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Homily:
Christ the King – Cycle A
“Long live Christ the King!” This was the rally cry of the Cristero
rebellion, which fought to restore religious freedom to Mexico in the
1920s. After the revolution of 1910,
Mexico enacted a constitution that placed strict limitations on the Church and
its clergy. At first, these limitations
were not strongly enforced. Under
Mexican President Plutarco Elias Calles, however, a strict enforcement of these
limitations was put in place, often using violence as the means for
enforcement.
In response the Bishops of Mexico suspended all public
worship, in the hope that it would rouse the hearts of the Mexican people to
respond to the unjust actions of their federal government. This, coupled with the increasing violence
against Catholics, led to the uprising that became known as La Cristiada. This rebellion fought against the government
forces in order to protect the faithful from their violence and to restore
justice by restoring freedom of religion to their country.
Blessed Miguel Agustin Pro was a young Jesuit priest who
was killed during this persecution of the Church under President Calles. In 1911, when Miguel was 20 years old, he was
expelled from Mexico because he had entered the Jesuit novitiate. He completed his formation and was ordained a
priest in 1925. He had a severe stomach
ailment, however, and, after several operations were unsuccessful in resolving
it, his superiors allowed him to return to his home land, in spite of the
persecutions.
By that time, the churches were closed and priests were in
hiding. Thus, Father Pro spent the rest of his life in a secret ministry to the
sturdy Mexican Catholics. In addition to fulfilling their spiritual needs, he
also carried out works of mercy by assisting the poor of Mexico City with their
temporal needs. He adopted many disguises to carry out his secret ministry. In
all that he did, he remained filled with the joy of serving Christ and obedient
to his superiors.
In 1927, Father Pro was falsely accused in a bombing attempt
on the President-elect and became a wanted man.
He was betrayed to the police and sentenced to death without the benefit
of any legal process. On the day of his
death, November 23, 1927, Father Pro forgave his executioners, prayed, bravely
refused the blindfold, and died with arms outstretched proclaiming "Long
Live Christ the King!", in Spanish, Viva Cristo Rey!
Persecutions always have the effect of polarizing
people. Violent persecutions will often
reveal the depth of a person’s faith, because they force a person to choose a
side. Thus, no one stands on the
sidelines. This is true of the persecution
in Mexico during the last century and for every other religious persecution
that has happened throughout history.
There are other, more subtle persecutions, however, that
don’t polarize people so absolutely.
These, in a way, are just as sinister, because instead of trying to kill
the believer with one thrust of the sword, this type of persecution slowly
bleeds a person to death by making thousands of little cuts. No single one is enough to force the person
to take a stand and so he or she is forced into submission often without
realizing that it was happening.
This type of persecution doesn’t affect the person of
conviction, however. At the first little
cut, these men and women immediately respond.
The person that this type of persecution affects the most, rather, is
the lukewarm person: that is, the person who is not deeply convicted by his or
her beliefs and so is either frozen by fear of choosing the wrong side or
unmoved because of apathy (which, in fact, is a tacit approval of the persecutors). It is this lukewarm group that Jesus is
targeting with his parable today.
The image that Jesus gives us is an apocalyptic one: It is
the end of time and Jesus has come to sit on his throne so as to judge, that
is, to polarize, all peoples. He separates
them into two groups: one group on his right, the other on his left. The group on his right is composed of those
who lived what they proclaimed: that Christ is King and that to serve him is to
serve the needs of his people. Notice,
however, that the group on the left isn’t made up of persecutors; rather it is
made up of the lukewarm: those who, perhaps, proclaimed Christ as King, but who
did not live what they proclaimed, choosing rather to enjoy their comfortable
lives instead of serving the needs of their King’s people.
Blessed Miguel Pro lived as if what he said was true. He proclaimed Christ as King and gave his
life in service to his King: first by becoming a priest, then by serving the
needs of his King’s people by serving the needs of the poor, and finally by
giving up his life in resistance to the forces that were trying to convince the
people that Christ wasn’t King. To him,
and to men and women like him, Jesus gives the name “sheep”.
How many of us, however, live like the group on Jesus’
left: calling ourselves “Catholic Christians”, but then resisting the service
that demonstrates our convictions; preferring instead our comfortable
lives? If we have come here today to
proclaim that Jesus Christ is Our Lord and King of the Universe, but then
return home and live as if that doesn’t demand certain things from
us—specifically, service to the needs of our King’s people—then Jesus has a
name for us, too: “goats”.
As we know from elsewhere in the Gospels, Jesus ain’t got
no love for hypocrites. Notice, he
almost never condemns persecutors and public sinners; rather, he condemns the
hypocrites: that is, those who profess faith in God, but then fail to live in
accord with that faith. Therefore, my
brothers and sisters, we must be sincere.
If we call Christ King of the Universe, then we must live that
conviction: by proclaiming his name, in spite of whatever hardships that may
cause us, and by living detached from material things in service to those who
suffer because they lack them. If we do,
Our King will welcome us to eternal life.
If we don’t, however, he will leave us to suffer eternal punishment.
My brothers and sisters, the blood of Blessed Miguel
Agustin Pro and thousands of others was shed to proclaim the truth that Jesus
Christ is King of the Universe. If our
hearts are convinced of the same, let us live as they lived, so that their
blood may not have been shed in vain and so as to hasten the coming of our King
and the blessed life that he has promised us.
Therefore, let us make our own the cry of the Mexican martyrs and
proclaim by our words and our actions, ¡Viva
Cristo Rey! Long live Christ the King!
Given at All Saints Parish:
Logansport, IN – November 22nd & 23rd, 2014
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