Homily Thirty-Fourth Sunday of Year C (Christ the
King): Fr. Michael Ufok Udoekpo
·
2 Sam 5:1-3;· Ps 122:1-5;
· Col 1:12-20
· Luke 23:35-43
Christ, our King and Redeemer!
Today we celebrate the universal kingship of
Christ- the Son of David. This celebration in a sense reminds us of many
things, particularly of the true meaning of divine anointing-leadership, or kingship
for everyone, in spite the sense of divisiveness that pervades our societal politics today. The kingship after the style of Christ is achievable provided we
recognize that there are still something in leadership called, humility, care,
love, hard work, endurance, compassion, fairness, and forgiveness, a sense of
common good, prudence, truthfulness, selflessness, faith, hope, patience and
trust in God’s plan evidence in the ministry of Jesus, our master King and Redeemer!
This is recognition is more true, and
urgent granted that today, there may be different nations capitals (especially
the US) experiencing changes in leadership from President Barack Obama to the
President Elect, Donald J. Trump. Remember, there would always be changes. So was, even the case with Saul and David, in
biblical story, familiar to us.
In 1 Samuel 8 the people asked Samuel “give us a king so
that we might be like other nation.” Saul became that first king of Israel only
to be rejected after in 1 Samuel 15 for his disobedience, the breaking of the
harem/ban. David became his successor, through divine anointing.
Today’s first reading ( 2 Sam 5:1-3) underlines the unique kinship of David, his
family and human problems, his struggle with Saul, but also the everlasting
covenant God had established with his house(2 Sam 7; 1 Chr 17). Through divine intervention “In those days,
all the tribes of Israel came to David in Hebron and said, ‘here we are, your
bone and your flesh…. And when all the elders of Israel came to David in
Hebron, King David made an agreement with them there before the Lord, and they
anointed him king of all Israel.”
What an irony, Pilate and those who prosecuted him, in
today’s gospel proclaimed him the king of the Jews and of the Gentiles not only by those
ironical interrogations, but also by the inscription they placed on his cross in several
languages “This is the King of the Jews.” What a divine intervention! A divine
anointing, like in the case of David. On that same cross, the criminal on the other side of the cross was moved to recognize the universal kingship Christ, saying “Jesus remember me in your kingdom” (Luke 23:35-43//John
18:33-37). Its a kingdom of love and peace; a king of forgiveness, a king joy; a kingdom of mercy. In spite of our human weaknesses, brokenness, divisiveness and
disunity, we are invited to partake and work for the kingdom of Christ.
Paul in the Second reading speaks of this kingdom in terms of redemption and forgiveness of sins, particularly of disunity. Paul says " God has
delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of
his beloved son… for in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell, and through
him reconcile all things to him, making peace by the blood of his cross,
through him, whether those on earth or those in heaven" (Col 1:12-20).
For those of us on this divisive earth, living in broken
nations, broken families and institutions of ironies and injustices, democratic
and republican institutions, diverse political parties, with different
ideologies, the challenges grow every day. They are enormous. The challenges
for our elected, (at all
levels) to lead selflessly and peacefully, with patience, humility,
transparency, care, love, hard work, endurance, compassion, sense of
universalism and shared common good, harmony, exercise of administrative
prudence, truthfulness, selflessness, faith, hope, patience, availability to
our subjects, and trust in God’s plan that we saw in David and in Christ Jesus,
models of a true Kingship!
