In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Today is the day the Church celebrates our Lord under the title Christ the King, and today’s Gospel reading begins with the Lord referring to his final revelation as the king and ruler of all. “When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats” (Matt. 25.31-32).
We are accustomed to hearing that Jesus is a King, but the NATURE of his dominion – the WAY he rules as king – is perhaps something less familiar.
Jesus is King because he is the only Son of God. He is therefore the only heir of all that God is. He eternally inherits blessing and honor and glory and might (Rev. 5.13), even as the prophet Daniel saw in a dream: “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed” (Daniel 8.16ff).
Jesus came into the world to show us who God is – and God is the King of all creation (cf. Sir. 50.15 & Judith 9.12).
Today’s Gospel reading speaks of the end of time, when the Lord will come “in his glory”, when all eyes will see Christ the King, and there will be no misrecognition (Rev. 1.7). But what of his first coming? What of his coming in humility? Even here, in his lowliness, in his humility, even (and ESPECIALLY) in his suffering, his humiliation, and his death, he is supposed to have manifest himself as King.
Jesus refers to his suffering and death as the hour when he comes into his kingdom (Matt. 20.21) – as the actualization God’s dominion and sovereignty over the world (cf. Jn. 12.28 & 31). This is HARD to see, because it can only be seen with the eyes of faith.
Pontius Pilate famously missed it. When Jesus stood before Pilate to answer his questions, Jesus declared that he was in fact a king, but that his kingdom “is not of this world”, and then he says “For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, TO BEAR WITNESS TO THE TRUTH” (Jn. 18.36). Jesus bears witness to a truth that has been obscured within the world – obscured BY the world, subject as it is to the law of sin, to self-seeking, corruption and death. And because we have become accustomed to operating within this paradigm, the act of Jesus' testimony to the Truth is easy for us to misrecognize.
What is the truth to which Jesus bears witness? It is the truth of the sovereignty of the LOVE OF GOD. With every ounce of his being, and every moment of his life, Jesus testifies and enacts the love of God – the truth, in fact, that GOD IS LOVE (1 Jn. 4.8), and that only THIS divine love has the power to conquer the powers of darkness that make war against our humanity, and rage against the beauty and goodness of all that God has made (cf. Gen. 1.31 & 1 Cor. 15.24).
The victory of divine love is the Kingdom of God. It is this Kingdom, stronger than death (Cant. 8.6), that Jesus inaugurates by pouring out his life, once for all, on the cross for our sins. And it is this Kingdom that will be revealed in an undeniable way at the end of time, “when the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him” (Matt. 25.31). Then the darkness that obscures God’s truth in the world will be blown away like mist, and Jesus Christ will be all in all (1 Cor. 15.28). This is the reality toward which we are journeying as Christians, this is the reality for which we pray, which we claim to expect.
But how do we reach the Kingdom? How do we get there? How are we to be saved? It’s not easy. Jesus himself said “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. [But] the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matt. 7.13-14). Why is salvation so difficult? Because God does not impose his will on us, because love does not work that way. Rather God INVITES us to himself (Lk. 13.34), he KNOCKS at the door of our hearts (Rev. 3.20), he CALLS OUT to us through the world's darkness like a Lover calling his beloved (Cant. 5.2).
But we have to CHOOSE to rise and follow him (Cant. 2.10) to the place of his victory, and that path leads through the world's darkness, up the steep ascent of Calvary, and passes right through the cross. And God respects our freedom to choose – because that freedom is his gift to us, and the material condition of our communion with him in love. But his respect of our freedom does not mean that we may choose whatever we like and still be “okay”. Quite the contrary: We must freely choose the difficult way and the narrow door if we would share in the victory of God’s love. EVERY DAY we have to choose what is good, what is beautiful, what is true; and to turn from what is wicked, unlovely, and false. God will not force us, because love is neither arrogant nor rude; it does not insist on its own way (1 Cor. 13.5). In the end, God will respect our freedom to choose destruction and death.
If you are ready to answer the call of Jesus and to follow the difficult path to his sovereignty, to the dominion of God’s love, the question will arise: how do you know what is good and true and beautiful? After all, part of the problem is that we live in the dominion of shadows. We are subject to temptations which obscure our vision and cloud our judgment. The Apostle Jude Thaddeus asked Jesus such a question, and Jesus said “If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me does not keep my words; and the word which you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me” (Jn. 14.23-24).
By answering his call, by choosing to rise and follow him, to keep his word, we come to know Christ as our King. And as we progress in our journey with him through the darkness of this world, toward the dawning of his Kingdom, our vision becomes more and more clear, and we see what St. Paul called “the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things” – that we are offered not just a place under Christ’s dominion, but a share in his sovereignty: “that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3).
