TEXT: Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, November 23, 2025
November 23, 2025 Father De Celles Homily
Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe
November 23, 2025
Homily by Fr. John De Celles
St. Raymond of Peñafort Catholic Church
Springfield, VA
There’s an ancient legend about Alexander the Great,
King of Macedonia, who conquered and ruled
most of the Near East around the year 330BC.
Supposedly, one day Alexander was riding with his army
and a beggar along the side of the road cried out to him
for a piece of bread to eat.
Alexander looked down on the man and threw him a bag of gold coins.
Everyone was shocked and one of his soldiers remarked that
one copper coin would have taken care of the beggar.
To this Alexander replied,
“Copper coins would suit the beggar’s need,
but gold coins suit Alexander’s giving.”
I think in some ways this story pretty much sums up
today’s feast day of Christ the King.
For Christ, kingship is not about domination, but about generosity.
As king He gives us not only everything we need,
but also whatever is infinitely more generous and wonderful
than anything we could dream of.
Perhaps one of the most striking, yet simple, examples of this
is found in today’s Gospel as the good thief asks his King,
“Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
And Jesus replied, “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
The thief asks only to be “remembered”,
but Christ promises him not only that, but “Paradise today.”
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God’s generosity to man began in the very beginning.
After creating the whole universe
God, as sovereign Lord of the Universe,
first gave life to man,
and then gave all His creation over to man as a gift as well.
But even this wasn’t enough for Him to give—He wanted to give us something more:
He wanted to give us a share of His life in heaven itself.
And so, He eventually established Israel as His own people,
the doorway through which He would eventually enter to give Himself totally to us.
Now, when God first established the nation of Israel,
He established it without a king.
They were governed by judges and local rulers.
God told them that the only king they should have was Him
–God was their true king.
And what better king could they have?
But as time went on the people demanded a human king.
God warned them that a human king
would fall prey to the temptations of worldly power
and, in effect, make them into “his slaves.”
In spite of His warning, they continue to insist,
and God gave them their first human king, King Saul.
It didn’t take long for Saul to do what God warned against:
Caught up in his pride and lust for worldly power and worldly goods,
Saul began to, in effect, enslave his people.
God then removed Saul and replaced him with King David.
But David also fell victim to the temptations of worldly power as
we all know the story of Bathsheba.
So, then God made a promise to Israel:
One day a descendant of David would come and rule over not just Israel but over the whole world as well.
This king would be different,
perfectly just and not falling to the temptations of the world.
He would rule forever.
And not only would He be David’s son,
but He would also be God’s Son, as God told David:
“I will raise up your offspring after you,
…and I will establish the throne of His kingdom forever.
I will be His father, and He shall be My Son.”
For a thousand years, through various terrible kings and wars and exiles,
even as their kingdom was destroyed and their human kings were replaced
with puppet rulers like Alexander the Great
and the Caesars of Rome,
the Israelites clung to their hope in God’s promise for this King,
the Son of God and son of David.
They waited for the one who would be anointed King by God Himself,
the one they referred to as the “anointed one,”
(in Hebrew, the “Messiah”; in Greek, the “Christus”–or “Christ”).
The king that most of them hoped for was a human king
who would come with a human army
and re-establish a human kingdom, a kingdom of this world.
But that was not the king that the prophets foretold. As Isaiah told them:
“He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised,
and we esteemed him not.”
In the fullness of time God kept His promise.
He sent His Son born of a virgin of the house of David.
As St. Paul tells us in today’s second reading,
He was a king whose kingdom was not of this world,
but rather a kingdom that consists of
“all things in heaven and on earth…the visible and invisible.”
A king whose gift to His people is not limited
to worldly goods or economic prosperity, but
to eternal “redemption [and] the forgiveness of sins.”
A king who conquered not by making war with the blood of a sword,
but by “making peace by the blood of His cross.”
This king would not be a king who would enslave His people
or who would be tempted to seek personal satisfaction
in the perks of earthly wealth.
Though worthy of gold, frankincense, myrrh, and the adoration of kings,
He was born in a stable and first visited by poor shepherds.
Though worthy of a golden throne on the right hand of His Heavenly Father,
His only thrones in this world would be of wood:
the throne of a wooden manger and the throne of a wooden cross.
And so it was, as we read in today’s Gospel,
that as He hung upon the cross, twice someone said to Him,
“Let him save himself if he is …the Christ…the King.”
Once this was the voice of the leaders of the people gathered at His feet,
and once it was the voice of the unrepentant criminal being crucified next to Him.
They didn’t recognize their king,
even though Pilate had placed above His head the sign that said,
“THIS IS THE KING OF THE JEWS.”
Only one spoke up to recognize the king.
Only one….the one who was suffering with Him:
The repentant thief who hanged upon his own cross
recognized that this king did not want to come down from the cross
because He had no need of worldly comforts or a worldly kingdom.
_____
Christ is King.
But like so many of the people of His day,
we often don’t recognize Him or His kingdom.
Like them, we often want Him to rule by fulfilling all of our dreams and wishes, and taking away all of our burdens and sufferings.
Sometimes we doubt He is King when He seems powerless to do so.
And sometimes we try to replace Him as king.
Think about it: Who or what is your real king?
Who or what rules your life?
Do you look to the world for your king and so become a slave to the world?
Is your king worldly power? Or money? Or fancy toys? Or worldly respect?
Have you become a slave of sex or drugs or alcohol?
Are you ruled by hatred or violence or pride?
Are you a slave of other people’s opinion,
or are you ruled by fear of being unpopular?
Or is your joy and happiness–even the daily joys of this earthly life
–rooted in and transformed
by your citizenship in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ?
____
A mark of the great kings of this world, like Alexander the Great,
is their generosity in giving of their worldly goods.
But a kingdom based solely in this world ultimately leads to slavery
–slavery to kings of this world or to things of this world.
Christ our King is more generous than any worldly king could ever be.
And while we can truly begin to enjoy the wonders of His kingdom
even as we live in this world,
His is not a kingdom of the world.
So, His generosity isn’t limited to the passing and petty
joys and pleasures of this world.
The true gift of His kingship is an eternal paradise
full of treasures beyond all imagining.
So today, and every day, let us come to our Lord,
offering Him the praise and adoration
due the King of “heaven and…earth…the visible and invisible.”
Let us thank Him for the many gifts He’s already given us,
but also let us bring Him all of our sufferings and troubles,
all the crosses of our lives.
Let us not look so much for worldly relief, saying with the unrepentant thief,
“If you are king, save yourself and us,”
but rather, accepting the crosses of this world
as humble repentant sinners, asking only,
“Jesus, remember me when you come into Your kingdom.”
And let us rejoice in the boundless generosity of Christ the King,
confident that He will reply,
“I assure you: This day you will be with Me in paradise.”