Christ the King homily

Sorry, once again I did not have time and/or energy to write out my homily, so what follows are the points I tried to make, as I recall making them:

> I explained the origin of the feast, established by Pope Pius XI, in 1930.* To understand why he felt the need for it, consider what was happening in the world in that year: so much of the world was under the thumb of dictators who needed a reminder of who was the rightful king. Almost 80 years later, many things have changed, yet many in government, entertainment and business need the reminder still.

> We recently had an election and exercised our vote, and we must live with the result--but we have a right and duty to communicate to those elected the reminder of Christ's law, and their duty to care for the weakest--"I mean the unborn, the poor, the disabled and the elderly."

> The first reading struck me particularly as a human shepherd--the Lord said, "I myself will shepherd my people." We human shepherds often fail--"it is hard when you know that some percentage of your decisions are almost certainly wrong!"--and I thanked the Lord for being the shepherd, and ask him to continue to help me, for I cannot do it.

> I talked about how if we want Christ as king of the world, we begin by making him king of our hearts, that is where we can have the most say. That's what we do in the sacrament of confession. I talked about going to confession many years ago, before I entered the seminary, feeling great as I left, and on the drive home, all of a sudden I reflected on this Gospel passage of the sheep and goats, and realized--every time I was curt or rude in driving, every time I was sharp or harsh to anyone, every time I was sarcastic, every time I refused someone help, every wrong I ever did--I did to Jesus! It hit me so hard, all at once, that it was all I could do, not to make an immediate U-turn, and go right back to confession! That was, for me, a moment of deep awareness of what this Gospel passage means.

> At St. Boniface, I talked about the Infant of Prague, because we returned the image to public display and I explained a little about the image's history.

> I concluded by talking about how receiving the Eucharist is when we invite the Lord to be enthroned in our lives in the most personal and profound way; and that if we long for Christ to be king of our world, it is up to us to show the world what that looks like.

* Oops--I realized after my last Mass that I was off by four years, it was in 1926. It doesn't really change anything else I offered.