Christ the King

The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa

There have been and are all types of rulers or kings throughout history. The American experience of Kings, of course, is painted with a despotic king who taxed and answered push back to that tax with an authority in the form of troops. Most images of kings or rulers we conjure from history paint pictures, at the least, of wealth and stature, a hope for reason and a spirit of common good; but in many cases examples of tyranny, triumphalism, and an authority ensured by military dominance. In mythology or story, the human experience of hopes of “good” or “evil” take their shape in the portraits of kings….the “good king” or the “evil king.”

Today, as we end another liturgical season and prepare to enter into the shadows of the season of Advent, with our eyes fixed on the light that will lead us to God’s hope in the world in the flesh of incarnation, we end our liturgical season with the Feast day of Christ the King. Whether historical or mythological, the chords of our impressions of kingship are at play today.

I suggest to you, whether historical or mythological, the theme of kingship we explore is the authority, the principles, and the proclamation of the Kingdom ushered in by the selfless giving of Jesus on the cross. A quick history lesson may orient us toward our invitation to again be “subjects” of this Kingship.

Pope Pius XI established the great feast of Christ, the King of the Universe, through the encyclical “Quas Primas.” The encyclical was released on December 11, 1925, in the fourth year of Pius’ papacy.

The feast was established in response to a historical time that saw a world coming out of a world war, great political and civil unrest throughout Europe, a rise in the number of dictatorships throughout Europe, and the rise of secularism. Pope Pius’ experience of this time was that many were putting their faith and trust in the promises of secular leaders, the authority of the teachings of the Church were being compromised, the result was war, unrest, triumphalism, and injustice.

The call to the authority of the Kingdom and Kingship of the teachings of Jesus reads like this: “(Christ) must reign in our minds, which should assent with perfect submission and firm belief to revealed truths and to the doctrines of Christ. He must reign in our wills, which should obey the laws and precepts of God. He must reign in our hearts, which should spurn natural desires and love God above all things, and cleave to him alone. He must reign in our bodies and in our members, which should serve as instruments for the interior sanctification of our souls, or to use the words of the Apostle Paul, as instruments of justice unto God (Romans 6:13).”

Jesus was no stranger to the injustices of a political system built on aggression, oppression, and dictatorship. Today, in the Gospel, we find him hanging on the cross, sentenced to capital punishment by an unjust system in response to a man and his followers’ campaign of peaceful advocacy to ignite in people the love God had for them, to invite them to a place of understanding where the challenges of downtrodden lives would be transformed by a spiritual renewal that transcend the literal poverty of their lives. Jesus, mistaken by many as an authority whose “Kingship and Kingdom” might be defined in power, war and aggressive takeover, was instead delivered more powerfully in an act of “sacrifice,” so far opposite violence and terror that the only response an oppressive system of government could imagine was to try to “kill it.” Especially on the cross, the power of the message of transformation through peace and forgiveness is made manifest by Jesus’ handing himself over and, even in his suffering, inviting a repentant sinner into the Kingdom Jesus lords over.

Of course, you and I are then invited to this peaceable Kingdom, to yield to the authority of it, and to take on the noble and difficult task to live in the world the way in which he invites us. This Kingdom asks us to respond to violence, not with swords or weapons, but with prayer and forgiveness, where things are broken we respond with an expectation that it will be made whole, where things are not “right” or “just” we respond with certainty and action to make “it so.” We do so as we stare down the season of Advent because our King is coming, and we behave and believe in the certainty of that coming!

King Jesus, we offer ourselves to you, all our churches to you, as you offer them to us. Make yourself known in them. Make your will done in them. Make our stone hearts cry out for your Kingship. Make us holy and human at the last that we may do the work of Love.