Behold Your Humble King!

Homily from XLT - St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church

Behold your Humble King!

To be humble means to be modest, reverential, submissive.

A king is a sovereign, a ruler, the preeminent one.

These two things: to be humble and to be a king seem to contradict one another.  To be submissive and to be a ruler.  Are there any submissive rulers in our world today?  Are there any humble kings?

There is only one; the One before our very eyes in the monstrance: Jesus Christ, the Humble King.

For Jesus is our Ruler.  He is ruler of the Universe.  And at the same time, He is modest, reverential and submissive.  Jesus is submissive before God.  He always did the will of His Father.  He was always humble before His Father.

But Jesus humble Himself, not just to His Father alone.  In the plan of salvation, Jesus does something amazing.  He humbles Himself before His own creation.  He humbles Himself before man and woman; before you and I.

Behold your Humble King in the manger in Bethlehem.  He enters the world a helpless, vulnerable, tiny baby and entrusts Himself entirely to a teenage mother and carpenter father.

Behold your Humble King in the Upper Room at the Last Supper.  He wraps a towel around His waist and does the work of a slave: He washes the dirty feet of His own disciples.

Behold your Humble King upon His Cross on Calvary.  He wears a crown; but it is a crown of thorns.  Above His head is a sign that reads "This is the King of the Jews."  But it is a mockery.  And He humbles Himself, He submits Himself to the point of death for our sake so that we might be rescued from sin.

And in this state of total humility, in His death, Jesus humbles Himself by depending on our Help.  Because one He dies... how does He get down from the Cross and into the tomb from which He will rise?  Only by placing Himself in our hands.

It's an amazing thing: it is Jesus' mission to save us by His death and resurrection.  And yet, He totally depends upon us to take His body from the place of His death to the place of His resurrection.  And so, this Humble King, places Himself in the hands of his own subjects.

And He continues to do this today.  Carrying the Body of Christ is not the job of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus alone.  Jesus entrusts you and I to carry His Body as well.  And in this picture, Joseph of Arimathea is looking right at us, as if to say, "Will you help carry the Body of Christ?  Will you carry your Humble King?"

We come here today to adore our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament in the monstrance.  Be we are not only adorers.  We are disciples.  So when you leave this place, you must take Jesus with you.  Like the disciples in this picture, you my friends must carry Jesus into the empty tombs of the world so that new life in Christ may raise there.  You do this through your actions and words that allow others to see Jesus in you.

So come, learn from your Humble King.  Imitate Him.  Be modest before Him.  Be reverential before Him.  Be submissive before Him.  Come forward... kneel... and be humble before your Humble King.