Christ the Cornerstone

Jesus is an unlikely king, a king of humility and love

You know well the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich. (2 Cor 8:9)

This Sunday, we conclude another Church year with the celebration of the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.

By the world’s standards, Jesus of Nazareth is an unlikely king. He does not fit the image most of us have of an authoritarian ruler. On the contrary, he is meek and humble of heart, a peacemaker, and a proponent of nonviolence who chooses to die rather than fight his unjust punishment and cruel death.

Jesus doesn’t live like a king. He chooses to live as an itinerant preacher and healer, a homeless vagrant “with no place to rest his head” (Mt 8:20). His followers are not the best and brightest members of the Jewish community. They are ordinary people (laborers like himself). Even tax collectors and sinners are admitted to his inner circle. This is not the manner of an earthly king. He is not full of himself—far from it; he commands respect not by force but by the sheer power of Divine truth and love.

In the apostolic exhortation “Dilexi Te” (“I Have Loved You”), begun by Pope Francis but completed by Pope Leo XIV and signed on Oct. 4, the Memorial of Saint Francis of Assisi, we read the following:

The Gospel shows us that poverty marked every aspect of Jesus’ life. From the moment he entered the world, Jesus knew the bitter experience of rejection. The Evangelist Luke tells how Joseph and Mary, who was about to give birth, arrived in Bethlehem, and then adds, poignantly, that “there was no place for them in the inn” (Lk 2:7). Jesus was born in humble surroundings and laid in a manger; then, to save him from being killed, they fled to Egypt (cf. Mt 2:13-15). At the dawn of his public ministry, after announcing in the synagogue of Nazareth that the year of grace which would bring joy to the poor was fulfilled in him, he was driven out of town (cf. Lk 4:14-30). He died as an outcast, led out of Jerusalem to be crucified (cf. Mk 15:22). Indeed, that is how Jesus’ poverty is best described: he experienced the same exclusion that is the lot of the poor, the outcast of society. (#19)

Poverty is not ordinarily a mark of kingship. Most often, it is a sign of degradation and powerlessness.

But Jesus turns our ordinary images inside-out. His kingdom is not of this world, and his power comes from a source that transcends all earthly authority and majesty.

The Gospel reading for the Solemnity of Christ the King (Lk 23:35-43) would be a source of embarrassment for any earthly sovereign:

The rulers sneered at Jesus and said, “He saved others, let him save himself if he is the chosen one, the Christ of God.” Even the soldiers jeered at him. As they approached to offer him wine they called out, “If you are King of the Jews, save yourself.” Above him there was an inscription that read, “This is the King of the Jews” (Lk 23:35-38).

The King of the Jews is an object of ridicule and scorn, but paradoxically, it is his humiliation that exalts him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

As St. Paul tells us in the second reading (Col 1:12-20), this unlikely king, who emptied himself and for our sakes took on the life of a slave (Phil 2:7), is much greater than any earthly ruler:

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For in him were created all things in heaven and on Earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things were created through him and for him. … For in him all the fullness was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile all things for him, making peace by the blood of his cross through him, whether those on Earth or those in heaven. (Col 1:15-16, 19-20)

This is the one “who stoops to conquer” and who demonstrates by his every word and action that he is God-with-us (Emmanuel), the Son of Justice and the Lord of Heaven and Earth. That’s why we acclaim him as King of the Universe, maker of all things visible and invisible.

As we prepare to celebrate this final solemnity of the liturgical year, let’s thank God for the great gift of his humble majesty. May we never forget that spiritual power always overcomes temporal power and that Christ has called us to “seek first the kingdom of God” (Mt 6:33). †