Roc Homily – Feast of Christ the King 2016

Over the past two years of pre-election and post-election drama, I have wondered about the chances any of us have to repent, to really look at our own lives to see them more clearly.  As I look at my own life, I don’t have a lot of hope about me turning to Christ any time soon.  I am mesmerized by the drama of it all – the personal and corporate dramas based on needing an enemy for identity and security.  The dramas around scapegoating enemies, immigrants, LGBT folks, racial groups, whomever.  

Seems to me that the U.S. was built on two principles  – “You can’t tell me what to do!” and “We come together against a common enemy.”  Which seemed to work well until the uncivil Civil War when the country found common cause against one another.  We have witnessed this the past two years.  I would seem that there will be no let up in the recognizable future.  Folks will push the pendulum this way and that way until that sucker…  Until what?

It also seems to me that the monumental task set before us is that of repentance.  Perhaps a number of us on all sides will someday stop long enough to look at ourselves & take stock of what fuels our demand for conflict and bring it to the Light.  Perhaps then we might be able to speak and listen toward common cause.  God save us from our willfulness!

Luke 23:35 Christ the Messiah: The leaders scoffed at him saying, “He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!”

The guy on the cross claims to be the Messiah.  Basically the leaders said, “You are weak! Powerless.  You can do nothing to save yourself!  HA!”

What do you and I do when another tries to claim ascendancy?  We prove to him that he or she is weak.  We humiliate him or her.  We bully her.  We rage at her.  We blame him.  We talk about him.

What do we need to bring to the Light?