Christ the King 2016

My Spiritual Director shared with me during a very difficult time, profound words of wisdom.   Words that kept me sane, and to this day I use all the time.

“Don’t Panic.”

Our Gospel passage on this feast of Christ the King shares that same wisdom.

We can be ruled by a situation, or we can be free in a situation:  all depends on our reaction.

Think of the scene, and the groups involved.  Our King, Jesus Christ, is nailed to a cross.

Clearly there are the scorners, the people yelling and insulting Jesus; making fun of him and his seeming failure.
These are the people who think they have power; they think they have control over the situation.

There is the one thief who does not understand Jesus; who seeks his own “power” in thinking Jesus will get him off the cross.

There is the one person who gets it, the other thief.  
He knows why he is there.  He knows why the other is there, and he also knows why Jesus is not supposed to be there, and I suspect he also knows how the system works.  He knows how “justice” works

And there is our King, the center of this drama.

What is Jesus’ reaction to this drama?  How does he respond to the insults, the bullying, the egotism of the others?

Clearly, he is not panicked.

To the insults, the jeers, the taunts, the mockery...Jesus is silent.
He does not fire back with angry tweets, texts, or unfriend them on facebook...

His only words In this scene are to the one criminal who understands; who treats Jesus with a degree of compassion.  Jesus responds with his own words of peace, love, and I suspect a little humor.

Don’t Panic.

Christ our King, this last Sunday of Ordinary time, is not about us as Catholics, Christians feeling all superior about ourselves towards others.
We are not about a people who crave power as the world understands power.
Our faith is not about us holding ourselves above others.  Our Faith is not about us rushing to judge, not us rushing to condemn.

It is about freedom.  It is about true salvation.

Our King is hanging on a cross.  Our King is free.  He is power!

See, salvation and power are about love.  It is about giving ourselves for the good of others.  It is about changing a bad, even violent not situation, and bringing good to it.

This is what Jesus did and continues to do.

This is the salvation that Jesus Christ offers, to save us from the anger and violence of this world that leads to hate.

Jesus saves us from the sin of thinking power is about control.

He says that in every bad situation, no matter how horrible it may seem, Don’t panic, but Love.

When I have panicked, I gave myself over to the situation.  I lost control.  And to be honest, the situation just escalated for the worst/

“Don’t Panic.”  Calms me down.
It forces me to stop and look at what is going on.
To pray, and to listen for the words that Jesus says he will give in these moments.

These are not just worldwide or national dramas...to be honest, those really don’t effect us all that much (unless we let them)

It is the dramas of broken relationships, of betrayal by friends and spouses; when people we love get sick or hurt; it is when we lose our jobs;
It is when we get bad grades; when we don’t get accepted into the college we want.  
It is when our plans completely collapse.  When our hopes seem to get crushed
It is those moments when it seems all the world is against us, nothing seems to be going right….

I think we create the suffering that exists because we try to control situations we have no control over.  We do not accept what has happened.  

Don’t panic.

I think of Jesus on the night of his arrest in the garden.  He was worried about what was to take place, scared about it, so he did what?   He prayed.   He did not panic.
He prayed so hard; looking for a way through, trying to make sense of something that really made no sense;

What did make sense,  the Father loved him, no matter what.
That nothing, no person can take away that love.

That was his anchor that led him through.
That was his anchor that shielded him from the jeers and insults.
That was his anchor to see the love given to him by a criminal hanging with him.

In those darkest moments I turn to Jesus and he reminds me: I am loved and I can love back.

It calms me.
I see better.
I see beyond the chaos that surrounds me.
I see beyond the hysteria that wants to pull me in.

Don’t Panic.

Isn’t that the message of the Eucharist?
That Jesus, although to the world he failed, although to the powerful he was nothing…
Jesus was raised from the dead.
That despite the efforts of sin, life, love won.

And we consume that.
To know that when we cling to life, when we hope, we will win too.  We will rise above the chaos, the pain, the suffering

And in these days where everyone seems so anxious, so divided, so full of jeers, insults…

Don’t Panic...Love.

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