We’ve had many great emperors and kings throughout human history. One of the greatest emperors was Alexander the Great, who lived 4 centuries before Christ's birth. Alex had great ambitions; he wanted to rule the world. He even called himself the “King of Kings”. His empire eventually included a great deal of ancient world – from his native Greece to India, from Egypt to Palestine. Alex had a great intellect; in fact the renowned philosopher Aristotle was one of his tutors. He was such a great military commander that his military strategy is still studied by military leaders today. Like any great leader, Alexander knew what he needed to do to rally his troops and to gain their loyalty. There is a story told of Alexander’s travels with his troops in the deserts of Persia. His entire army ran out of water - getting desperate. Intolerable thirst seized them as they traveled under the hot desert sun. A couple of Alexander's lieutenants captured some precious water from caravan passing thru the desert. They brought the water to Alexander in one of the soldier’s helmet. He asked if there was enough water to give to the troops, but he was told that there was only enough for him alone to have one drink. Alexander lifted up the helmet as his men watched him intently, but instead of drinking the precious water, he poured the water on the ground. His men let out a great shout, knowing that Alex would not allow them to suffer anything he was unwilling to accept himself. Alexander the Great proved many times why he was viewed as such a great & powerful king.
In our modern world, we think of a king or emperor as having great power and strength. All the kings and emperors who led the great empires and kingdoms here on earth pale in comparison to Chris, the true King of Kings. Yet, as we celebrate the Solemnity of Christ the King today at the end of our Church’s liturgical year, at the end of our Church's Jubilee Year of Mercy, we don’t have readings about Christ’s power and might, but rather we hear about Jesus as he dies on the cross, accompanied by the two thieves who are also about to be crucified crucified. A lot of the values of our world call out to us to acquire wealth, to seek power, to assert ourselves over others. Often time our world asks us to seek revenge or payback rather than reconciliation or healing. Yet, as disciples of Christ, we are taught that there is another way. We follow a leader who wore a crown of thorns rather than a crown of gold and jewels, who sought to love rather than to dominate, who forged solidarity and unity with the poor rather than alliances with the rich and powerful, who led a ragtag group of twelve apostles rather than a powerful army that sought to conquer the world. It is by these values that Jesus lived on earth. It is by these values that we will be judged at the end of days: by how we bring God’s love and mercy to the world through our words and actions and the values by which we live.
There is so much about our faith that perhaps we struggle to understand. Even with some of the dogmas, doctrines & teachings of the Church that we seem to understand on the surface, we sometimes have a hard time applying them to the real life situations that confront us in life. The great 11th century philosopher, St Anselm of Canterbury, called it faith seeking understanding, meaning that out of the active love we have for God, we seek a deeper understanding of God and we seek to live out our faith in our lives. Out of our faith, we seek a personal experience of God, a personal encounter in which we can truly say that Christ is our king and our shepherd. In that way, Jesus is to be more than a noun in our lives. Jesus needs to be a verb - an action word by which we live our lives. However, Jesus as our savior, our shepherd and our king calls us to action and a way of life. As we finish out our Church's liturgical year and our Church's Year of Mercy, as we get ready to prepare for the birth of Christ in the world, may we look around us and see the way we are called to bring Christ's message to the world.
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