Homily: Solemnity of Christ the King

November 23, 2025

My dear brothers and sisters, this Sunday, we are celebrating the solemnity of Christ the King of the universe, this is also the last Sunday of this liturgical year. This solemnity was placed at this last Sunday, to give us a sense of purpose and direction in our spiritual journey. We have to remember always that we are citizens of the kingdom of God. Here on earth, we are only pilgrims marching to our eternal destination, the heavenly city where Christ reigns eternally.

This solemnity was instituted by Pope Pius XI in the year 1925. This Supreme Pontiff witnessed the turbulent times in the world’s history within the 20th century: the first world war had just come to an end, secularism was on the rise, dangerous dictatorships were emerging in Europe and beyond. The Pope saw that the respect and reverence for Christ’s authority was waning in the midst of this unrest. In response, he instituted this Solemnity with the intent to reaffirm and refocus faith and respect in the one, true and eternal kingship of Jesus. This motivation for the institution of this solemnity has remained valid till today. In our own time, the social unrest, crises and conflict, open rejection of the dominion of Christ is even more troubling. The need for Christians to reaffirm the supreme leadership of Christ in their lives is indeed most urgent in our time. All the readings of today stress this urgency.

In the first reading from the 2nd book of Samuel, the story of how the leaders of Israel chose David as their king was recounted. The memories of the kingship of David could not be deleted in the minds of the Israelites. Under David as king, God’s chosen people were at the center of the global attention, they conquered all empires and ruled the world. David was a faithful servant of God. God even promised that the dynasty of David would last forever. Some of the successors of David as king did not toe the line of fidelity to the supreme God, some of them preferred to worship pagan gods and turned Israel away from the supreme God, so at different points in history, God allowed different calamites to befell them, especially allowing their enemies to conquer and enslave them. However, it really never left their consciousness that they were God’s chosen nation. As at the time of Jesus, they still dreamt of the restoration of the kingdom of David when they would again become the rulers of the world. They prayed to God to send them a messiah who would fulfil their dreams.

We are told this story on the feast of Christ the King because Jesus is God’s answer to the prayers of His people. God promised that the dynasty of David would last forever. Jesus who descended from the throne of David is the fulfilment of this promise. Jesus is the Messiah, the King whose “empire will stretch from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth” (Ps 72:8). As Christians, we all belong to this kingdom of Jesus. It is painfully true that the demands of remaining a bona fide member of the kingdom of Jesus most times would move in opposite direction to the demands of the world. This is where lies the test of our Christian fidelity and perseverance. The gospel reading of today properly paints this picture of the difficult reality of understanding Jesus’ kingship. In this gospel, Jesus hung on the cross of Calvary with the inscription on his head, behold the king of the Jews. This type of King whose throne was the cross was like a mockery and an insult to the dignity of kingship. The leaders of the Jews, the soldiers, the crowd of people, even one of the crucified thieves saw it that way and they derided and taunted Jesus. However, the repentant thief was different, he begged Jesus to remember him in His kingdom and Jesus there and then gave him a ticket to paradise.

In our time, like in Jesus’ time, is not out of place for people to begin to see the reign of Christ and fidelity to the Christian principles as meaningless and not worth giving time. Like the good thief, let us not also loose our senses, may our words, deeds, thoughts, and actions always be a living testimony that shows we belong to the kingdom of Jesus. In the second reading of today, St Paul strongly reminds us who we are, in his words, “brothers and sisters, give thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. The Father has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” May this consciousness of our inheritance in the kingdom of the saints in light never depart from us all the days of our life. Amen