Christ The King

Each day we are all involved in a lot of words, a lot of conversations...some trivial, some having significant impact on lives (good and bad). Today, Christ the King, we have the Word of God spoken here at Mass, in which these is a conversation that has impacted and changed all of human history: it is the conversation between Jesus and Pontius Pilate.

Pilate is drawn to Jesus, pulled toward him. Yet his political concers and office pulls him the other way. And in this conversation, in which he eventually makes no decision (washes his hands), he think that he is in control, he is the one judging Jesus. Yet, in reality, if we pay close attention to the Gospel, and the intent of St. John, we will see that Jesus is, in fact, the judge. Jesus is in control. In his repetitive way of speaking, Jesus forces Pilate to look at his own heart, trying to help him (Pilate) see who he really is, and who Jesus is! To see the truth (later Pilate will say, what is truth?...and Jesus will see that the Truth will set you free!!) Jesus wants Pilate to see the reality of God through His revelation of God and His redemptive action. To see that Truth is not localized in one human experience, but is outside of all of us, in God. To see, as Daniel says, that all things (peoples, nations, languages...everything, in fact) must refer to God because they belong to him. To see that in Christ, Justice and Mercy meet. It is not either or, but both and.

This conversation of Jesus and Pilate must have echoed in the heart of Pius XI when he established the Feast of Christ the King in the 1920's as the last Sunday in October. At that time, he was seeing the rising of Nazism (Hitler), Communism (Lenin and Trotsky), and Fascism (Mussolini), and the horrors of those political system on the bodies and souls of people. Pius wanted to clearly teach that Christ was the only King, the only power, and would be the ultimate victor over all. And, if we looked to Him in the midst of trial or oppression, the human spirit could never be crushed: because the Almighty God in Christ is the source of all truth and life. It does not begin on with us. And, can we not see how the truth and life. It does not begin on with us. And, can we not see how the truth of Christ, the power of God, overcame all of these, (especially JPII, it is said) with the demise of Communism, Fascism, and Nazism. Has not history born this out?

Yet, what of today, our conversations, the conversations of our time? If we listen honestly to ourselves, the our voices, and the voices of our culture, we will certainly hear things like "My experience is what counts...my experiences is the only necessary truth...one opinion, one religion is as good as another....I cannot impose my conviction on anyone else...Truth is relative..it is just one opinion against another...etc, etc..." The feast of Christ the King, having been moved to the end of the Church year, is just as necessary today, because our culture is being threatened by others isms such as relativism. Our lives, all things belong to Christ. Like Pilate, we must have our conversation with Christ, come face to face with Him: certainly at the end of our lives. The conversation begins here and now, in this Mass, when we realize that the truth of Christ is something to shape to our liking, our fancy, to suit us; or be dictated to by popular media or every politically correct saying of our culture, with its pronouncements on marriage, family, morality or justice, life, death, or where the lives of animals are seen as more important than human life!

We must listen to the Voice of Christ; have the conversation, even if it makes us as uneasy as Pontius Pilate, and to remember that is Christ who is in control, who is the Judge. We are not, and are not the last word in that conversation! The Voice of Christ calls us to belong to the truth, to testify to the truth, to let the truth shape us and not the other way around. Because, this conversation is not just about life here and now, it is about our eternal salvation. As he was about to be martyred in Mexico, during the revolution of the last century, Blessed Miguel Pro, rather than give up his Faith or priesthood, said VIVO CHRISTO REY...LONG LIVE CHRIST THE KING. Can we say that, knowing full well what that means? We may have learned the following response somewhere in our religious education. As on other occasions, it can sum up what this day is about, this day of Christ the King: Why did God make me: to know Him, love Him, serve Him in this world, and be happy with Him forever in heaven!