The Solemnity of Christ the King
Why would the church choose the most shameful moments of Christ’s life as the gospel reading for the Solemnity of Christ the King? When we celebrate anniversaries, birthdays, and events connected with our loved ones, don’t we normally focus on the positive? The gospel, on the other hand says about Jesus that the rulers sneered at him, the soldiers jeered at him, and one of the criminals reviled him, saying “Are you not the Christ?” But why does the church want to read this gospel for the feast of Christ the King? Why could the Church not have chosen a reading for this feast where Christ is shown in his splendor – the transfiguration of Jesus or the Ascension of Jesus, for example?
The answer to this question lies in context within which this feast was instituted. This feast is a very recent feast. It was instituted only in 1925 by Pope Puis XI between the two World Wars. It was a time that the Church itself felt quite powerless in the modern world, and the rise of nationalism and fascism in Germany and Italy threatened the very existence of the world. Pius the XI wanted to restore the world back from the brink of destruction and restore the world’s faith in the possibility of peace. The only path to that possibility was the virtues that are enshrined in the Cross of Christ – humility, self-sacrifice, forgiveness, love, and reconciliation. In his mind, somehow, the exercise of power – both for the church and for world leaders – must be intertwined in the virtues of the cross of Christ.
If Christ is King then Christ must have a Kingdom. Jesus said to the second criminal, “Today, you will be with me in paradise.” Where is this Kingdom? Where is this Paradise? The answer to these questions is simple: Christ’s Kingdom is the ever expanding and eternally loving heart of God. One day each of us hopes to find an eternal place in God’s eternal heart – this heart that beats with limitless love, life and peace. Christ has laid the way for us to get there – through the cross.
We will find a place in God’s heart if today the humility, the self-sacrifice, the forgiveness, the love, and the reconciliation of Christ finds a place in our heart. Our heart must be an extension of God’s Kingdom. The human heart is God’s domain. The human heart is where God Kingdom reigns. The humility, the self-sacrifice, the forgiveness, the love, and the reconciliation of Christ must reign in our hearts. We must build a kingdom in our hearts for Christ with dignity and in peace.
- Fr. Satish Joseph