Solemnity of Christ the King

"My kingdom does not belong to this world"  --Jesus, The Gospel of John

There is that famous line from the Mel Brooks's movie History of the World: Part I,"It's good to be king!"  Being king brings up beautiful imagery of elaborate court ritual, absolute authority, and feasting; sounds a lot like the institutional church!   But Jesus' words to Pilate betray this image of opulence.  When asked about his kingdom, Jesus replies "My kingdom does not belong to this world" (New American Bible).  Another translation has it as "My kingdom is not of this world"(New International Version).  The sense of Jesus' reply is that his kingdom is neither the kingdom of Rome nor the kingdom envisioned by the religious authorities; both groups lose.

The Solemnity of Christ the King that embraces Jesus as king is relatively new.  It was established in 1925 to counter what the Church saw as an increasing tendency to worship human wisdom and power, which was loosely defined as modernism.  By later positioning the solemnity at the end of the Church's liturgical year in 1969, it further enhanced its standing as the summit of Christ's rule, and, implicitly, the Church as Christ's kingdom.

The songs and imagery associated with this celebration, however, often blunt the irony of Christ as king.  The common representation is of a resurrected, non-bloody, Jesus hovering (rather than being nailed) on the cross.  The image of Christ as king is ironic because he is the king with a crown of thorns with a procession of humiliation and a knightly court of cowards.  It seems, as St. Paul writes in his letter to the Corinthians  "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God."

The ironic image of Jesus as king nailed to the cross speaks of a different kind of power than the power of earthly kingdoms.  In a general audience at the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI suggests ". .the Cross reveals ‘the power of God’ which is different from human power; it reveals, in fact, His love.” 

The power of God's kingdom as embodied by Jesus' death isn't exclusively revealed by the resurrection, although the saving power of God is most apparent here. It is the magnitude of God's love for His creation in self-sacrifice that shows Christ's real power as king.  

The ultimate love is the love that sacrifices self for another. This is the real power that defines Christ's kingdom.  This is why evil can never ultimately triumph over good; evil avoids self-sacrifice.  Evil always seeks what is best for the self over and against the other.  It destroys community and ultimately destroys itself.

Self-sacrificing love, on the other hand,  is the ultimate Christian act where one falls into the opened arms of Christ on the cross, trusting in the power of God's ability to bring life from death.  Christ's kingdom, indeed, is not of this world, but it is for this world.  Nothing is of more importance than conforming ourselves to this likeness of Christ as King.

Twenty-sixth Sunday after Pentecost

 Who Can Separate Us from the Love of God?

The list of “apocalyptic” world-ending prophecies is a storied history of disappointment beginning with Simon Bar Giora, an Essene, around 70 C.E. to Warren Jeffs in 2012.  It is probably not unreasonable to suggest that humanity has been predicting the “end times” since we could conceive of such a thing. Opening the lid (the meaning of apocalypse) on the date and time seems to be a way of expressing an ending one can control, a way of assuring the suffering that someday “every tear will be wiped away.”  Far from gloom and doom, the “end times” seem to suggest a great reconciling; good for the insiders, but sad for the ones who aren’t part of the “in-crowd.”  That’s the problem with much of how we understand recent apocalyptic predictions: we’re always saved.  Malachi’s vision of the apocalypse, however, brings judgment on his people as many of the Old Testament prophets did.  The “in-crowd” constituted those who remained faithful and obedient, honoring God’s law and worshiping God with sincerity and trust.  Let’s face it; it is a lot easier to sacrifice a diseased animal than a healthy one, to give a bit less than ten percent, or to go outside the Law when it was convenient.  The difficulty of remaining faithful is the history of salvation.

            In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus is also declaring a vision of destruction; sometimes called the “Mini Apocalypse” because it deals only with the Temple destruction as a final event; however, the Temple was the world for the Jews.  Like the vision of Enoch, though, apocalyptic visions tend to accumulate events and expand as time goes on.  Nation rising against nation, kingdom against kingdom, earthquakes, famines, and plagues were all a reality for the first century Jew. The early church knew much of being “hated by all because of my name” and the experience of standing powerless before one’s adversaries.  Indeed, Christians found themselves “led before kings and governors.”  In Iran and other places hostile to the Gospel of Christ, Christians continue to be jailed, tortured and killed.  In September of 2013, BBC Radio quoted Archbishop Welby speaking of persecution in Egpyt and Pakistan:  “The appearance is often deceptive but I think Christians have been attacked in some cases simply because of their faith,” he said.  “I think it is true to say – and also in Peshawar – that we have seen more than 80 martyrs in the last few days. “They have been attacked because they were testifying to their faith in Jesus Christ by going to church”(The Telegraph.co.uk). It is puzzling, then, when Jesus declares “…not a hair on your head will be destroyed. By your perseverance, you will secure your lives”.  Seemingly, the suffering and death of tens of thousands of Christians stand in testimony against such an optimistic prediction.

            The turn comes in realizing that death is not equated with destruction for Christians.  Who can destroy us?  Who can destroy what connects us to the immortality and eternity of God? Our perseverance is being Good News, of finding refuge for ourselves in our community of faith that includes the Blessed Trinity, all the saints and our brothers and sisters of our faith community.  Martyrdom is a communal affair; perseverance is never in isolation of the support and community offered by the Church on earth. The sacraments tie us to this eternal source of grace and belonging that is tangible, physical, bridging the temporal and eternal.  Who can now separate us from the love of God?