Christ the King (B) (Daniel 7:13-14; Apocalypse 1:5-8; John
18:33-37)
In our readings today we are given a magnificent portrait
of Him Who is our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, the Son of God become Son of Man:
As the visions during the
night continued, I saw coming with the clouds of heaven One like a son of man. When He reached the Ancient of Days and was
presented before Him, He received dominion, splendour, and kingship; all nations,
peoples and tongues will serve Him. His
dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, His kingship one
that shall not be destroyed.
Behold, He is coming amid the
clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him. All the peoples of the earth will lament Him. Yes.
Amen.
And Jesus, in answer to Pontius Pilate’s question, pictured
Himself as follows:
You say I am a king. For this
I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to
My voice.
Jesus is therefore our King, and today we celebrate His saving
rule in our lives. As He told us, He
came, as King, to bear witness to -- that is to proclaim in word and deed, by
His death as throughout His life – the truth about God and His plan for our
salvation. He came as King in this
respect because His proclamation of the truth had to be both authoritative and
unambiguous, subject to neither frustration nor failure; and His message of
love and forgiveness had ultimately to be heard in all the fullness of its beauty
and power by all men. As King,
therefore, Jesus not only proclaims the Truth, He makes the Truth manifest,
because He is the Truth:
I am
the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
That means, that those who have embraced the love that God
has for us by believing in Our Lord Jesus’ proclamation and manifestation of that
truth by His life and death, His words and works, have God -- Who is
love -- abiding in them.
Consequently, we can appreciate that truth is not just words
to be heard, it is a revelation of God’s very self, meant to be lovingly believed
in order that God’s purpose for it may be fulfilled as Isaiah prophesied:
My word that goes forth from
My mouth shall not return to Me empty, but shall do what pleases Me, achieving
the end for which I sent it;
So will the Lord God make
justice spring up and praise before all the nations (Isaiah 55:11; 61:11);
a fulfilment most beautifully celebrated by the Psalmist
(Psalm 85:11) with the words:
Love and truth will meet; justice
and peace will kiss.
It was strange, however, to hear the author of the book of
Revelation emphatically assuring us that, when our Lord and Saviour comes in
His glory:
Every eye will see Him, even
those who pierced Him. And all
the peoples of the earth will lament Him.
Yes. Amen.
His coming will cause all
the tribes of the earth to mourn, every
eye to lament? Obviously -- it would
seem to us -- those who killed Him will mourn at His return in glory; but why should
it be that all will lament, even
those who loved Him?
This will be because of the Truth; since it is, indeed, Gospel
truth that all of us, each and every
one of us on earth, have sinned:
There is no one just, not
one; there is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks God. All have gone astray; all alike are
worthless, there is not one who does good, not even one. (Romans 3:10-12)
However, those who receive the truth manifested and proclaimed
in the Lord’s first coming, lament the evil that was done to Him then, above
all they mourn their own part in that evil.
That is, they lament and mourn out of love, out of sympathy, for Him,
and out of regret for and displeasure with their own behaviour. For them, when Jesus’ comes on the clouds in
glory, those other words of Scripture will be gloriously fulfilled:
You have changed my mourning
into dancing; You have taken off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness,
that my soul may praise You and not be silent.
O Lord my God, forever I will give You thanks. (Psalm 30:11-12)
Those, on the other hand, who do not
receive, do not embrace, that Truth made manifest in Jesus, will mourn simply
and solely when He returns in glory: there will be no love for, no sympathy
with, Him; nothing more than soul-deadening rejection of Him, and ever greater
concern for themselves.
People of God, the kingdom of God, Jesus once said, is
among you; and so -- today as every day -- the question, the drama, of truth
and its reception is going on around us in society, in our community, and in
the secret depths of our very own, individual, hearts and souls. How do we, how should we, react to God’s
truth in Mother Church?
There are those, who seem to think that truth is above all to
be appreciated by our minds; as extensively and as accurately as possible. On the other hand, there are those who think
that heart’s love is really all that matters.
Let us consider aspects of those two attitudes a little more closely.
Many Catholics are perfectly content with themselves when
they go to Mass and receive the Sacraments on the appointed days, as they have
always done; they say they know the faith: they were taught it at school; or they
received it in the instruction given them by a priest, say at conversion and
baptism, or when they were preparing for marriage; and they gladly fulfil the
obligations they originally accepted as part and parcel of the faith, but think
no further. Here we have an example of the
proclaimed truth being retained by the mind -- believers doing what they
have been taught and accepted -- but no longer provoking a responsive love
of the heart for the God and Father originally embraced. At the head of such disciples as these can be
found clerics of all levels who will ‘say’ Mass and give the Sacraments in
double-quick time, and present Catholic doctrine and spirituality with words
that are, too often, little more than bloodless transcripts of Jesus’ words of
life: mere abstract truths or cold mental concepts.
On the other hand, those who think that love is all that
really matters are most content when they can give themselves exclusively to
devotions or charity, to social involvement or emotional prayers: these have a
full heart, indeed, but a mind which is not only relatively inactive, but even
scornful of any need for better appreciation or greater understanding of the faith. These Catholics rarely have any doubts about
themselves, they do not experience any need to ask about, search for, deeper
understanding of what they say they believe.
Quite satisfied with what they perceive as their own sure knowledge and warm
heart, they fully approve of and aver the sincerity of their own actions and intentions. And yet, how many sects have separated
themselves from Mother Church over the centuries because of such disciples’ ignorance
of personal maturity in Christ, and self-righteous scandal at others sins and failings!
People of God, Jesus has come to bear witness to the truth
for us, and He tells us that:
Everyone
who is of the truth hears My voice.
That is, everyone who is of the truth hears now, listens
for, God’s voice calling throughout the whole of their life: HEARS day-long, alert
at whatever hour to HEAR from and respond to Him they love and need above all. And even though what they hear is not always
to their immediate liking, even though the message they hear may at times, be
about their own sinfulness and failings, nevertheless, even such words of the
Lord are heard and embraced with reverence and contrite love.
So, People of God, on this feast of Christ the King let us
open both our minds and our hearts to Him in His Gospel proclamation, which
continues to be heard to this very day in our most modern world through Mother
Church’s liturgy and life. It is a
proclamation of faith not just to be remembered as ammunition for argument, we need
to appreciate and love it, by committing ourselves to live by it and for it and
GROW in it; only thus will we allow it to fulfil God’s purpose in our lives. Jesus assures us that for God, Truth and Love
are one; let us also recall those other words of His to the effect that what God
has joined together in life-commitment, none of us should ever try to separate.
