Word to the Wise
Sunday, November 25, 2012 - 34th or Last Sunday in Ordinary Time - B: The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ the King
[Dan 7:13-14; Rev 1:5-8; John 18:33b-37]Jesus answered, "My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not here." So Pilate said to him, "Then you are a king?" Jesus answered, "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."
The full official title of today's celebration is THE SOLEMNITY OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, KING OF THE UNIVERSE! It always raises a number of questions or paradoxes for me. Despite Jesus' explicit denial of the kind of "kingship" of the sort that the feast's title implies, we still pin the title on him! Indeed, Pilate showed a very interesting sense of irony when he had an inscription placed on the cross with Jesus (in three languages, no less): JESUS THE NAZOREAN, KING OF THE JEWS. For Pilate, the "king of the universe" would have been Augustus Caesar! The Jewish leadership of the time were upset. They wanted Pilate to change the inscription to "He SAID..." Jesus said nothing of the sort. Yet, his own disciples thought Jesus was going to establish a "kingdom" of the sort they saw all around them. The Book of Revelation, which provides the second scripture for today, refers to the risen Christ as "ruler of the kings of the earth." What do we do with all of this. We say, "KING!" Jesus says, "NO WAY!"
As in so many things human, POWER is an important element. Human communities developed forms of power very early in time. Human expressions of power often resulted in attributing all the "power" in the group to one person! This form is called MONARCHY, from two Greek words meaning, "one ruler." We Americans love to read about monarchy as long as it doesn't go beyond homecoming courts or Mardi Gras! and keeps its presence outside our borders! Yet, we do use the word "king" to express a person who has ultimate or almost ultimate political or social power. We lack, however, any words to express a power that transcends all of this! [Words like "president," "governor," "mayor" just don't fill the bill]. St. Thomas Aquinas speaks of the importance of analogy in human speech. We use the word, "king," by analogy in regard to Jesus Christ. Otherwise we might not be able to say anything about his "power" which transcends all created matter. In using this word, we need to remember that it is OUR word, and NOT Jesus' word!
With this in mind, we acknowledge today the centrality of Jesus Christ in all of created reality because we acknowledge him as the Second Person in the Blessed Trinity - the source of all creation. It's all an analogy, but it's probably the best we can do. It might help if we recall Jesus' words, highlighted above, that we are trying to express a TRUTH, and that TRUTH is God's LOVE made incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ. That kind of power transcends anything political or social that we can invent. AMEN
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