For Such a Time as This

Feast of Christ the King

    In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.  “‘Who knows–perhaps it was for a time like this that you became queen?’”  Mordecai speaks these words to his cousin and adopted daughter Hadassah, who also went by the name Esther.  But God also speaks these words to us today: perhaps it was for a time like this that you became a king or queen.
    For while we celebrate Christ as our King today, on this day that we also celebrate the thirty-seventh anniversary of the foundation of the Flint Latin Mass Community, we also remember that, through Holy Baptism, we also have been given a royal dignity inasmuch as the Holy Spirit has united us to Christ, the one true King.  While this royal dignity does not find expression in the prayer at the anointing with Chrism in the older rite of Baptism, the new Order of Baptism clearly states: “[Christ] now anoints you with the Chrism of salvation, so that you may remain members of Christ, Priest, Prophet and King, unto eternal life.”  This teaching comes from, among others, Pope St. Leo the Great, who wrote:
 

In baptism the sign of the cross makes kings of all who are reborn in Christ…So,…any Christian who has the gifts of rational and of spiritual understanding knows he is a member of a kingly race…For what could be more royal than a soul which by subjecting itself to God becomes ruler of its own body?

We are all kings and queens in Christ the King, given a royal dignity and ruling, in accord with God’s will, our bodies, rather than being slaves to our passions and to the fallen powers of the enemy.

    But do we demonstrate our royal dignity?  In each generation, God raises us up to participate in saving His people, just as He raised up Queen Esther to save the Jews from the wicked Haman, the Persian prime minister of Ahasuerus.  God allows us to cooperate with Him in extending salvation to the world, not because we have conquered sin and death on our own, but because we share in Christ’s rule that saved all creation for all time by His Death, Resurrection, and Ascension.  
    The Preface of today’s Mass describes how that kingdom is supposed to look: “aetérnum et universále regnum…regnum veritátis et vitae; regnum sanctitátis et grátiae; regnum iustítiae, amóris et pacis.”;  “an eternal and universal kingdom, a kingdom of truth and life; a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace.”  All those who participate in Christ’s kingdom demonstrate those attributes, whether fully, because they are in heaven, or to the best of their ability, because they still struggle on earth to fully accept that kingdom.
    So we can ask ourselves today about each of those adjectives of the Kingdom of Christ.  First: eternal and universal.  Does my life point to eternity?  Or am I only concerned with the things of earth, each of which will fade away at some point.  Do I truly believe that Christ’s kingship should embrace all people, regardless of race, gender, political party, sexual orientation, etc., or do I cut people off from salvation, or sharing the Gospel with them because they are not like me or do not fit into the cookie cutter of what I feel it means to be Catholic?
    Second: truth and life.  Do I share in the kingdom of the truth, or do I lie?  Does my yes mean yes and my no mean no, or do I purposefully deceive others by uttering falsehoods because telling the truth would make me uncomfortable?  Do I speak the truth with charity, or do I try to assault people with the truth and cause them further harm?  Do I promote life in all its stages, from natural conception to natural death?  Does my support of life not only concern infants in the womb and elderly in hospitals and nursing homes, but also the dignified way we treat the poor, the mentally handicapped, those who suffer from mental illness, and those who entered the country illegally?  We don’t have to pretend like a mental illness is healthy, or support open borders, but do we treat all people with the respect we want to receive?
    Third: holiness and grace.  Do I seek to live a life dedicated to God and fit for the temple?  Do I try to avoid behaviors and actions that stem from the darkness and choose behaviors and actions that spread the light?  Do I recognize that I cannot earn my salvation, but that God freely grants salvation to those who desire it?  When I am unaware of mortal sin and in a state of grace, do I try to stay there?  Or if I fall into mortal sin, do I strive to return to a state of grace as soon as I practically can?
    Lastly: justice, love, and peace.  Do I give others their due, or do I hold back what others deserve because of fear or greed?  Do I cheat my employers or employees from what they deserve from me as a member of the company?  Do I truly will the good of the other first?  Do I demonstrate the attributes of love that the Apostle enumerates in 1 Corinthians 13: patience, kindness, humility, etc.?  Or am I narcissistic, first concerned with my own desires and rights, seeking to dominate the other and insisting on what I think I’m owed?  Am I apathetic and simply lack proper concern for those around me, beginning with my family, but extending into the different orders of love?  Could God call me a peacemaker?  Or do my words and actions cause chaos and pain in my home, in my office, among my friends?  Do I protect others from violence and harm as I am able, or do I shrink in cowardice when God calls me to stand up against evil?  
    God has called us to have a royal dignity in a time such as this, in 2026 in Michigan in the United States of America.  God has called us to promote, “The kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ,” to quote the Hallelujah Chorus.  The kingdom which is eternal and universal, a kingdom of truth, life, holiness, grace, justice, love, and peace.  May we live up to our royal dignity, given to us in Holy Baptism, and thus participate in the kingdom won by the Death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus Christ.  Who with the Father and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns for ever and ever.  Amen.