This morning we come to the end of our Liturgical Year with the celebration of the Feast of Christ the King as the Church reminds us that Christ is King of all things. But we cannot forget that we, too, are baptized into Christ’s kingship. But with all this talk about ‘kings,’ when Pilate asked Jesus if he was the 'King of the Jews,' Jesus sidesteps that question and says that he came to testify to the ‘truth.’ But what does that ‘truth’ look like? (Funny, Pilate asked the same thing!) Looking for clarity on all this? Perhaps Pope Francis, as well as the parable of the Old Turtle can shed light on the “Truth” and better explain what we are called to do with this Feast of Christ the King? Check it out...

1. 1 Deacon Jim Knipper
22 November 2015 Feast of Christ the King Princeton, NJ
This morning we come to the end of our Liturgical Year with the celebration of the Feast of Christ the
King, which was established in 1925 by Pope Pius XI in response to the post World War I rise of
nationalism and secularism. Originally, celebrated on the last Sunday in October, in 1969 it was
moved to the last Sunday of Ordinary Time, where Pope Paul IV felt that the theme of Christ’s
dominion over all things makes it a fitting end to the liturgical year.
This Sunday we are also blessed to have our Inquirers with us [at the 10:00 mass] – It is they who
have been taking part in our RCIA program and who seek to be fully initiated into our faith come next
Easter. Throughout the past months, depending on what particular mass you attended, you may
have seen them process out right after the homily in order to continue their studies with Deacon
Frank.
Well today, after much study, they will be welcomed through the Rite of Acceptance into the Order of
Catechumens, and with that naming of 'catechumen' it is we, the baptized faithful, who are reminded
of our commitment. For the word catechumen comes from the Greek, and means "one in whom
word echoes." It is the time in their formation that we play an active role in echoing our faith with
them. For as we gather around those who will soon be baptized we are reminded of our baptismal
call to be disciples of Christ and to live out our threefold mission of priest, prophet and king.
So on this Feast of remembering that Christ is King of all things, we cannot forget that we - and soon
our Catechumens - are baptized into Christ’s kingship. But what does that mean? And what do we
need to be echoing into each other’s lives?
Today we heard that familiar dialogue from John’s Gospel, proclaimed every Good Friday, in which
Pilate asks Jesus if he is King of the Jews. And Jesus somewhat sidesteps the answer and says that
he was born into this world to “testify to the truth.” Unfortunately the lectionary of today's Gospel,
cuts the dialogue just short of Pilate’s infamous reply to Jesus’ statement when he asks Jesus,
"What is truth?” Because for Pilate, of course, the truth was merely whatever the Roman Empire said
was truth. And since Jesus testified that his “kingdom” was not of this world - a world then ruled by
corrupt empires, principalities, powers, and institutions, Pilate was essentially clueless to understand
what his prisoner was talking about.
So the question remains - what is this truth that Jesus came to testify to? And how does the answer
to that question tie together this feast day, this welcoming of our Catechumens, as well as our call to
live out our baptismal anointing into Christ's kingship?
To answer that we first need to delve into the word 'truth' as it was used in the original Greek. For
the root word means reliable, faithful, constant, secure, permanent and honest. So what does
Christ’s ‘truth’ look like that he came to testify to? It may be best described by the section of
Matthew’s Gospel that was read on this same Feast Day last year, when Jesus said that those who
live in the 'truth' (in his kingdom) feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick, and welcome the
stranger...and “when you do all this for the least of my brethren, you do it for me”
With that, Pope Francis concluded that, "The starting point of salvation is not the confession of the
sovereignty of Christ, but rather the imitation of Jesus’ works of mercy through which he brought
about his kingdom. Those who accomplish these works show that they have welcomed Christ’s
sovereignty, because they have opened their heart to God’s love.”

2. 2 Deacon Jim Knipper
So today’s Gospel shows us how different two kingships can be. While Pilate was fixated on the
rules of his earthly kingdom, Jesus came to testify that his 'truth' was rooted in the love and mercy
and about our connectedness with Christ and with each other.
Maybe another way to understand what this ‘truth’ of Christ looks like would be through the modern
day parable, written by Douglas Wood – called the Old Turtle and the Broken Truth. It is story of
how the world came to be so fragmented when the truth is…that the world is meant to be whole and
in relationship. And the story goes like this:
In a far-away land that “is somehow not so far away,” one night a truth falls from the stars. And as it
falls, it breaks into two pieces - one piece blazes off through the sky and the other falls straight to the
ground. One day a man stumbles upon the gravity-drawn truth and finds carved on it the words,
“You are loved.” It makes him feel good, so he keeps it and shares it with the people in his tribe. The
thing sparkles and makes the people who have it feel warm and happy. It becomes their most prized
possession, and they call it “The Truth.” Those who have ‘the truth’ grow afraid of those who don’t
have it, because they are different than they are. And those who don’t have it covet it. And soon
people are fighting wars over the small truth, trying to capture it for themselves.
A little girl who is troubled by the growing violence, greed, and destruction in her once peaceful world
goes on a journey - through the mountains, across rivers and through forests - to speak with Old
Turtle, the wise counselor. Old Turtle tells her that the Truth is broken and missing a piece, a piece
that shot off in the night sky so long ago. Together they search for it, and when they find it the little
girl puts the jagged piece in her pocket and returns to her people. She tries to explain, but no one
will listen or understand. Finally a raven flies the broken truth to the top of a tower where the other
piece has been ensconced for safety, and the rejoined pieces shine their full message, which now
read: “You are loved / and so are they.” And the people begin to comprehend. And the earth begins
to heal.
Unlike the 'truth' of Pilate, grounded in the laws of the Roman Empire, the truth which Jesus came to
testify to is that we are all in this world together and we are inter-connected to one another - we are
in relationship with each other. And that as human beings we can celebrate and nurture that
connectedness or we can choose to fight anything that is different than us.
Recently, in one of his daily homilies, Pope Francis defined a Christian as one who, "includes, and
does not close the door to anyone, even if this provokes resistance. The attitude of the Scribes and
the Pharisees is that they exclude. [They say,] ‘We are the perfect, we follow the law. These [other]
people are sinners, they are publicans’ – [but] the attitude of Jesus is to include. There are two paths
in life: the path of exclusion of persons from our community and the path of inclusion. Anyone who
excludes, because they believe themselves to be better, generates conflicts and divisions..." And no
doubt we are seeing much of this in our world today.
So as we bring this Liturgical year to a close let us pray for peace throughout the world, and an end
to conflict and division and for all those deeply affected by this unrest…
Let us pray for and echo our faith with our Catechumens as they near their end of their studies
leading them to be fully initiated into the our community of St. Paul’s
And let us not forget that Jesus came to testify to the ‘truth’ that the kingship of Christ’ – the kingship
of our baptism - is not based on “human power” and superiority over others, but on loving and
serving one another. For in doing so, the ‘truth’ of God’s kingdom becomes present on earth – as it
is in heaven…nurtured by our faith and held by our loving Christ – the Christ who is indeed our King.