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Today is the day the Church celebrates our Lord under the title Christ the King, and today’s Gospel reading begins with the Lord referring to his final revelation as the king and ruler of all. “When the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate them one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats” (Matt. 25.31-32).
We are accustomed to hearing that Jesus is a King, but the NATURE of his dominion – the WAY he rules as king – is perhaps something less familiar.
Jesus is King because he is the only Son of God. He is therefore the only heir of all that God is. He eternally inherits blessing and honor and glory and might (Rev. 5.13), even as the prophet Daniel saw in a dream: “I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed” (Daniel 8.16ff).
Jesus came into the world to show us who God is – and God is the King of all creation (cf. Sir. 50.15 & Judith 9.12).
Today’s Gospel reading speaks of the end of time, when the Lord will come “in his glory”, when all eyes will see Christ the King, and there will be no misrecognition (Rev. 1.7). But what of his first coming? What of his coming in humility? Even here, in his lowliness, in his humility, even (and ESPECIALLY) in his suffering, his humiliation, and his death, he is supposed to have manifest himself as King.
Jesus refers to his suffering and death as the hour when he comes into his kingdom (Matt. 20.21) – as the actualization God’s dominion and sovereignty over the world (cf. Jn. 12.28 & 31). This is HARD to see, because it can only be seen with the eyes of faith.
Pontius Pilate famously missed it. When Jesus stood before Pilate to answer his questions, Jesus declared that he was in fact a king, but that his kingdom “is not of this world”, and then he says “For this I was born, and for this I have come into the world, TO BEAR WITNESS TO THE TRUTH” (Jn. 18.36). Jesus bears witness to a truth that has been obscured within the world – obscured BY the world, subject as it is to the law of sin, to self-seeking, corruption and death. And because we have become accustomed to operating within this paradigm, the act of Jesus' testimony to the Truth is easy for us to misrecognize.
What is the truth to which Jesus bears witness? It is the truth of the sovereignty of the LOVE OF GOD. With every ounce of his being, and every moment of his life, Jesus testifies and enacts the love of God – the truth, in fact, that GOD IS LOVE (1 Jn. 4.8), and that only THIS divine love has the power to conquer the powers of darkness that make war against our humanity, and rage against the beauty and goodness of all that God has made (cf. Gen. 1.31 & 1 Cor. 15.24).
The victory of divine love is the Kingdom of God. It is this Kingdom, stronger than death (Cant. 8.6), that Jesus inaugurates by pouring out his life, once for all, on the cross for our sins. And it is this Kingdom that will be revealed in an undeniable way at the end of time, “when the Son of man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him” (Matt. 25.31). Then the darkness that obscures God’s truth in the world will be blown away like mist, and Jesus Christ will be all in all (1 Cor. 15.28). This is the reality toward which we are journeying as Christians, this is the reality for which we pray, which we claim to expect.
But how do we reach the Kingdom? How do we get there? How are we to be saved? It’s not easy. Jesus himself said “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. [But] the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matt. 7.13-14). Why is salvation so difficult? Because God does not impose his will on us, because love does not work that way. Rather God INVITES us to himself (Lk. 13.34), he KNOCKS at the door of our hearts (Rev. 3.20), he CALLS OUT to us through the world's darkness like a Lover calling his beloved (Cant. 5.2).
But we have to CHOOSE to rise and follow him (Cant. 2.10) to the place of his victory, and that path leads through the world's darkness, up the steep ascent of Calvary, and passes right through the cross. And God respects our freedom to choose – because that freedom is his gift to us, and the material condition of our communion with him in love. But his respect of our freedom does not mean that we may choose whatever we like and still be “okay”. Quite the contrary: We must freely choose the difficult way and the narrow door if we would share in the victory of God’s love. EVERY DAY we have to choose what is good, what is beautiful, what is true; and to turn from what is wicked, unlovely, and false. God will not force us, because love is neither arrogant nor rude; it does not insist on its own way (1 Cor. 13.5). In the end, God will respect our freedom to choose destruction and death.
If you are ready to answer the call of Jesus and to follow the difficult path to his sovereignty, to the dominion of God’s love, the question will arise: how do you know what is good and true and beautiful? After all, part of the problem is that we live in the dominion of shadows. We are subject to temptations which obscure our vision and cloud our judgment. The Apostle Jude Thaddeus asked Jesus such a question, and Jesus said “If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me does not keep my words; and the word which you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me” (Jn. 14.23-24).
By answering his call, by choosing to rise and follow him, to keep his word, we come to know Christ as our King. And as we progress in our journey with him through the darkness of this world, toward the dawning of his Kingdom, our vision becomes more and more clear, and we see what St. Paul called “the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things” – that we are offered not just a place under Christ’s dominion, but a share in his sovereignty: “that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with might through his Spirit in the inner man, and that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have power to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3).
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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