Father Ken’s Message:
Good afternoon and welcome to our English Mass at the Catholic Cathedral of Sapporo. I am sorry that I cannot be with you in person this afternoon but I had to go to another part of the city to do Mass. Today is the great feast of Christ the King. On the front page of your print, I included a few different versions of images of our brother Jesus in the role of Christ the King. The version you like depends upon your own spirituality.
Us Catholics pride ourselves on the belief in the resurrection and eternal life in Heaven. The feast of Christ the King speaks of our future life in Heaven. But actually, many other great religions have also embraced the notion of eternal life, albeit with very different traditions. I think it is important and interesting to look at some of them to appreciate the uniqueness of Jesus as Christ the King.
In 1974 a man digging a well in the City of Xian in China discovered the terracotta warrior soldiers, horses and chariots by accident. These warriors were created by Emperor Qin of China to protect him in his tomb from harm after death in the afterlife. There are 8000 warrior statues, horses and bronze chariots. It took 40 years to make them and upon his death all the craftsmen were buried with the Emperor Qin as well as his 3000 wives and children to keep secret the location of the terracotta warrior army. Emperor Qin of China who died 2000 years ago; he was a contemporary with Jesus. Besides the amazing collection of terracotta warriors, he also built the famous Great Wall of China, which stretches 3000 miles to protect China against invaders. Emperor Qin’s efforts reveal that independent of our Judeo-Christian tradition, that people in China also believed in the afterlife.
We also know that the pyramids of Egypt containing the mummies of the Egyptian pharaohs believed in the afterlife. The excavated pyramid tombs are full of treasures of gold and jewelry as it was believed they would need them in the next life. The Egyptians were free of any influence of Judeo-Christian beliefs.
In South America the ancient Aztec and Mayan cultures also held beliefs in the afterlife. They buried their dead with eating utensils and bowls in order to have tools to eat with in the next life. Of course, these civilizations had no contact with the rest of the world until Christopher Columbus crossed the Atlantic Ocean in 1495.
From these various cultures we learn that belief in an afterlife existed outside of our Judeo-Christian culture in varying places on the planet. However, by way of today’s Gospel from Jesus we learn some very good news. Admittance to Heaven does not depend upon one’s political power or influence, or wealth. We do not need an army as Emperor Qin feared, nor wealth like the Egyptian pharaoh’s believed, and we do not need to bring our own chopsticks to Heaven as the Aztecs and Mayan’s believed. Simply, our admission into Heaven is free but an interview of our conduct will be done to assess how by our simple acts of love we assisted the hungry, the thirsty, the homeless, the naked, the sick, and those in prison in various ways. Jesus did the hard thing for us by dying on the Cross to save us from our sins and from the devil, but we who love Jesus are asked to continue his mission of love by our acts of love to one another. Today’s Gospel is consoling and challenging at the same time. We do not have to do anything extraordinary to enter heaven, we only have to love like Jesus and Mary and Joseph did by simple acts of love and kindness to one another including people we do not even know personally.
I would like to end the homily by mentioning John Lennon and his song “Imagine.” I am from New York City. I lived and worked as a nurse at a Cancer hospital on the East Side of Manhattan and on days off I walked across to the West Side through Central Park to the YMCA to swim and learn Karate. It was next to the apartment building of Yoko Ono and John Lennon. I actually met Yoko Ono one day outside the apartment. Anyway, this song “Imagine” invites the listener to imagine a different world than the one we are living in now, to a world of no killing and full of peace. John Lennon was a member of the Church of England, as was Ringo. George Harrison and Paul McCarthy were Catholics. While some of the words in the song I do not agree with, I think the message of using our imagination to envision and help create a new world are very important.
Today is the end of another liturgical year in the Catholic calendar. Next week we begin Advent in Year B in the cycle and we will be reading from the Gospel of St. Mark. In many ways Jesus was a dreamer too. Jesus didn’t write songs or even write one of the Gospels in the Bible, instead he simply lived what he believed was ｘa life of love to God and to neighbor. I ask all of you today to join Jesus to be dreamers who make dreams come true by a life of love.
On the front cover, I only put one traditional picture of Christ the King sitting in a throne because my personal image of Jesus as Christ the King is a working King out everyday helping the people in his Kingdom. My friends we by our Baptism and love for Jesus are citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven already. Let us show our belonging to the Kingdom of Heaven by our love! Thank you for visiting the Catholic Cathedral of Sapporo.
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