CHRIST the SUPREME RULER: “Jesus Christ,…the ruler over the kings of the earth” (Rev 1:5). Buried in Aachen Cathedral in Germany the same day as his death, January 18, 814, Charlemagne, the father of Europe, has not really rested in peace. His tomb was opened by Frederick I in 1165, who re-interred the body in a marble sarcophagus. Fifty years later, Frederick II replaced the sarcophagus with a casket made of gold and silver. It was opened again in 1349, 1861, 1988, and 2010! But the tomb was first opened by Otto III in the year 1000. As he entered the underground chamber, Otto found Charlemagne seated on a marble coronation chair, wrapped in his Imperial robes and wearing a golden crown. A book of the Gospel lay open in his lap; and as he sat there, silent, cold, motionless, the finger of the dead man’s hand pointed to the words of Jesus in Mk 8:36: “What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Look who gets the last word!
