How many of you suffer from “Holiday Confusion?” Yes, that’s my question for you. “Holiday Confusion.” What is it? Well, it’s trying to decide just what time of the year it is. What’s the next holiday and what should you be doing to get ready for it? As Americans, we can’t just let it happen. We need to get ready to celebrate. We need to plan. Our lives are all about planning … planning for the future. Whether it’s – whose turn is it to take the kids to soccer practice – to who needs to take the car in for its maintenance schedule? Is there a family who doesn’t have a well-marked calendar hanging on the kitchen wall?
This year “Holiday Confusion” seems to be especially severe. Wasn’t it only last month that you were buying back-to-school clothes? And then, suddenly it was Halloween costumes. And even that was confusing … trying to find them among all of the Christmas decorations the stores put up in mid-October. Why can’t they wait until Thanksgiving … like they did in the good ol’ days … before they string up all those Christmas garlands?
And Thanksgiving. It was a lot earlier this year. And with 80-degree temperatures three or four days ago, who could really believe it was Thanksgiving we celebrated this past week? Maybe that cold front and a 50-degree day or two might help.
Even the liturgy adds to it. Why are we hearing about the Crucifixion in today’s gospel reading? Is it already Easter? What happened to Lent? Are you asking if you fell asleep like Rip van Winkle and several months passed without your knowing it? That’s what I mean by “Holiday Confusion.” Time speeds by much faster than it use to. And we wonder what we missed and what we still need to do.
But I assure you … there are at least 30 shopping days before Christmas. You still have time to go deeper into debt. The stores’ “black” Friday can still become your own “in-the-red” January. So if Christmas is the next major commercial holiday, what about today’s gospel reading with Jesus on the cross?
Well just as stores get ready for commercial holidays, we need time to prepare for the religious holy day … the real reason for the celebration. Next weekend is the first Sunday of Advent … that time when we prepare for the coming of Christ. When we prepare not only for the celebration of his birth some two thousand years ago, but also for his Second Coming at the end of time as we know it … an event which can occur at any moment.
This weekend we celebrate the last Sunday of the Liturgical Year. During November we’ve turned our thoughts and prayers to those who have gone before us. We began the month with the twin feasts of All Saints Day and All Souls Day. We have entered the names of departed loved ones into our Book of Life to help us remember them in our prayers. Today, at the end of November, at the conclusion of the Church’s year, we celebrate the feast of “Our Lord Jesus Christ the King.”
“Christ the King.” This is a strange kind of King we honor this weekend. He may even be a Confusing King. One who is part and parcel of our Holiday Confusion.
● He is a King who was tortured and suffered. One who was put to death as a traitorous criminal. Who died on a cross.
● He is a King who was born into poverty. One whose parents were fugitives from authority and had to immigrate to a foreign land.
● He was a King who could not return to the town of his birth but lived his life as the son of a carpenter in a village miles away from the capital city, the city where a King should dwell.
It was some thirty years later that this King … after wandering the countryside as a preacher … entered that capital city, where he was tried, condemned and died on a cross. It was also in this city, Jerusalem, that he rose from the dead and later ascended, according to some of his followers, into heaven.
Another condemned criminal who hung beside him there on the hill overlooking the city, spoke words of ridicule. However, another condemned companion spoke a request: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And the crucified King replied: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
Indeed, we do have a confusing King to join with our Holiday Confusion. Many of those who followed this King, expected one who was more like King David, the king we heard about in our reading from the First Book of Samuel. Here was the anointed king of Israel who joined the Twelve Tribes into a nation, a people to be dealt with. Instead of being a heroic leader who restored his people to a position of earthly power, this Resurrected King was one described by Saint Paul with the words: “He is [the beloved Son of God, the Father,] in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
Saint Paul went on to proclaim: “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 … He is the head of the body, the church. … “
Today, in a time long removed from the Age of Kings, we may find it difficult to comprehend the reality of today’s feast day: “Our Lord Jesus Christ the King.” We know everything we can about mere human celebrities whether they are movie stars who misbehave … or athletes who receive millions of dollars and squander their fortunes. Yes, our modern kings, our role models, have become tarnished.
In our secular world, our leaders seem to exist more for our amusement and entertainment than for their roles as “models for leadership.” They are ridiculed … not by condemned criminals … but by journalists, comedians and, at times, by the public-at-large.
And yet, there remains with us our one true King, one true Leader, one true Model. We, who are called Christians, continue to follow Christ, the Anointed One of God. We continue to recognize him as “Our Lord.” The one to whom we owe our allegiance, our loyalty and our love.
Here as we complete another liturgical year and are about to enter into a new one, we are reminded to put aside our Holiday Confusion, and to focus on this man who reconciles all things whether those on earth or those in heaven. And so, when each of us speaks the words: “Jesus, remember me,” we can hear his reply and his promise: “You will be with me in Paradise.”
Our Lord Jesus Christ the King; November 25, 2007
2 Sam 5:1-3; Col 1:12-20; Lk 23:35-43