1. Today St Peter's Basilica resounds with the liturgy of an unusual solemnity. In the post-conciliar liturgical calendar, the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ King of the Universe has been linked with the last Sunday of the ecclesiastical year. And that is good. In fact, the truths of the faith that we want to manifest, the mystery that we want to live, enclose, in a certain sense, every dimension of history, every stage of human time, and open up, at the same time, the prospect of "a new heaven and a new earth" (Rev 21:1), the prospect of a kingdom, which "is not of this world" (Jn 18:36). It is possible that one misunderstands the meaning of the words about the "kingdom", pronounced by Christ before Pilate, about the kingdom that is not of this world. However, the singular context of the event, in the context of which they were uttered, does not allow them to be understood in this way. We must admit that the kingdom of Christ, thanks to which the extraterrestrial perspectives, the perspectives of eternity (Jn 18:37) are opened before man, is formed in the world and in temporality. It, therefore, is formed in man himself through "the testimony to the truth" that Christ rendered at that dramatic moment of his Messianic Mission: before Pilate, before death on the cross, asked of the judge by his accusers. Thus our attention must be drawn not only to the liturgical moment of today's solemnity, but also to the surprising synthesis of truth that this solemnity expresses and proclaims. This is why I have taken the liberty, together with the Cardinal Vicar of Rome, of inviting today those belonging to the various sectors of the lay apostolate of all the parishes of our City, all those, that is, who together with the Bishop of Rome and the pastors of souls of each parish accept to make their own the witness of Christ the King and seek to make room for his kingdom in their hearts and to spread it among men.

2. Jesus Christ is "the faithful witness" (cf. Rev 1:5), as the author of Revelation says. He is "the faithful witness" of God's lordship in creation and especially in human history. For God formed man from the beginning as Creator and at the same time as Father. He is therefore, as Creator and as Father, always present in his history. He has become not only the beginning and the end of all creation, but has also become the Lord of history and the God of the covenant: "I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, He who is, who was, and who is to come, the Almighty" (Rev 1:8).

Jesus Christ - the "faithful witness" - came into the world precisely to bear witness to this. His coming in time! how concretely and suggestively the prophet Daniel had foretold it in his messianic vision, speaking of the coming of "a son of man" (Dan 7:13) and outlining the spiritual dimension of his reign in these terms: "He gave him power and glory and a kingdom; all peoples, nations and languages served him; his power is an everlasting power, which never fades, and his kingdom is such that it will never be destroyed" (Dan 7:14). Thus the prophet Daniel, probably in the 2nd century, saw the kingdom of Christ before he came into the world.

3. What happened before Pilate on the Friday before Easter enables us to rid Daniel's prophetic image of any improper associations. For here the "Son of Man" himself answers the question put to him by the Roman governor. This answer sounds like this: "My kingdom is not of this world; if my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have fought lest I should be delivered up to the Jews; but my kingdom is not of here" (John 18:36).

Pilate, the representative of the power exercised on behalf of mighty Rome over the territory of Palestine, the man who thinks according to temporal and political categories, does not understand this answer. So he asks for the second time: "So you are king?" (Jn 18:37).

Christ also answers for the second time. Just as the first time he explained in what sense he is not king, so now, in order to fully answer Pilate's question and at the same time the question of all human history, of all rulers and politicians, he answers like this: "I am king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world: to bear witness to the truth. Whoever is of the truth listens to my voice" (cf. Jn 18:37).

This answer, in connection with the first, expresses the whole truth about his kingdom; the whole truth about Christ the King.

4. In this truth are also contained those further words of Revelation, with which the Beloved Disciple completes, in a certain way, in the light of the conversation that took place on Good Friday in Pilate's Jerusalem residence, what the prophet Daniel had once written. St John notes: 'Behold, he comes on the clouds (this is how Daniel had already expressed it) and everyone will see him; even those who pierced him... Yes. Amen!" (Rev 1:7).

Exactly: Amen. This single word seals, as it were, the truth about Christ the King. He is not only "the faithful witness", but also "the firstborn from the dead" (Rev 1:5). And if he is the prince of the earth and of those who rule over it ("the prince of the kings of the earth" [Rev 1:5]), he is so because of this, above all, and definitively because "he loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, who has made us a kingdom of priests for his God and Father" (Rev 1:5-6).

