Pope
Francis delivered the homily at Mass on Sunday to mark the Solemnity of
Christ the King and close the Year of Faith proclaimed by his
predecessor, emeritus Pope Benedict XVI.
Below, please find the official
English translation of Pope Francis' prepared remarks.
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Today’s
solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, the crowning
of the liturgical year, also marks the conclusion of the Year of Faith
opened by Pope Benedict XVI, to whom our thoughts now turn with
affection and gratitude.
By this providential initiative, he gave us an
opportunity to rediscover the beauty of the journey of faith begun on
the day of our Baptism, which made us children of God and brothers and
sisters in the Church.
A journey which has as its ultimate end our full
encounter with God, and throughout which the Holy Spirit purifies us,
lifts us up and sanctifies us, so that we may enter into the happiness
for which our hearts long.
I offer a cordial greeting to the
Patriarchs and Major Archbishops of the Eastern Catholic Churches
present. The exchange of peace which I will share with them is above
all a sign of the appreciation of the Bishop of Rome for these
communities which have confessed the name of Christ with exemplary
faithfulness, often at a high price.
With this gesture, through
them, I would like to reach all those Christians living in the Holy
Land, in Syria and in the entire East, and obtain for them the gift of
peace and concord.
The Scripture readings proclaimed to us have as
their common theme the centrality of Christ. Christ as the centre of
creation, the centre of his people and the centre of history.
1. The
apostle Paul, in the second reading, taken from the letter to the
Colossians, offers us a profound vision of the centrality of Jesus. He
presents Christ to us as the first-born of all creation: in him, through
him and for him all things were created. He is the centre of all
things, he is the beginning. God has given him the fullness, the
totality, so that in him all things might be reconciled (cf. Col
1:12-20).
This image enables to see that Jesus is the centre of
creation; and so the attitude demanded of us as true believers is that
of recognizing and accepting in our lives the centrality of Jesus
Christ, in our thoughts, in our words and in our works. When this
centre is lost, when it is replaced by something else, only harm can
result for everything around us and for ourselves.
2. Besides being
the centre of creation, Christ is the centre of the people of God. We
see this in the first reading which describes the time when the tribes
of Israel came to look for David and anointed him king of Israel before
the Lord (cf. 2 Sam 5:1-3). In searching for an ideal king, the people
were seeking God himself: a God who would be close to them, who would
accompany them on their journey, who would be a brother to them.
Christ,
the descendant of King David, is the “brother” around whom God’s people
come together. It is he who cares for his people, for all of us, even
at the price of his life. In him we are all one; united with him, we
share a single journey, a single destiny.
3. Finally, Christ is the
centre of the history of the human race and of every man and woman. To
him we can bring the joys and the hopes, the sorrows and troubles which
are part of our lives. When Jesus is the centre, light shines even
amid the darkest times of our lives; he gives us hope, as he does to the
good thief in today’s Gospel.
While all the others treat Jesus with
disdain – “If you are the Christ, the Messiah King, save yourself by
coming down from the cross!” – the thief who went astray in his life but
now repents, clinging to the crucified Jesus, begs him: “Remember me,
when you come into your kingdom” (Lk 23:42). And Jesus promises him:
“Today you will be with me in paradise” (v. 43). Jesus speaks only a
word of forgiveness, not of condemnation; whenever anyone finds the
courage to ask for this forgiveness, the Lord does not let such a
petition go unheard.
Jesus’ promise to the good thief gives us
great hope: it tells us that God’s grace is always greater than the
prayer which sought it. The Lord always grants more than what he has
been asked: you ask him to remember you, and he brings you into his
Kingdom!
Let us ask the Lord to remember us, in the certainty that by his mercy we will be able to share his glory in paradise.
Amen