34th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Christ the King C

34^th Sunday in Ordinary Time: Christ the King C

Readings: 2 Samuel 5:1‑3  Colossians 1:1‑20  Luke 23:35‑43

The readings for this year's feast of Christ the King proclaim the paradox of Christian faith.  Jesus, the rejected and crucified one, is also the triumphant Messiah who brings salvation "through the blood of his cross."  A grateful joy, exemplified by the promise of Paradise to the penitent thief, marks the celebration.  Let us enter the spirit of the feast in the refrain of the responsorial psalm (Ps 122): "I rejoiced when I heard them say:/ let us go to the house of the Lord."

The reading from Samuel is the joyful climax of a long process by which David rose from an insignificant shepherd boy to be king of both Judah and Israel (see 1 Samuel 16‑2 Samuel 5).  After a bloody and tragic war between David's tribe of Judah and Israel under the leadership of Saul's descendants, the tribes of Israel finally decide to make David their king by coming to his Judean capital at Hebron.  Their speech is both conciliatory and hopeful. "Here we are, your bone and your flesh.  In days past, when Saul was our king, it was you who led the Israelites out and brought them back.  And the Lord said to you, `You shall shepherd my people Israel and shall be commander of Israel.'"  The elders anoint David and make a covenant with him in the hope that he will both "shepherd" Israel and bring them victory over their enemies as "commander" of the army.

The tone of joyful gratitude is continued in the thanksgiving from the letter to the Colossians.   We Christians are to be grateful for the work of the Father who has "rescued us from the power of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of his beloved Son."  This salvation has been brought about by Jesus through whom "we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." The main body of the reading is a great hymn celebrating the cosmic Christ as both the agent of creation and the savior who effected a second creation by "making peace through the blood of his cross."   Paradoxically, Jesus is both "image of the invisible God, the first born of all creatures" and also "the first born from the dead" through his cross and resurrection. A fivefold repetition of "everything" asserts Christ's cosmic power, but there is a wonderful incongruity in that the one in whom God's "absolute fullness" resides has reconciled the world as a crucified king. “He is the image of the invisible God,/ the first born of all creatures./  In him everything in heaven and on earth was created/ . . .All were created through him, and for him./  He is before all else that is./  In him everything continues in being./  It is he who is head of the body, the church;/ he who is the beginning,/ the first-born of the dead,/ so that primacy may be his in everything./  It pleased God to make absolute fullness reside in him/ and, by means of him to reconcile everything in his person everything,/ I say, both on earth and in the heavens, making peace through the blood of his cross.”

Luke's crucifixion scene exemplifies the divided response that accompanied Jesus throughout his ministry in this gospel.   As the innocent, suffering Messiah (see Ps 22:7‑8, Wis 2:18; Ps  69:21), Jesus reigns from the cross and continues to extend the offer of God's mercy to sinners.  The people are expectant; they stand there "watching."  Later after witnessing the crucifixion, they will repent of their rejection of Jesus by "beating their breasts" (see Lk 23:13‑25, 48).  Both "the leaders" and "the soldiers" give hostile, but ironically true, responses to Jesus.   Like the devil in the desert (4:1‑13), they tempt Jesus to "save" his life by holding on to it (contrast 9:24).  Ironically, only as the crucified one who dies in faith, can Jesus fulfill his destiny as “the Messiah of God” and “King of the Jews” (see 9:22; 18:33; 20:27‑40; 22:69; 24:26).  The first thief also joins in the taunting, but the second, like so many sinners in the gospel, responds to Jesus with a deep faith.  He believes that the dying Jesus is about to enter his Messianic reign and requests, “Jesus, remember me when you enter into your reign.”  Jesus, as the new Adam who has been obedient and faithful (see 4:1‑38) and who will experience God's victory over death, promises forgiveness to the repentant thief with the words, “I assure you: this day you will be with me in Paradise.”