A tendency of most political leaders is to over-promise and under-deliver: to talk a good game but then to disappoint both friend and foe alike when the time comes for actual accomplishment.  It’s easy for us to get cynical about leadership.  And sometimes, truth be told, our cynicism is just realism.  But it’s not so with the King of the Universe.  Every leader, every politician, every CEO, every priest is compromised: by sin, by pride, by weakness, by cowardice, by honest mistakes.  One King isn’t.  The King of Glory, the King of the Universe, the King of Heaven and Earth.  He is a King who always has the common good at heart, who never acts selfishly, whose leadership is always, 100% of the time, manifested in service and by sacrifice. 

This King has a crown, but it’s a crown of thorns because his greatest ornament is the suffering he bore for us.  He has an army, but it’s the poor, and all those humble Christians who have chosen to follow him out of love, because his power is seen in the Faith of everyday people.  He has an empire, but it’s not an empire of lands and territories, but of souls, because a single human soul is more precious than the entire world.  He has a throne, but his throne is a Cross, because his authority is confirmed by his perfect act of sacrifice.  He has robes, but they are the humble attire of bread and wine, because his greatest glory is the glory of hidden humility. 

This is a real King.  This is a King worth following all the way to the end, a King who doesn’t need to trick us into following him, with slogans, with bread and circuses, or by manipulating our emotions and fears.  He’s a King who actually inspires us, actually stirs our hearts to love and follow him, actually wants to be with us and help us, a King who, in quiet humility, waits for each one of us.  He’s never too busy or too important for us.  In fact, sometimes we’re the ones who act as if we’re too busy or important for him.  But he waits for us, always.  He waits patiently for us in every tabernacle of every Catholic church throughout the world.  He presents himself to us at every single Mass.  He wants us to be with him.  To bring him our needs, to ask him for help when we need it, and simply to grow closer to him as true friends by the time we spend in his presence.  We can ask pardon for our sins and failings, we can pray for what we need, we can give thanks for his many blessings, and we can simply and quietly adore him and wait for him to speak to us.  We can seek an audience with Our King any time we want.  And he will always be ready to listen. 

A very famous passage in Sacred Scripture says, in reference to our King, “Ask and it will be given you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”  This is quite a promise.  Sometimes when we don’t get our way, we might think that Our Lord is over-promising and under-delivering.  But in truth, when we knock, a door will be opened…it just may not be the door we were knocking on.  When we seek, we will find…it just may not be what we thought we were looking for.  But the door that opens will be a better opportunity than what we presumed when we began knocking.  What we are given will be what is needed for us to have, whether we can see clearly why, or not.  The Lord’s delivery on his promises is lavish, more lavish than we could possibly imagine.  We have one leader, one Prince, who will never disappoint.  He is the Prince of Peace.  The King of Glory.  And we have the privilege of being members of his court, and not only that, members of the royal family, heirs of the kingdom.  We receive the food of immortality from him, we glory in obedience his commands, and we prepare to live with him forever in the Kingdom of Heaven.