Christ the King: The Power of God

Dear Friends,

Here is last Sunday's homily (audio version available on St. Al's web site). I'm on the road again this weekend for a preaching conference and will not be posting a homily.

Please check back for a premilimary draft the week before the Second Sunday of Advent.

Thanks,
Fr. Jim

Homily for the Feast of Christ the King

We come to Mass for a lot of different reasons, don’t we?
It’s almost as though we come through the doors
on Sunday morning like school kids trudging into school on Monday.
(You know how kids these days
lug back packs crammed full of books, notebooks and homework.)

Well, instead of carrying back packs full of books and homework,
we carry…other things.
We haul into church—all of us here today—
bundles of worries and concerns and preoccupations.

And that’s true not only here in our church,
But in every church throughout the archdiocese and everywhere else.

For instance, it’s not hard to imagine,
At the door of some church in a county up north,
a farmer touching his hand to the holy water
and wondering if there will be enough moisture in the ground
to grow the wheat this winter.

It’s not hard to imagine another man,
a construction worker in his sixties, let’s say,
genuflecting in the aisle
and feeling the ache in his back and in his knees
His body’s telling him he going to have to ease up on the work
But his financial burdens won’t let him.

Or a mother opens in the back of the church
with a child in her arms,
prayering that the baby’s cold won’t settle in the chest.

Likewise, a grandmother hurries through the last decade of her rosary
before the opening song begins...
A rosary prayed for a grandson who’s in the military and headed for Iraq.

And shall we go on?
Shall we unpack a few more of the burdens
from the back packs we carry?

Shall we mention a fifth grade boy
Who sits in the pew with a sullen expression on his face
Because there’s a bully in his class at school has chosen him as his target?

Shall we mention the cheerleader
who’s praying that her parents quit their arguing
For just a week?
Heck, just a day?

These are among the reasons we come Mass.
But these are not the only reasons we come to Mass.
If we listened closely to the readings today,
we realize that we also come to Mass because
to pay homage to Christ our King.

In the book of Revelation, we read:

“To Jesus Christ…who loves us
and who has freed us from our sins
by the blood of his cross…
to him be glory and power forever and ever.”

"To him be glory and power!”

That phrase means that the power of Christ
is active today.
It means that the power of Christ is stronger
than any worry we carry
or any tribulation we face.

It means that Christ hears the prayers
of the grandmother
for her soldier grandson.

It means Christ is concerned about the financial condition
of the blue collar worker
And the emotional condition of the kid who is bullied,
and the domestic condition of the woman who is afraid of her husband,
and the physical condition of the millions of children
who live each day in hunger.

And this, my friends,
is the real reason we come to Mass.

We come to Mass because it is the most effective means available
to access the power of God.

Indeed, the Mass is the greatest prayer on earth and the most powerful prayer
in heaven.

So, let’s talk about the power of God
for just a minute.

The power of God is a very unusual power.

The power of One who entered into the dimensions of time and space
as a helpless infant…
so that humanity would never again
be afraid to look upon the face of God.

Such is the power of the powerful God.

The power that whirled the galaxies into existence,
is now cradled in the palms of our hands
under the appearance of ordinary bread.
Why?
So that humanity would never again
consider God unapproachable, much less, untouchable.

We come to Mass and realize anew
that the God of all history,
yes, the God of all power,
walked on our dusty roads and worked as a carpenter.
He hauled in fish from the sea
and assured us that no sparrow falls from the sky,
no lamb gets lost in a pasture,
no prodigal son runs away from home
without the loving God knowing all about it.

We come to Mass knowing that God himself died for us.
And, in some unexplainable way,
we realize that this offering of love
for a sinful and broken-down world
Will somehow, someday make everything right.

Such is the power of our powerful God.

We don’t know the day,
We don’t know the hour,
But we the power…

The power of God’s love.

Here, in this church this morning,
that awesome power
becomes as clear as day,
as tangible as bread.

So, it’s only natural that we unshoulder our backpacks
and place our burdens at the altar,

Knowing that, in God’s good time
And in God’s good way,
the day of the Lord will take hold.

Someday,
lions will lie down with lambs,
And terrorists will abandon their bombs.

The sick will be healed
the lost will be found.
the hungry will be fed.

The power of God.
In God’s good time.
In God’s good way.