Some years ago divers located a 400 year old sunken ship off the coast of Northern Ireland. Among the treasures they found on the ship was a man’s wedding ring. When they cleaned it up they found these words etched on it beneath the image off a hand holding a heart: I have nothing more to give you”. The etching on that ring could have been placed on the cross of Jesus. On the cross Jesus gave us everything he had. The greatest love a person can have for his friends is to give his life for them. The feast we celebrate today is the feast of Christ the King. Jesus is the King of Kings because of who he is. People call gold the king of metals because gold is popularly thought to be the most precious of all metals. People call the Lion the king of beasts because the lion is popularly thought to be the noblest of all the animals. We use the term king to designate the best there is in a certain area. Jesus is the king of the human race because he is the best and noblest human being who ever lived. Arnold Toynbee, a British Historian wrote a monumental work called ‘A study of history’. He traced the development and decay of 19 world civilizations. He wrote this moving paragraph: ‘When we began this work, we found ourselves looking at a great parade of marchers. But as it passed, the marchers all fell, one by one by the wayside; and now only one-marcher remains growing larger and larger with each step and that one marcher is Jesus Christ. St Paul expresses this same idea in the second reading today: Christ is the visible likeness of the invisible God. He is the first-born son superior to all created things. Jesus is the king of kings because he merits that title for what he did. In April 1865 the slain body of President Abraham Lincoln lay in state for a few hours in Cleveland, Ohio. In the long line of people filing by the body was a poor black woman and her little son. When the two reached the president’s body the woman lifted up her little son and said in hushed voice: ‘Honey, take a long, long look. That man died for you’. What that black mother said to her child can be said about Jesus by every mother of every child, pointing to the body of Jesus on the crucifix she can say: ‘Honey, take a long, long look that man died for you’. Jesus died for us he redeemed us he reunited us with God. This is what the feast of Christ the king is all about. The greatest love a person can have for his friends is to give his life for them’. John 15,3.
Let’s close with a prayer: Lord Jesus, it’s not enough for us to look at you carrying your cross and to proclaim you to be our King. It’s not enough for us to bow our heads and call you Lord of Lords. It’s not enough for us to praise you on this your feast. We must pick up our own cross and follow you. We must follow you every day of our lives. We must follow you even to the cross itself, if that be your will. And if we do, you will say to us before we die what you said to the good thief before he died: ‘I promise you that today you will be in paradise with me.’