One day as a third grader at recess my friends suggested we play a new game I’d never heard of before: King of the Hill.
“Come on, it will be fun,” they said. So we climbed the “hill” to start our play. The rules were not described in advance. So I found myself on top of a hill and all of the sudden everyone began pushing each other around. It didn’t take long to see that King of the Hill was a rough, dog-eat-dog type of game. Even when you were winning, you couldn’t rest or relax, but were always anxiously guarding your turf and avoiding new threats.
Sometimes kids would gang up together to usurp the “king” only to realize their alliances would be short-lived and they had to turn on each other. The game was frankly not fun, as kings rule alone, and can be ruthless, even in the third grade, at recess. So our game lasted only a few minutes as people got muddied and a bit bloodied, and eventually found the game repulsive.
While we did not realize it as third graders, what we depicted on our elementary school hill the rise and fall of earthly kings and their sad and selfish fate.
There is another king on another hill that we celebrate today: Jesus Christ, the King of the Universe. We see Him reign on Calvary, an entirely different type of hill. His kingship is no game, no violent and selfish spectacle. Mounting the cross on that holy hill over 2000 years ago, He mounts His throne with hands and feet open to us and wounded by piercing nails. His all-powerful head crowned with barbed-band across the brow. Exalted on the cross, Jesus is Lord who draws the world to Himself, inviting all of us in our weakness and woundedness to the wonder of His ways. Not willing or able to push down any new-comers, Jesus’ open arms invite others into His Kingdom, expanding that Kingdom in their hearts, and throughout the world.
Whether we are fearful of Jesus on his glorious throne separating the sheep from the goats as depicted in our Gospel reading, one thing is true: Jesus Christ is a King unlike no other. Even if he will one day separate those who are bound for heaven from those who chose to reject His love and instead choose hell, at every moment before our particular judgment at the moment of our death and the universal judgment that is depicted in the Gospel, Jesus is a King who wants to shepherd us rightly, guide us lovingly into His flock.
He knows how selfish we are, how often we stray, and how much more we may act like selfish and angry goats than obedient and docile lambs. But here is the good news: Jesus Christ is a King who took on our human nature, this makes Him eternally united to our humanity, and the way he is King of humanity is downright stupendous. He redeems our humanity in His glorified human nature. He is a King who sets us free from its slavery to selfish whims, addictions, and lust for the sins of the flesh, greed for power, and all other things unbecoming of authentic humanity. King of the Hill may be a game played on playgrounds or sadly mimicked by adults seeking bargain-deals on sales at stores or by the rulers of earthly nations, as we see in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. But Jesus Christ is King of a much better Hill. He seeks not to knock anyone down, but to raise us all up.
Christ the King elevates our humanity to that of the royal household of God. As Scripture teaches us in 2
nd Peter 1:4, Jesus’ Kingship makes us sharers in the Divine Nature, adopted sons and daughters in God’s Kingdom. So Jesus’ Kingly power is ever and always at work making us His royal retinue, sending us out to serve and raise up other humans.
At every moment before the universal judgment at the end of time, when the sheep will finally be separated from the goats and we all stand before the Lord in our resurrected bodies to be directed to our eternal home, Jesus calls us lovingly to Him. Recall that each of us has a heart, and Jesus’ Sacred Heart is on his left side. Even when allowing those who rejected him to ratify their poor choice on earth and judge that they have chosen hell, Jesus’ Sacred Heart yearns with love for those on His left. How much more does His heart yearn for us while there is still time to repent, to reunite ourselves to such a glorious King, to be co-heirs with Him in His Kingdom!
Jesus is no ordinary King. He is extraordinarily present in those He has created. Even those who act like goats or who are the most forgotten in society, the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick and those in prison, even ourselves in our moments of weakness and isolation…Jesus is present in our midst, hidden but present. Jesus is fully present in the Eucharist, the Real Presence of Jesus in our tabernacles, and he is also present, albeit in a different way in those society forgets, even in those who are far from the Church. Jesus is the seed within them that allows faith to grow if given the right conditions, openness to grace. And when we serve the needs of others, we serve Jesus Himself.
But there’s something stubborn within us that we all want to be royalty, like a 2 year old we cry until we get our way. The family calls us out of our selfishness, self-centeredness to see that Christ is King.
Very often, the Kingdom of Christ the King begins at home. What about our homes – is Jesus enthroned? Picture of him? Scriptures prominently on display?
Imagine new parents with a newborn baby – the child must be cared for, fed, clothed, etc. The Kingdom of Christ the King begins in the home. They begin to teach their child that even if they cry at two years old until they get their way, that is no human way to act at sixteen or sixty.
We continue to care for Christ in our family even as people age. I know of people who care for an aging relative whether at home or who is in a facility. They often have great care and visit as often as they can. Sometimes others get so busy they can’t really visit. Jesus hides himself in our midst, he is present in the urine-smelling nursing home not in the loneliness but in the persons who are there through no fault of their own, who simply cannot take care of themselves, and who need our visits, our humanity.
More good news: Jesus doesn’t ask us to solve world hunger or set every single prisoner free. He simply reminds us that being with one another changes things. Here the Church’s works of mercy become her means of spreading His Kingdom, extending it to those we encounter and even for ourselves.
If you are looking for an opportunity to encounter Jesus hidden in our midst, I invite you to consider helping us in our ministry at Hill Haven, the large nursing home on the hill overlooking Irondequoit Bay.
There is a man of our parish visits the sick each week after Sunday Mass. The same 1-2 people each week, he simply chats with them, sits with them. Want to do something similar and not sure how to begin? We will work with you. Come to our monthly Mass, be introduced to people naturally, allow friendships to grow. Frankly, we can’t keep up with the ministry needs and it’s a win-win. You could be trained as an extraordinary minister.
Serve the hungry in our monthly dinners at St. Joseph’s House of hospitality. A ridiculously fun time, lifelong friends.
In the end, we don’t need to get sucked into the world’s “King of the Hill” games. If anything, Jesus invites us to a better game, “hide and seek,” to find him hidden in our midst, in the Eucharist, in those in need. We can choose to be co-heirs with Jesus in His Kingdom of service and authentic love. May we choose wisely, in so doing discover that the only lasting joy in this world is to serve, and to find Jesus hidden in our midst in those in need is more energizing and amazing than any other pursuit we could have in life.