“The King Is With Us Not A Billion Trillion Miles Away" - Christ the King Homily

Recently, the moon looked especially bright one night.

So I looked up how close is the moon to Earth, 238,000 miles.

Well, then I looked up how close is the sun, and you know from the office, it is 93 million miles away from Earth.

It is the closest star but not the largest star.

And yet the Earth can fit in the Moon over one million times.

There are more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on Earth.

Like a billion trillion, if that's a number.

More stars in the universe than grains of sand on Earth.

The universe is about 13 and a half billion years old.

The Earth is about four and a half billion years old.

The diameter of the universe, I don't know how they measure this, 93 billion light years across, and maybe even more than that.

Immense, gigantic universe.

And yet it's in such order.

The planets, the stars, the sand, the ocean, the land.

When you come in on a descent on a plane, you at the formation of the trees in such order.

The order of nature, the order of the human body.

It is the least probable thing ever that all this somehow came into being and fell into place accidentally.

Least probable thing ever.

If there was a big bang, what made it go bang?

Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is the King of the Universe.

The King of all that I'm describing.

He is, as Saint Paul says, it is all things were created through him and for him.

Every planet, every star, every grain of sand created through him and for him.

Every drop of water, every tree, every person, every creature.

Think about kings on earth.

We hear about King David in Israel.

Huge reign.

Such an important reign in Israel's history.

And yet we do not say about David, or we don't say about Israel, that all things were created in Israel through him and for him.

Like before, during, and after his reign.

That's not true of any king on earth.

It is true about Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, that all of human history

Things are created through him and for him.

So he is king of all things in this world and each thing.

He's king of each of us.

And this beautiful power packed passage from St.

Paul just lays it all out.

If you're looking for meditation this week, go to that, Colossians 1, 12 to 20.

And to begin to digest all of this reality of Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.

It's incredible.

Everything about the Universe in relation to Him.

And that gives us a very strong reality check of who our Lord is.

He has power over all things.

He has power over the things that have power over us.

those things that control us.

And I mean us, mean like communities, nations, parishes, principalities, thrones, dominions, all these things.

St.

Paul lays out his power of it all.

And then of course for us individually.

Do we turn to him?

who recognized his power, recognized his reign.

The thief on the cross next to him did.

He's known as Saint Dismas.

He defends Jesus to the other criminal, seems to be saying Jesus is God.

And then with one line...

He acknowledges Christ as King.

Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.

Jesus is pretty good.

Discerner of people.

He knew this guy was just maybe trying to appease him or look good.

But there he is defending him and very authentically saying, remember me when you come into your kingdom, King Jesus.

Because he gives him promise he gives to no one else in the gospel, not even to his mother.

Today you'll be with me in paradise.

That promise we know is based in his power over death.

His power as judge last week, talking about him as judge and shepherd.

So he's judging this thief, this criminal.

Because of his authentic plea for mercy and his defense of Jesus and acknowledging his king, he promises in paradise.

That should be the authentic

plea to King Jesus for help from us.

So what this thief, what St.

Dismas receives, all of sudden the biggest worry of all time, the biggest stressor, death and after death, nothing to worry about.

You're in paradise, man.

You're in.

Great job, you made it.

And that's what King Jesus can do for you and me.

If we plead to him to help us, tap into his power, we have it even greater than Dismas This very day, this very hour, the King is not just next to us, but in the Eucharist, he

comes within us.

Again, your meditation during communion today, reflect on that.

The King of the universe,

bigger than everything gets so small smaller than us

to be within us.

And that makes the paramount point of his whole incarnation, of him coming to earth, being with us, being the firstborn of all creation, being our King, making the huge point that

he's not a billion, trillion miles away, he's right here with us.