Christ the King Homily 2022 C
Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe

INTRO: Many times, in “social circles” people talk about
their lives,
their traditions,
their customs, and
their nationality.

And that makes for good conversations, and it helps people to really know one another.

And each of us here has that information about ourselves as to who we are, where we came from, etc.

BUT … In this CHURCH- “social-circle” YES, we have all that information about ourselves, but,
We are Christians FIRST,
loyal to JESUS CHRIST the KING!

AND …. I like that…loyal to Jesus the king, in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health, all the days of our lives!
While loyalty in friendship is beautiful and inspiring, the most important loyalty in anyone’s life is to Jesus Christ; the one who loved us so much that He died so that we could have abundant life.

Jesus asks for our ultimate loyalty,
above our spouse,
above our children and parents,
above our friends,
above our country, and
above any other cause, including our own lives.

While loyalty to people is good,
loyalty to our God will bring the most life to ourselves and those around us.

We must always make sure that our loyalties are in the right order: love God, then love people. If we do this, then the other areas of our lives will be in right order.

As I see it, that was the REPENTANT THIEF on his cross next to Jesus. He became loyal to God made man.

It does not matter when. He WAS a THIEF most of his life and was being justly condemned for it, but HE CHANGED and believed in the KING on the cross next to him. He got his loyalty in right order.

We are all about to share in THANKSGIVING this coming Thursday. Our FIRST GRATITUDE should be that of JESUS CHRIST who is our KING, our SAVIOR, and our HELP in all things.

CONCLUSION
For many it has been a difficult year but let us rise to the occasion of true belief, like the repentant thief, that JESUS OUR KING has not left us (even if we have thought so!).