November 22nd 2009.

Christ the Universal King.

Today is Christ the King Sunday. It is the last Sunday of Ordinary Time, the Sunday before Advent.
Pope Pius the Eleventh set up the Feast of Christ the King in 1925, because he wanted world leaders to respect Jesus, and to remind everyone that Jesus must be King of our hearts.
In between World War One and World War Two, many of the leaders of Europe were trying to persuade people to turn away from the churches, or not to believe in God at all. Some countries were ruled by dictators, who tried to influence beliefs about who really mattered, which human beings should be seen as important and who should be used as slaves, or, worse still, not treated as human at all.

In today's Gospel (John 18:33-37), Jesus has been handed over to the Roman governor, Pilate. Pilate asks Jesus if he is the King of the Jews, because he has heard that some people are calling Jesus by this title. Jesus replies that his kingship does not come from this world.
But he agrees he is a king. He says," For this I was born and for this I have come into the world, to bear witness to the truth".
Jesus is saying that he has not come to use the kind of power that Pilate uses, but to tell people about God, because he is sent by God.

To remember this, we made crowns out of paper and laurel leaves.

Jesus, please help us to use your power by caring about other people. We know that if we try to force others to do what we want all the time, they might not realise that you came to tell us God loves us.
Amen