holy Spirit make this visit of the Holy Father bring about deeper ties of understanding, cooperation and peace, among Roman Catholics, the Orthodox, and those who profess Islam.  May the prayers and events of these historic days greatly contribute both to greater accord among those who worship You, the Living and True God, and also to bring peace to our world, so often torn apart by war and sectarian violence.  We also ask, O Heavenly Father, that You watch over and protect Pope Benedict and entrust him to the loving care of Mary, under the title of Our Lady of Fatima, a title cherished both by Catholics and Moslems.  Through her prayers and maternal love, may Pope Benedict be kept safe from all harm, and as he prays, bears witness to the Gospel, and invites all people to a dialog of faith, reason and love.  We make this prayer through Christ Our Lord.  Amen.
 
I believe you can follow his pilgrimage on EWTN, on Comcast and on Direct TV and Dish network, all have an EWTN station. They will either cover it live or have tape-delay.  I would encourage you to consider that as well.