Dear Christ the King Family,
The other week I joined our Kindergarten classes here at Christ the King School and gave a little lesson on Christ the King for them. At first I handed out a coloring sheet of an icon on Christ the King and we took some time to see and name all of the details in the picture that tell us He is a king: wearing a crown of gold, seated on a throne, dressed in royal robes, holding a scepter, surrounded by His angel attendants. I was impressed that each of our classes were able to name all of those details! Then I passed out a second coloring sheet image for them to look at side-by-side with the first—it was an image of the Crucifixion. I asked them: “How can we see in this image that Jesus is Our King?” It was a holy experience to see the classes grow quiet as they took in this second image and, once more, I was impressed by how observant they were! Although it was very difficult to see on the surface, they named that Jesus still wore a crown, though it was a crown of thorns. He didn’t have any royal clothes but his garments were stripped from him and in his hand was not a scepter but a nail of iron fixing Him to the wood. There weren’t any angels visible in the image but people still surrounded Him, and now the Cross itself has become His throne. I shared with them too that the inscription above read, “This is the King of the Jews.” Those children were able to see that Christ is King and it is at the Cross that God shows us that His reign is one of Love. Even in this place of complete desolation and loss, Our Lord humbled Himself and accepted the “royal regalia” we offered Him in order to “to reconcile all things for Him, making peace by the blood of His Cross.”
We all get to take in all of these details together in the Gospel reading we encounter today. There in that place of pain and death, we hear the judgement our King gives from the throne of the Cross to the thief crucified alongside Him, who humbly implored to be remembered: “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” It can be difficult for us to really take in the full extent of God’s love for us, for we “know” it in our heads but still stand to grow so much in truly knowing it in our very hearts and being. Quite often though, when we find ourselves bearing our own Crosses beside the Lord, paradoxically we begin to see more clearly like the thief just what kind of King our God is. Even that space of shame and seeming defeat became a place of the most profound encounter with a Love that cannot be overthrown by sin and death, but reigns eternally. That is our Hope, and it is a Hope we rejoice in on this solemn feast day! As our Constitutions of Holy Cross put so beautifully:
“In the fullness of time the Lord Jesus came among us anointed by the Spirit to inaugurate a kingdom of justice, love and peace. His rule would be no mere earthly regime: it would initiate a new creation in every land. His power would be within and without, rescuing us from the injustice we suffer and also from the injustice we inflict. This was the good news that many misunderstood and many rejected. The Lord Jesus was crucified. But the Father raised Him to glory, and Christ breathed His Spirit into His people, the church. Dying and rising with Him in baptism, His followers are sent to continue His mission, to hasten along the kingdom.” (Constitution 2: Mission, Art. 9-10)
In Christ our King,
Fr. David
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