Ascension, A May 17, 2026
Fr. Alexander Albert St. Mary Magdalen, Abbeville
As a young boy, my favorite animated movie was ‘Aladdin.” In it a young man finds a magic lamp containing a genie who can grant him three wishes. Voiced by the iconic Robin Williams, one of the genie’s most memorable lines is “phenomenal cosmic power, itty bitty living space” – something he says while describing the fact that he is permanently bound to the lamp despite his ability to change reality itself. It kind of raises the question: what good is power if you can only use it for others and can’t use it to benefit yourself?
That’s not unlike the Apostles’ question in the first reading: “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” For three years, the Apostles have watched as Jesus healed the sick, cast out demons, forgave sins, and taught people how heaven and holiness are more important than success in this world. The night before he died, Jesus told his apostles about his plan to go to heaven and send them the Holy Spirit. Then Jesus died and rose from the dead, just like he said he would, and the Apostles still don’t get it. Again and again and again Jesus redirected people to eternal realities and still the apostles want a literal, earthly kingdom. They still misunderstand the point of power.
Over the past two weeks, I’ve given a three-part homily series on how our baptism makes us like Jesus. Jesus commands us to “love one another as I have loved you.” The problem is that we misuse the word “love” so often that we need to be more specific. So, I broke down Jesus’ definition of love into the three categories – priest, prophet, and king – the same three ways that our baptism makes us like Jesus, three ways we can learn to love like Jesus. We began with baptismal priesthood two weeks ago, covered baptismal prophethood last week – both of those are online – Now we come to baptismal kingship today.
And the feast of the Ascension is a good time to consider what it means to be a “king” like Jesus. For priesthood, I used the phrase “pay, pray, and obey.” For prophethood, I created the phrase “words, wonders, and woes.” For kingship, let’s use “Mercy, Morality, and Mission.” Mercy, Morality, and Mission are three ways we can look at kingship in Jesus and what our baptismal kingship should mean to us. “Phenomenal cosmic power” is a good description of what Jesus has and what he gives to us, but our fallen nature often resents how that power doesn’t work by the world’s standards. Like the genie, we sometimes feel constrained by the “itty bitty living space” of a Christian definition of power.
We’ll start with mercy as a good example. When people think of kings, they typically imagine great wealth and power and the ability to do what they want and order others around. Notice, however, that when Jesus talks about “authority,” he often connects it to the power to forgive sins. In fact, the first thing he does after rising from the dead is share that authority of forgiveness with his apostles and their successors
But Jesus also calls all believers to forgive others “as God has forgiven you in Christ” (Eph 4:32). While only ministerial priests can grant divine absolution, the fact that Jesus tells us to forgive even our enemies invites all of the baptized into some share of his kingly mercy.
Sin is a kind of spiritual debt. We were in trouble because we could never repay that debt on our own. Now, who can afford to simply dismiss a huge debt? A king can. Sin is also the source of guilt and it requires punishment. But who has the authority to dismiss a punishment? A king does. Kings and presidents have always been given special power to grant pardon’s, to override the usual legal punishment of someone if they saw fit.
By forgiving others, you are tapping into the divine kingship and wielding a small portion of God’s power and wealth to wipe out the portion of debt and punishment owed to you by those who hurt you. To forgive is not weakness and poverty because to do it well requires the power and wealth of a king or queen. So, be royal in your mercy, knowing that the King of Heaven will ensure real justice in the end.
Mercy is first because it’s where God starts with us, but his mercy calls us to repentance and to a moral way of life. People accuse Catholics of being obsessed with morality in general and sexual morality in particular. And yet, across 3 homilies with 3 points each, this is only one… one point out of nine on how to follow Jesus. As for sexual morality? Yes, it matters, but it’s also only 2 of the 10 commandments.
Kingly morality corrects the childish idea of a king as someone who can do whatever they want. A king or queen is someone who governs, who rules. No one is fit to lead others if they cannot rule themselves. Indulging your every passion and whim is not freedom, it is slavery to animal instincts and unreliable impulses. Following the moral law is not an “itty bitty living space,” it is actually strength. It takes power to take hold of our unruly instincts, base passions, and disordered thoughts – to rule wisely over them so that we act with dignity and with a conscious effort to do what is good for others as well as ourselves.
And true kingly morality is not just what you don’t do. Ask yourself: do I treat my morality as a set of boundaries or as my guiding principles? It is good to live life without crossing moral lines, but it takes royal dignity to lead my life with the goal of doing what is moral… to not only say “I refuse to do evil in order to succeed” but to say “my definition of success is doing good for God’s glory and the salvation of others.” Graduates, will you career, your education, your vocation be royal enough to treat God’s commandments not just as guardrails, but to make divine righteousness into your guiding star?
Which brings us to mission. Kings and queens must not live for themselves, but for others – they have a mission. Jesus says “all power in heaven and on earth has been given to me” and then immediately says, “therefore…” his next sentence is because of his power. We are supposed to “go and make disciples of all nations” because he has “phenomenal cosmic power.” He is sharing his power with us, basically telling us to conquer the world. What the apostles missed in the first reading is that the kingdom of heaven is already here. The king ascends to heaven to sit on his throne, but we are part of the body of Christ. Tell me, if someone is a king, is only part of his body a king? Like, his head is the king, but his hand is not? Even the phrase “the hand of the king” is an expression of royal authority and generosity. We belong to the king’s body, so we are kings. Because a king’s mission is the well-being of his people, we become kingly when we exercise the royal mission.
And what is that mission? Make disciples. Baptism is just part of the overall mission. It’s why parents and godparents go to classes for baptizing their children, to remind them of their royal duty to “make disciples” of their children. That royal duty and prerogative to make disciples of all nations extends to all of us, parent or not. And you, dear graduates, are stepping into the next phase of your mission. Consider that, however you choose to make a living, you nonetheless carry the royal responsibility of drawing others to the kingdom of heaven.
God mounts his throne to shouts of joy. He mounts that throne in order to share that throne with us. Follow him to it, then, by embracing your baptismal call to be priest, prophet, and king in Christ Jesus. Rule over yourselves and whatever part of the world that falls under your influence. Be majestic in your mercy, kingly in your morality, and royal in your mission so that you too can mount your throne to shouts of joy.