St. Maria Goretti

There are a lot scary characters out there today in movies, and books, and TV shows. From the shark in “Jaws”, to the Tyrannosaurus Rex in the “Jurassic Park” movies, to Hannibal Lector in the book and movie, “The Silence of the Lambs”, some characters really make their individual stories very frightening. And images of these scary characters stick with us, long after the movie or TV show is over, or long after we have finished the book. The scariest character that I have ever seen is not from a movie, or a book, or a TV show. The most frightening character that I have ever experienced is that king with the big head in the Burger King commercials. Have you seen those? Burger King’s mascot for the last few years really, has been this guy in a king’s costume with this big plastic, or papier-mâché head. He looks like a mascot for some small college in Utah, or something. Let me tell you, THAT guy is scary! I’ve had more bad dreams about Burger King’s mascot than I ever did about Hannibal Lector! In the most recent Burger King commercials, they have the scary king mascot with the big head, jump off a ramp on a motorcycle and crash land. And you think, thank God, they finally killed off the scary king with the big head. And just then, the camera zooms in the scary king with the big head gives the thumbs up sign to indicate that he’s O.K. This guy is just like Freddy Krueger and Jason from those terrible scary movies. The scary king with the big head won’t die. He didn’t even crack his big plastic head. It’s creepy stuff, man. The Burger King king is the worst.

We have a lot of different images of kings in our heads. Many of them are scary. We know from history that many kings were tyrants. There was a reason why our government was set up without a king. From the beginning, Americans didn’t want a king. We know that in some parts of Africa even today, there are violent warlords who call themselves “king”, and who have done a lot of damage and hurt a lot of people. We know from our Church History that there have been many very good kings. Some kings were in fact, so good, that the Church canonized them as saints, such as St. Louis and St. Wenceslaus. Then, who can forget the image from that old movie of King Henry the VIII eating a huge turkey leg.

Maybe Pilate’s problem in our Gospel today is the same thing. Even two thousand years ago, there were several images of kings in Pilate’s mind. And Jesus didn’t fit into any of those images. He wasn’t rich. He wasn’t powerful. He wasn’t wearing fine clothes and a crown. Pilate is confused. And it doesn’t help that there’s an angry mob outside in courtyard yelling for him to put this King to death. And so Pilate, the Roman governor, interrogates Jesus on being a king. And it’s an odd interrogation, because Jesus asks as many questions of Pilate, as Pilate does of him. And Pilate wants to understand, but Jesus isn’t meshing with his whole idea of “kingship” and what a king is and does. Pilate continues questioning Jesus without really ever getting to the heart of Who Jesus is or to the true nature of Jesus’ kingship. And while Pilate finds no reason to condemn Jesus, he eventually caves in to the jeering crowd and sacrifices Jesus to keep peace and protect himself.

Maybe, when it comes to Jesus being our King, we face some of the same challenges that Pilate did. Perhaps we too are curious about Jesus, or maybe we are inconvenienced by Jesus, or possibly we are even annoyed by Jesus and His teachings, and maybe we don’t really want to know the answer to the question, “Are you a King?” It could be because if it is true, then we just might have to change our lives. There are ramifications, you know. Perhaps we’re afraid of what it means to follow such a King. Maybe we know what it will mean, and we consciously choose to NOT follow the command to have the mind of Christ and to willingly lay down our own lives. Perhaps, like Pilate, we too cave into peer pressure to keep the peace and to protect ourselves. It’s all about our images of king. And who really is the Lord and King of our lives?

Oh, we don’t have a king, we say. We have a President. We have a Governor. We have a Town Manager. We have a favorite basketball player, and a favorite football player, and a favorite NASCAR driver. We have a favorite musician, and a favorite movie star, and a favorite comedian. We have wives, and husbands, and friends, and parents, and kids, and priests. But who’s our King? Who’s the center of our lives? Who do we follow every day with our lives? Is it our work, or our money, or our appetites? Or is it Jesus? Today, He wants to be Number One in our lives. Pilate couldn’t understand that two thousand years ago. Today, do we?

May God bless us on this Feast Day, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit… AMEN !!!

St. Maria Goretti… Pray for us !!!