Christ is still King: Homily for Sunday, November 23, 2025

The Solemnity of Christ the King was started at a time of great uncertainty. The world was in chaos in a variety of ways, especially in terms of beliefs. We too live in this time of uncertainty, and it is the case that we need a king. Readings for Today.

Christ is still King

The 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries were times of tremendous change in the world. And at times of vast and quick change, it is often the case that people can be tempted to give in to their fears and are capable of miserable things.

In 1925, after a brutal war that killed millions, in a jubilee year not unlike what we celebrate in this jubilee year, Pope Pius XI decided that rediscovery of the foundational values of faith were necessary if humans were to experience peace, not just as the absence of war, but in the deep fulfillment that brings out our best. In a time of violence, war, and bloodshed, it was necessary to help people to see the foundation that leads to true peace, lasting happiness, and deep love.

He established the solemnity of Christ the King. In 1969, St. Pope Paul VI, in a time of immense upheaval in the 1960s, changed the name of the feast from Christ the King to Our Lord, Christ King of the Universe, to emphasize the eternal kingship of Jesus for all time, and to focus our attention on the ultimate future where Christ will be all in all.

Today is another period where we find ourselves in a time of rapid change, which is causing deep fear. We can choose to turn to Jesus by recognizing our need to live from our deep God-given dignity and to acknowledge the same dignity in all others. Or we can give in to our fear, give in to a fear without hope or purpose.

For the kingship of Christ is a different kingship than any other kingship. Whereas some kings seek to control through power, though some dictators seek to keep all in fear, Christ the King seeks to set us free.

Christ the King, rather than using force and fear, sets an example where he gives himself totally for the good of others. He seeks not subjects but disciples, people who follow him not because they have no choice, but because this king stands for a way of life that brings more than can be imagined. The world that is not focused on the future tells people that the goal of life is financial success, nice things, getting ahead at all costs. And it tells people that if they are poor, it is their own fault.

Christ the King has a completely different set of actions in his kingdom, feeding the hungry, welcoming the stranger, visiting those in hospitals and prisons. The heroes of his kingdom are widows who gave all they have, Samaritans who care for victims they do not even know. The heroes of his kingdom love their enemies and pray for their persecutors. The heroes of his kingdom are those who care deeply for those on the margins. These heroes love lepers, the poor, tax collectors, publicans who can only say they are sinners and who throw themselves on the mercy of God.

And today, Christ the King asks us to do all we can to uphold and preserve the God-given dignity given to all people, everyone, everywhere, in every age. The worst of the world wants us to believe that we live only for ourselves. The worst of the world wants us to believe that all we really need is ourselves. The worst of the world wants us to be self-centered, thinking only of ourselves, worrying only that we get what we want.

But Christ the King offers us something so much better. Christ the King offers us not individualism and isolation, but connection and community. Christ the King pours out to us the love of the Holy Spirit and of the Father. Christ the King wants his subjects to recognize that they belong to each other, to see that every person provides an invitation to get to know and love Jesus.

But the best gift Christ the King gives to each of us and offers to everyone in the world is a way to live and embrace a relationship of love, to be a part of the Church, to experience the sacraments, to celebrate baptism so as to live in the freedom of God’s children, to allow oneself to be fed by Jesus in the Eucharist, to experience the mercy of God in the sacrament of confession.

Christ the King came to us so that all of us will have life and have it to the fullest. But to have that life, to experience that life, means living just as Jesus did, to reject solutions that arise from the poison of partisanship and to recognize what love requires from each of us.

In this Jubilee year, it was important to Pope Francis and to his successor, Pope Leo, that we focus on hope. Hope is the belief that we can be saved, that there is forgiveness of our sins, there is food for our hunger, there is an invitation to new life when we share our lives with others.

Christ the King invites each of us to know that there is something better, that there is a better way of life, that there is a way of life that can free us from depression, anxiety, and fear, that the deep hungers in our lives can be fed, our brokenness can be healed, and that we need not fear death, for Christ the King has won the victory over death. Each one of us has this invitation from Christ the King. Each one of us is invited to see this invitation every single time we encounter others. All accepting this invitation requires is faith. Do we believe, in fact, that Christ is the King?

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