Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe (2025) - Fr Christopher Dowd, OP

The institution of monarchy has fallen on hard times in the modern world. Ever since King Louis XVI was guillotined during the French revolution, the number of kings and queens has become smaller and smaller with the passage of time. Australia continues to be a monarchy and our monarchy has recently attracted a great deal of attention, celebration and commentary through the passing of the late Queen Elizabeth II after a very long reign and the accession of her son, King Charles Ill. Nevertheless, the number of monarchies left in the world is very small. Of about 190 states in the world, only about two dozen are monarchical systems. We might even say that monarchs are an endangered species.

And yet today we acclaim Christ Jesus our Saviour as a king. This seems now to be a somewhat dated and old-fashioned way of speaking about him. Perhaps it would be more up-to-date, more relevant to call him Christ the President, or Christ the Prime Minister or Christ the Dictator or Christ the Tyrant. Perhaps that would be closer to the practical reality of the modern world. After all, the great majority of the peoples of the world live under republican systems of government. But, no, there is a very good reason for continuing to call Christ a king. Those other types of rulers - presidents, prime ministers, dictators, tyrants - get their authority from outside of themselves, from an external source, whether it be the constitution, popular election, force of arms. An hereditary monarch is different. He gets his authority from no one else, from no authority or principle or justification outside himself. He possesses his authority simply because of who he is, simply as a birthright. Charles Ill is now king of Britain, Australia and the other realms simply and solely because he is the eldest son of his mother, Queen Elizabeth.

And so it is with Christ. His authority to rule over us, indeed over the whole world, belongs to him as a personal right, it comes not from an external source but from within himself, because of who and what he is. It does not come from any human law or democratic election. He has this authority, this royal right, simply because he is the Son of his Father; he is the Son of God and therefore himself divine. And so we are right to hail Jesus today as king. As a human being, he was born into the Jewish royal house of King David. He himself claimed the title of king when he was on trial before the Roman Governor of Palestine, Pontius Pilate, who asked him, "Are you a king, then?" And Jesus replied, "It is you who say it. Yes, I am a king."

Pilate's encounter with Jesus had a strange moving effect on him. He ordered a placard to be prepared and fixed to the cross on which Jesus was going to die. This placard proclaimed in three languages, Latin, Greek and Hebrew, "This is the king of the Jews". Pilate seems to have expressed a kind of mystical intuition about the man he was judging. The Jewish religious leaders objected to this and urged the governor to change the inscription to "This man said he is the king of the Jews". But Pilate replied stubbornly, "What I have written I have written." The placard contained a great irony. The crowds standing around the cross took it is a mocking Jesus and his claim but they did not realise that it was true and that Jesus is the king, not just of the Jews but of every people, nation and race, indeed, of the whole universe. As we heard in this Sunday's gospel, on that day one man did sincerely acknowledge the kingship of Jesus and that man was a criminal, crucified alongside of him. Jesus rewarded him by promising him a place in paradise with him that very day. The first person that Jesus affirms will be saved was a criminal.

But let us not forget what kind of king Christ is. He is the king of love. He now reigns in heavenly glory but when he was among us as a man in his earthly life, he exercised his authority, not by lording it over people, even though he allowed them to call him Lord, and rightly so, but by humbly serving them by announcing the good news of God's love for them, teaching them his truth and healing their sicknesses and, finally, by suffering, dying and rising again for the forgiveness of their sins. He was then a king, not of power and pomp but of love and service, a king who wore a crown of thorns and not a crown of jewels, who reigned from a blood-stained cross and not from a golden thrown and was naked instead of wearing gorgeous robes. He was a king who got down on his knees and washed the feet of his subject's feet. He was a king like no other, teaching us that love is the highest authority in the world.

If we truly accept him as our lord and master, as the one who reigns over hearts and minds, then we will want to obey him by imitating his life of love and service of others. In our Mass today let us ask Christ the King of love to give us the help that we need to be faithful to his regal example so that we might come at length to reign with him in his kingdom of glory.

Fr Christopher Dowd, OP is is a lecturer in Church History at Catholic Theological College of the University of Divinity, and is assigned to St Dominic's Priory, Melbourne.