Christ the King, Thirty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time (2025)

Introduction

Today’s Sunday, the Thirty-Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time, is the final Sunday of the liturgical year.

This year marks the one-hundredth anniversary of Pope Pius XI’s 1925 institution of today’s Feast of Christ the King.

The motto of the Pope Piux XI was “Pax Christi in regno Christi” — the peace of Christ in the reign of Christ.

This is a wonderful reminder that the peace we are longing for so deeply does not come from the absence of problems or the absence of wars.

Rather, it is a peace that is available in Jesus, when we surrender our lives to Him each day, accept Him as our God, Savior, and King, and allow Him to reign in our lives.

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Today’s feast, in the long 2,000-year history of the Church, feels almost new.

We have celebrated it for only about a hundred years.

It was established in 1925 by Pope Pius XI. But why?

In his encyclical Quas primas, Pope Pius XI explains the reasons.

He begins by reminding us that liturgical feasts never appear by accident.

They arise when the Church recognizes a deep need in the world or within her own life (§22).

This is why we honor the martyrs.

This is why the Church gave us Corpus Christi and the devotion to the Sacred Heart.

Each feast was God’s gift for a particular moment of confusion or crisis.

The Solemnity of Christ the King was born out of one of the greatest tragedies of the modern world: the Great War — the First World War.

It shattered nations and shattered humanity’s confidence in its own progress.

The most educated societies in Europe used their science, their technology, and their industry to destroy one another on an unimaginable scale, without counting the cost in human lives — including civilians.

And only a few years later came the Bolshevik Revolution, which brought into existence the first openly atheistic totalitarian regime in human history — a system that would take millions of lives.

Everywhere Pope Pius XI looked, he saw the same pattern:

– societies turning away from the Gospel,

– attempts to build a paradise on earth without God, or even against God.

So to respond to this crisis, the pope placed before the world the Feast of Christ the King — to remind humanity who alone has the right to reign over the human heart, over history, and over the future.

We all agree with this.

But then comes today’s Gospel from Saint Luke — and it brings confusion.

We see Jesus not sitting on a throne, but being crucified on Calvary, with the inscription above His head: “This is the King of the Jews.”

Is this the image of a king we expect?

Why do we hear about a man dying helpless on the cross on this feast?

What does it mean?

The answer is simple: the Cross is our King’s throne.

Jesus reigns not from a velvet-covered, diamond-encrusted, gold-plated chair like earthly rulers, but from the Cross.

The sign of defeat becomes the sign of victory.

Saint John Paul II called this the “paradox” of Christ’s Kingship:

“If it is assessed according to the criteria of this world, Jesus’ kingship can appear paradoxical.

His power does not fit earthly logic.

His is the power of love and service, which requires the free gift of self and the witness to the truth.” (Angelus, 2001)

Christ’s Kingdom is built on unconditional love.

And on the Cross Jesus reveals that love — by suffering and dying for our salvation, even when we were sinners.

In the Gospel we also meet two criminals crucified with Him.

According to the law they deserved to die. They were sinners.

These two men — the Good Thief and the Bad Thief — represent all of humanity.

They represent us.

We are all sinners.

The Bad Thief refuses to admit his sins or his choices.

He wants an easy escape, without responsibility.

Even at the moment of death he does not understand.

But the other man, the Good Thief, does.

He rebukes the other criminal.

He recognizes Who is beside him — the Son of God.

He admits his guilt.

And Jesus has mercy on him.

The Good Thief becomes — in the tradition — the first canonized saint.

Both were sinners.

Both were criminals.

Both made mistakes.

The problem was not the sin — the problem was pride.

The Good Thief, even in pain and dying, found joy because he reconciled with God and heard the promise of the Kingdom.

The question is, which one are you — and I’m asking myself this?

Am I not wanting to bear my cross, and looking for a temporary fix?

Or am I willing to accept my cross, knowing that the Man beside me is God, believing that He truly can save me, not just in this world, but for eternity?

Today we are invited to renew our commitment to Jesus as our King, who loves unconditionally — our Lord, our Savior.

Remember: the obstacle to belonging to His Kingdom is not our sin, but our pride.