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Christ the King (B): Read Dan 7:13-14; Rev 1, 5-8; Jn 18, 33b-37
There are times in life when one needs to step back and take a look at the wider picture. These are usually times which
mark the beginning or the end of an important phase of life: getting married, leaving home, changing jobs or house, the birth
of a child, the death of a loved one, the assassination of a President, serious sickness, war or misfortune. Such moments
beckon from us deeper appreciation, deeper understanding of what life is all about, where we come from and where we are going.
They can be times of great pain, even when what is happening is good, because often in them we must yet say goodbye. They
are times when we intuit our own mortality and are faced with the ultimate questions of life.
Thankfully, indeed, many, if not most, people understand that they must face up to those times and those questions.
Yet much of the agenda which certain groups of society today try to impose on the rest would have us forget such moments of
truth. They would have us get absorbed in illusions about perennial youth, unassailable health, unlimited freedom and a panoply
of other so-called modernities which are scarcely indistinguishable from the more blatant forms of idolatry of former generations.
Karl Marx opined that religion was the “opium of the people”; but it is so no more, not because Marx would say
religion is now true, but because human genius has invented much more interesting forms of opium. Unlike religion, however,
the new “opia” are not an escape from the world to get lost in God, but a supposed escape from God to get lost
in the world.
Today, on the Feast of Christ the King, we come to the last Sunday of the Church’s Year, a symbol of the last
Day itself. It is a day to lay aside our “opia”; it is a day for reflection on the bigger perspective of our individual
lives and of the world itself. It is not unlike the day on which Jesus stood before Pilate; a day of truth for both of them.
That day, on which Pilate questioned and judged Jesus on His other-worldly Kingship, effectively brought the life of Jesus
in this world to its bitter-sweet conclusion. But there will be another such day: the day on which Christ the Crucified King
returns, when he will judge all the Pilates of history, and indeed all of us, so bringing this world and history itself to
an end. It will be an end marked by the self-same struggle that has marked history from the very beginning; it is the struggle
common to us all; it was the struggle which marked Good Friday in the agony of Jesus Himself, and which He alone was able
to resolve, for in Him there is no sin: I speak of the struggle to conquer sin and death, to escape eternal damnation.
The first and the second readings of today depict for us, in the mystical visions of the Prophet Daniel and the Evangelist
John, the figure of Christ the Victor, Christ the ultimate owner and arbiter of all Power over humanity and the created universe,
Christ the Alpha and the Omega, Christ the King. The pathetic presumption of Pilate and those who handed Jesus over to him
-that is, to be truthful, all of us- speaks less to our empty claim to judge God and more to the extremity of love and humility
shown by Jesus in His desire to save us from that very presumption and its nefarious consequences. Our world is full of arrogance
and boasting: as one of the psalms puts it: “we are filled with contempt; our souls are all to full of the scorn of
the rich, of the proud man’s disdain.” Yet, the King of Love on Calvary’s hill, judges our violent insolence with the greater power of His meekness, compassion and
forgiveness. These He pours out upon us to purify us from the defilement of sin and to bring us back to our senses. For the
one who accepts it, the forgiveness of Jesus puts everything back in perspective and bestows the indescribable peace of God.
Thus, the Feast of Christ the King offers us a grace-filled opportunity to stand back, as individuals, families, parishes,
and Catholic Church, to take a realistic look at the real meaning of the turmoil and power-games which afflict our human family,
both inside and outside the Church Herself. Christ the King offers us the vision to discern what is truly good in our world
and Church today – and there is much, may His Name be praised! In that good He Himself is at work and inviting believers
and men of good will to stand firmly at His side. But He also offers us the wisdom to discern what is only apparently good,
where the angel of light, Lucifer, veils his evil designs under the guise of what appeals to our weakness, or where we live
fake lives of fake happiness for reasons we often don’t quite ourselves understand. Christ invites us to unveil Lucifer
as Satan and his seductions as the work of spiritual and corporal destruction. He also raises up a mirror before us where
we can see the image of how we look in His eyes, not in our own. If we let Him, He will help us meet our true selves and find
true happiness in doing so.
The world is, and is not, Christ’s enemy. If we understand the world to be the collective lost sheep, or the
prodigal son, Christ the King loves the world: He came not to condemn it but to save it. But if we take the world to mean
that whole host of attitudes and actions which are hostile to Christ, His Gospel, His Church and His Cross, and which freely
serve, explicitly or implicitly, the doomed kingdom of the anti-Christ, then Christ the King will have no choice but to judge
it and condemn it to eternal loss.
Christ may seem to delay, but His return is more certain than the dawn. He will come to establish forever His universal
Kingdom of truth and life, of holiness and grace, of justice, love and peace. Keeping the eyes of our hearts fixed on Him
as He approaches with beating and inflamed Heart from the distance, we must now choose to be and to do what we hope to be
and to say when at last we stand before Him. Eyes fixed on Him, we can resist all distractions, disdain all trials, overcome
all obstacles. But to keep those eyes fixed on Him, we must love Him; to love Him, we must desire Him above and in all else;
to desire Him, we must know Him; to know Him we must do His will; to do His will, we must listen to what He teaches us in
His Church as necessary for salvation, resolve firmly to renounce sin, and immerse ourselves in His Word, His sacraments,
in prayer and in works of charity. If we try our best to do these things, we will keep our lives in perspective, Christ’s
perspective, and we will, according to the ancient teaching, hasten the coming of the Kingdom and of its King.
The Kingdoms of this world, be they monarchies, tetrarchies, oligarchies, autocracies, democracies or anything else
make use of force of one kind or another to gain power, to keep it or to regain it. “If my kingdom were of this world,
my men would have fought to keep me from being handed over to the Jews”: so responds Jesus to Pilate concerning His
Kingdom. The mainstay of Christ’s Kingdom, however, is not force but divine love, the living power of the Holy Spirit
Himself. As by that love Jesus died and rose for our sakes, so by that same love alone can we become and remain subjects of
his Kingdom, and conquer the hearts of others for our King.
There is much reason to feel anxious today. The signs of our times are not comforting. We pause for thought, but often
feel confused and confounded in our thinking. A little over two years ago, the world seemed on the way to a new era of peace;
the Church Herself in this country seemed unperturbed. But all of a sudden, appearances gave way to what people were really
experiencing and suffering and it all exploded literally on our doorstep. Perhaps we had lulled ourselves to sleep, even as
a way of avoiding facing the sources of the troubles which were brewing before our unseeing eyes.
Christ the King calls us not to be afraid, to see even in all the evil that has been happening and been uncovered the
front-line of the battle which Divine Providence is permitting in order to prepare us better for Christ’s return. Rather
than retire and withdraw in the face of it all, we are called to shake off the sloth and slovenness which the opia of modern
living foist upon us. In the face of adversity Christ invites us to source once again the deep reserves of charity and fortitude,
of unwavering hope and engaged commitment that lie deep within us and which will enable us to bring the true witness of true
holiness to those around us. With that witness of holiness, costly though it be, Christ Himself will defeat the onslaught
of evil’s arrogance and bring back to the world the courage and hope of the Gospel.
If we do not want to shrink in shame from Christ when He returns, there can be no procrastinating: we need to encourage
one another today to fan into a flame the strong and indestructible desires for holiness which the grace of our baptism has
enkindled within us. Christ will then be our King, not only in the realm of pious platitudes but in the Kingdom of our own
hearts, minds and wills. Long live such hearts, and long live Christ the Universal King!
Msgr. Peter Magee
Sunday, November 23rd, 2003: St. Matthew’s
Cathedral, DC - 10.00 am
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