Christ the King Sunday 2010

Christ the King Sunday (Luke 23:33-43
“Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

Jesus forgave those who rejected him, tortured him and killed him.
How is this possible?

From the first moment our first parents separated from God in a choice we now call Original Sin, God worked in human history to rescue us from the terrible consequences of that choice.

Separation shatters the image of God in our souls. The Image is still there, but the soul can no longer hold it with clarity and purpose. The soul is lost in the pain of isolation. The soul rebels against God, other people, the Creation itself. The soul seeks to dominate out of the confusion of fear and pride.

A lost soul is a soul that is frustrated, confused, fearful and demanding. A lost soul seeks to dominate other people, the world, even God in order to restore meaning and purpose. Sadly, the lost perpetuation separation by their every action or inaction. Separation is self perpetuating. The more you try to overcome the pain of separation by your own will, the more you recycle that pain into suffering, and the more you perpetuate that pain in your own soul.

All of these aspects of Original Sin were present at Calvary. The religious authorities had long since abandoned the personal God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. They had moved God far away into the esoteric realm of philosophy and transcendence. They had allocated to themselves the authority of Moses and the Prophets.
They rejected Jesus because he was a threat to their own plan of salvation. They not only believed they knew who God was and what God wanted; they knew that they knew. Their beliefs were detailed, specific and inflexible. Jesus challenged these detailed, specific and inflexible beliefs.

Belief without faith leads to death.

Jesus came to Israel to remind them that God is real, God is love, God is personal. Jesus came to Israel to remind the people that above all else God seeks a personal relationship with humanity. In that relationship, God finds the lost who do not want to be found.

The relationship is not in the Law, the ritual or even the religion as important as they are. The relationship is in the friendship our Heavenly Father offers all people in the person of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.

When God asks us to do something, such as coming to church once a week, this is not a command to restrict our choices. It is an invitation to experience a unique opportunity to immerse our selves, our souls and bodies in the Infinite and Eternal Love of God in Jesus Christ.

Those who convicted Jesus of blasphemy for claiming to be God were caught in a feedback loop of fear, self will and pride. In order to maintain what they knew they knew they could only react to a different image of God by destroying that image.
Even at the last, the religious leaders and the soldiers taunted Jesus with his last temptation: come down from the cross, be who we demand you to become, and then we will not only follow you- we will worship you.

They thought they knew. They actually knew they knew. But, they were lost in a false belief system that blocked their ability to see and hear the very Presence of the Living God in their midst.

Jesus prayed to his heavenly Father to forgive them all because they were lost and incapable of breaking their own chains of rebellion, self will and sin. They had so constructed their beliefs about God, the creation and other people that there was no room for Emmanuel- God with us. There was room only for knowledge and power and Law.
They acted out of pain, the pain of separation. And so, on the Cross Jesus sealed the breach between humanity and divinity. They acted out of fear that Jesus would destroy the certainty of their beliefs and in the wake destroy their position in society and their very existence. Jesus took that fear into himself on the cross and transformed it back into faith.

They acted of Pride that they knew, and they knew they knew, what was best for everyone in all circumstances. Jesus took that pride into himself on the cross and transformed it back into love.

They acted out of self will that perpetuates separation through a never ending and never to be satisfied demand: my will be done. Jesus took that self will into himself and transformed it by his own constant prayer: heavenly Father not my will but your will be done.

Jesus died on the cross because it was the only way to overcome the power of separation. Jesus fully embraced and experienced the full consequence of separation in the sin and death of all people who have ever lived and will ever lived. He died and in his death he transformed death back into life.

The Bible is very clear about the human condition. We are lost in the pain of Original Separation and we do not want to be found. We do not want to know that we are lost. We do not want to know that life is not about our search for meaning and purpose, for knowledge and power, for possessions and pleasure. Life is about a personal relationship with the living God through Jesus Christ.

As Jesus prayed from the cross for the religious leaders and the soldiers, so he prays for all people everywhere. Heavenly Father, they are lost and do not want to be found. They are lost in the pride of what they think they know and even more in what they know they know. And so it must be that the Son die on the cross so that sin and death die on the cross with him.

What is it that hinders us from transformation in divine love and holiness? What do we think we know and perhaps even know we know that needs to die on the cross so Jesus can transform it and give it back to us in its purity as God’s original blessing?

On this Christ the King Sunday we remember that Jesus reigns from the cross so that we may surrender our self will, fear and pride to be transformed back into the original blessing of faith, hope and love.

Jesus reigns from His throne of glory in Heaven with Holy Mother Mary, the angels and the saints having accomplished our Heavenly Father’s Plan of Salvation on the cross.

Jesus reigns from the altar in the blessed sacrament of the altar where he offers his very body and blood to feed us, nurture us and transform us with his own eternal life.

Jesus reigns in the hearts and minds and lives of His faithful people who receive the gift of divine love by faith. By that faith we experience a new life and a new way of living. By that new way of living we proclaim in thought, word and deed that Jesus Christ is king of kings because he is king of steadfast holy love.

Jesus has already forgiven us from the cross. His passionate desire is that we receive the new life and the new way of living made possible by his death and resurrection. It is his passionate desire to say to each of us here and now and all the days of our lives: today you are with me in Paradise. Today you are found. Today you are being filled with the Original Blessing that makes all things new now, and tomorrow and forever. Amen.