Today we begin with our fifth annual Christ the King Challenge, where we celebrate that Jesus has made us the center of His life and have an opportunity to respond. Like last year, we’re going to ask the three questions right away because we’ve mentioned them over the past few months. If you’re a guest, please don’t feel any pressure to respond unless you’d like to. Remember, our decision is not done to please anyone, and, no matter our answer, Jesus loves us to the end (Cf. Jn 13:1).
Are we ready? Please put up your hand high if you’ve placed Jesus at the center of your life. If you haven’t, please put up your hand if you want Him to be. Lastly, if you’ve placed Him at the center, did you do so for the first time in your life in the past 12 months? Praise God! Thank you, everyone!
Could all of us now take 30 seconds to fill out the cards, please? Thank you! These statistics are important to see how we’re growing as a parish family … During the offertory, please put the cards into the baskets. Thank you!
On this Christ the King Sunday, let’s ponder unequal friendships—this is where one friend always does the calling and texting; they initiate activities and sometimes it seems like the other person isn’t as interested. Is there anyone in our life that we love being with, but they don’t reach out to us? Or, for example, our parents want to talk to or spend time with us, but we don’t respond.
We all have an unequal friendship with Jesus: He loves us perfectly but we don’t love Him as much as we can. In the Gospel, three times, people tell Jesus to save Himself: “The leaders scoffed at Jesus… ‘Let him save himself if he is the Christ of God…’ The soldiers also mocked Jesus… ‘If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!’… One of the criminals… kept deriding him… ‘Save yourself and us!’” (Lk 23:35-37). He doesn’t save Himself because He’s dying in order to overcome our sins. Most people’s response to His love is terrible; only a few try to respond as best they can.
So, let’s look at three ways we can increase our love for Jesus. When we place Him at the center of our lives, there are three parts to this act: the will, the intellect, and the heart. If one of these seems to be weak, this is what we want to strengthen.
For example, I once heard a man describe his relationship with our mother Mary and he started crying; she meant so much to him. I compared that with my relationship with her and realized my heart is lacking. I know who she is, I’ve made a choice to love her, but my emotions aren’t fully engaged—this is what I’m working on. It’s not that I have to cry, but I should have a greater emotional engagement the way I do with Jesus.
Last year, I told a few of you that Archbishop Miller was thinking of transferring me. Their response was worry because they love me! But when I told Deacon Andrew, he shrugged his shoulders! No heart!
In our relationship with Jesus, we may have made a decision to follow Him and we know Who He is, but the heart is lacking. Compare that to when we speak about our children, boyfriend, or girlfriend, we get excited, but, when we talk about Jesus, no excitement.
For others among us, we may not have yet made the decision to place Jesus at the center or it’s not yet mature. We go to Mass because we’re Catholic, but there’s no ‘Yes’ to Jesus. We talk about ‘faith’ not Jesus. Or, we go on retreats and say, ‘I felt God’s love and peace,’ but there’s no decision to commit ourselves to Him. Do any of us ever feel like our faith is getting weak? This could be a sign that our will hasn’t yet made a clear, definitive choice. Our faith going up and down may be a sign that it’s based mainly on emotions. We’ll talk more about this next week.
However, for others among us, we’ve made the choice and our heart is engaged, but we don’t know clearly what we’re saying ‘Yes’ to. We can’t say anything meaningful about Who Jesus is or His life, or we somehow didn’t know that this means we need to change our life, follow His teachings and the Church’s official teachings.
The Gospel says, “One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him… ‘Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!’ [He doesn’t know Who Jesus is, that the Christ, the anointed one, came to bring us back to the Father, not save us from all human suffering. Many people today, perhaps we also, misunderstand Who Jesus is: We think He’s supposed to give us what we want: good health, finances, relationships. We don’t know Who He really is, that He wants to rebuild our relationship with the Father.] Yet the other criminal rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds [He understands that he’s a sinner, that he’s freely chosen to reject God, and that God is just], but this man has done nothing wrong.’ Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ [He understands enough that he knows that Jesus is a unique king, that His kingdom is not of this world, and he makes a decision, an act of faith. And, at some level, he desires to be close to Jesus, indicating that his heart is activated.] Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise’” (23:39-43). There’s no one in history like Jesus. Buddha, Mohammed, and Confucius were not innocent, but were sinners like everyone. And for someone who is being executed to offer paradise is unheard of. Only God loves this perfectly and beautifully.
We see in Jesus’ response that He doesn’t expect perfection right away. He accepted the criminal’s simple ‘Yes’ and accepts our incomplete ‘Yes.’ So, let’s ask the Holy Spirit’s help: ‘Holy Spirit, touch my heart and emotions. Help me to know and choose to love Jesus the way I do my family and friends.’
Years ago, I felt that I didn’t love the Eucharist the way other seminarians did. So, I took out five books on the subject, and, over the next few years, my emotions caught up with my mind and will. Now, when I see the Eucharist treated badly, when people at funerals, weddings, before and after Mass, talk in the church as if Jesus isn’t there, it hurts; when people treat Him with respect, it means so much to me.
In order to make a more mature decision, we could slowly and with a lifelong intention offer a simple prayer like this, ‘Lord, I recognize that you love me, but I have not loved you back. I thank you for Jesus who died for me and has shown me mercy. I open my life up to you as you did for me. Here I am, Lord’ (André Regnier, Clear & Simple, 19-20).
In terms of the intellect, what are we saying ‘Yes’ to? Not a set of doctrines, but the Person of Jesus. God made and loves us; we separated ourselves from Him by our sins; He sent Jesus to die and rise for us—will we say ‘Yes’ to this? Once we do, we start reordering our lives, following Him and all His teachings.
If we’ve ever had someone in our family or a friend who doesn’t love us the way we love them, then we know how Jesus feels. Jesus is looking for a decision that involves our will, intellect, and heart. With the Holy Spirit’s help, in the next 12 months, we can improve our unequal relationship with Jesus.