“Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice."
Our reflection on this feast of Christ the King should call us to look around us, and not simply in a spiritual sense. Our faith must have an effect in our lives and not remain something private or hidden. This is what it means to be a disciple and to “belong to the truth,” as Jesus tells Pontius Pilate. The Roman prefect wanted to place Jesus in a purely political realm, asking Him if He was a king. But Christ proclaimed that his kingdom is not at the political level. His kingdom has no limits or borders because it extends over all the world’s peoples. It is not of this world, but it rules this world.
St. Oscar Romero, a man very familiar with the tightrope walk between our faith and the political power, observed this:
[Jesus’ position before Pilate] makes it easy for us to understand what we must do as Christians, what our pastoral and ecclesial work should be. The reflections of many Christian groups often resemble political analysis. They have forgotten that our strength is not to be found there. Many Christians have great respect for a political party or organization, and in order to please the organization they’re willing to slight the church. Often people end up forming political groups rather than Christian communities because they don’t consider the way Christ confronted Pilate and all the empires and political regimes of the world: he remained autonomous, the King who came down from heaven and became incarnate on this earth in order to transcend earthly kingdoms … not to identify with them. … We have no reason to beg before any political system on earth for we have a light that enlightens all political systems. Let us not take sides with any one sector. Let us maintain the autonomy that Christ maintained, even when shackled before Pilate.
Of late, in this country, we have fallen into two extremes: one, embracing a sort of Christian nationalism where we see one political party or persons as espousing our values and we support anything they do; two, we shrink away from any public discussion of what our faith calls us to witness. Neither of these are what Christ does.
If we acknowledge Christ as King, then we recognize that we must live in a world without borders. I do not mean that national borders should be erased or that countries have no right to their sovereignty. What I mean is that Jesus’ Kingdom extends everywhere and to everyone – excluding no one, discounting no one, reviling no one. That is the Christian position. As such, as Christians, we should seek to eliminate all those barriers that separate us one from the other.
In our individual lives, this means striving to eliminate sin and sinful behavior. Seeking reconciliation and removing that barrier that we place between us and God’s merciful love.
In our personal lives, it means seeking ways to renew relationships of love and trust. Willing the good for one another and bringing our families together in charity and mutual support. Forgiveness is the cornerstone of this action, and it removes the barriers between parents and children, brothers and sisters.
In our pastorate, it means losing the pointless suspicion of one another and seeking ways that we can advance the mission of the Gospel – together. It means truly seeing our fellow parishioners – regardless of where they come from, how they worship, how they love, or how they speak – as brothers and sisters, redeemed together by Christ’s death and resurrection. It means removing the barriers that would see others as different – perhaps even venturing up or down Crain Highway!
In our nation, it means working to be agents of unity, rebuilding respect and trust among our fellow citizens. It means removing the barrier that would estrange people over ideological, political, or cultural positions. It means loving the homeless, the sick and dying, the unborn, and the immigrant. It means accepting that people have rights that go with human dignity and removing barriers that world limit or remove those rights.
"My kingdom does not belong to this world,” Jesus says. If this is true – if we believe it – then we do not belong to this world either – nor to this world’s petty arguments, prejudices, and passions. This has always been the Christian perspective. It is quite true that we cannot draw apart from the political, social, and economic realities of earth, but let us always be the bright light that shines on the realities without being contaminated by them.
Taking Jesus Christ as our King – even to the point of naming our parish after this reality – means that we should act with the courage that comes from the One who stood before the power of this world and testified to the truth. This is not always convenient or advantageous. It may even bring us persecution. However, Christ’s reign is the only one that is an everlasting dominion that shall not be taken away, his kingship shall not be destroyed.
Today, as we gather around the table and throne of Christ the King, let’s renew our dedication to the Truth. Let’s live with the courage that comes from knowing we belong to Him. Let’s work together in our Church and in our world to remove all the barriers that separate one from another, to be agents of the unity that Christ the King came to establish.
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