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My Kingdom Is Not Here
Feast of Christ the King
This Solemnity brings to fulfillment the Liturgical year. The whole of our
liturgical experience is to bring us to where Christ is enthroned in our hearts,
to where we become a new creation, realizing the purpose for which we have been
destined from the moment of our baptism. This feast is larger than life,
allowing us to celebrate even now Christ’s kingship or kingdom that is not of
this world but of God’s own making where even now we are freed from all our sins
by his blood. To be subjects of this King is to be set free, indeed even to sit
with him in the heavenly courts and to know the power of God’s love poured out
within our hearts.
What this feast does is open our horizons so as to live afresh our daily lives.
When Pilate engages Jesus about his being King of the Jews, he does so out of
his own sense of earthly power. Pilate acts as a political official representing
Roman control in an occupied country where the Jewish leaders understood the
title of king as having messianic significance. For the Jewish leaders, Jesus
could not possibly be the Messiah king they has long awaited for the simple
reason that he failed miserably to meet their own expectations and hopes. They
even thought it blasphemous for him to be thought of as such. He did not cut it
for them and in fact, he confronted their whole understanding of Messiah. Jesus
unmasks the illusions of both Pilate and the religious leaders, making it clear
to them and to us that "his kingdom does not belong to this world." Were it of
this world his disciples would have come to his defense. What we begin to sense
as one follows this dialogue with Pilate, and here we have that great sense of
irony that occasionally appears in John’s gospel, that Pilate and the Jewish
leaders are really the ones on trial.
Jesus does not deny for a moment that he indeed is a king, going so far as to
say "for this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the
truth." What then is this kingly power that we celebrate today, that brings this
Liturgical year to its fullest meaning? The Book of Revelation tells us of Jesus
being the "faithful witness," which he does by loving us, freeing us from all
our sins by his blood. Jesus does indeed give witness to the depth of God’s love
to the point of giving up his life for us. As a true king he risks his life in
doing war with the powers of darkness and death. And in doing so he has gained
for us an open and loving relationship with God, our true destiny.
The Book of Daniel tells us still more about his kingly power when it speaks of
the mysterious "one like a Son of man." His is to be "an everlasting dominion
that shall not be taken away." Various words in Hebrew denote our notion of
"man." The word used here is ‘enosh’ which signifies a frail mortal human being.
The title of "Son of man" therefore conveys the idea of a limited human being.
What Jesus has done for us is reveal what it is to live in this world as a weak
human being, living in total dependence and trust before his Father as one like
ourselves in every respect except sin. In doing so he bears witness to the
wonder of our humanity as children of God. In Him the truth of our humanity is
fully manifest. In Him, in those who hear his voice, the separation between God
and our humanity is finally and definitively broken down. In Him we have become
a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation where there is the fullness
of life and joy. Indeed, "to him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen."
As Christians in this world but not of the world, we are ushering in the reign
of God because this kingdom is at work in us. The mystery we celebrate at this
altar is unfolding in our lives. Christ’s victory over death is not only made
present in this assembly, it is a triumph we carry into every moment of our
lives. Here we are made to share in the very Spirit that governed Christ’s own
response to the Father; we have only to allow the love of Christ to live in us.
To eat his Body and drink his Blood is to be truly nourished, strengthen in the
inner man, to abide in him even as he abides in us. Come Lord Jesus,
Amen–Alleluia
Daniel 7:13-14; Revelation 1:5-8; John 18:33b-37
Michael Casagram, OCSO
Abbey of Gethsemani
22 November 2009
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