5. Here is the full definition of that kingdom, here is the whole truth about Christ the King. We are gathered here today in this Basilica to accept these truths once again, with our eyes of faith wide open and our hearts ready to give the answer. For this is truth that particularly demands a response. Not only understanding. Not just acceptance by the intellect, but a response that emerges from the whole of life.

That response was beautifully pronounced by the Episcopate of the contemporary Church at the Second Vatican Council. One would even, at this moment, want to reach out to those texts of the Constitution Lumen Gentium that dazzle with the simple depth of truth, to the texts charged with the fullness of Christian 'praxis' contained in the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, and to the many other documents that draw from those fundamentals concrete conclusions for the various fields of ecclesial life. I am thinking in particular of the decree Apostolicam Actuositatem on the apostolate of the laity. If I ask anything of the laity of Rome and the world, it is that they always keep an eye on these splendid documents of contemporary Church teaching. They define the deepest meaning of being Christian. These documents deserve more than simply to be studied and meditated upon; if we do not look to them for support, it is almost impossible to understand and realise our vocation and, in particular, the vocation of the laity, their particular contribution to the building of that kingdom, which, although it is not "of this world" (Jn 18:36), nevertheless exists here below, because it is in us. And, in particular, it is in you: lay people!

6. Christ ascended the cross as a singular King: as the eternal witness to the truth. "For this I was born, and for this I came into the world: to bear witness to the truth" (Jn 18:37). This witness is the measure of our works. The measure of life. The truth for which Christ gave his life - which he confirmed with the resurrection - is the fundamental source of human dignity. The kingdom of Christ is manifested, as the Council teaches, in the 'kingship' of man. We must know how to participate in and shape every sphere of contemporary life in this light. Indeed, in our times, there is no lack of proposals addressed to man, no lack of programmes that are invoked for his good. Let us know how to reread them in the dimension of the full truth about man, the truth confirmed with the words and the cross of Christ!

We know how to discern them well! Is what they proclaim expressed in the measure of man's true dignity? Does the freedom they proclaim serve the kingship of the being created in the image of God, or on the contrary does it prepare for the deprivation or constriction of it? For example: does man's true freedom serve or does marital infidelity, even if sanctioned by divorce, or the lack of responsibility for conceived life, even if modern technology teaches how to get rid of it, express his dignity? Certainly all moral permissiveness is not based on human dignity and does not educate man to it.

How can we not recall, here, the diagnosis that the Cardinal Vicar made of the socio-religious context of our city at your assembly last 10 November? He pointed out the main 'sufferings' that anguish the city of Rome: the social insecurity of families with regard to housing, work, and the education of their children; the spiritual and social bewilderment of immigrants from rural areas; the incommunicability between families, who live in large working-class apartment blocks without knowing each other and without the courage to solidarise; organised crime, particularly in the service of drugs; crazy and unmotivated violence and political terrorism, to which must be added the multiple manifestations of immorality and irreligiousness in personal and social life.

The causes of these evils were identified, inter alia, in the decline of interest in the problems of education and schooling left increasingly at the mercy of minority, but highly disturbing forces; and in the disintegration of the family, subjected to the corrosive action of multiple environmental and customary factors. The deepest root of these must be found, however, as the Cardinal said, 'in the constant depreciation of the human person, of his dignity, rights and duties' and of the religious and moral meaning of life. The Cardinal Vicar also urged from all of you a courageous assumption of responsibility, placing before you some 'concrete perspectives of commitment', and precisely the construction of a true Christian community capable of proclaiming the Gospel in a credible manner; the cultural commitment of research and critical discernment, in constant fidelity to the Magisterium, in order to have a correct dialogue between the Church and the world; the commitment to contribute to the increase of the sense of social responsibility, stimulating in the clergy and in the faithful solidarity for the common good of both the ecclesial and civil Community; the commitment, finally, in the pastoral care of vocations, particularly urgent today, and in that of social communications.

Behold, dear brothers and sisters, there stand before you some precise lines of pastoral action, on which each one is invited to measure himself or herself, in coherent and courageous adherence to the demands posed by Baptism and Confirmation and confirmed by participation in the Eucharist. I ask each and everyone not to shy away from their responsibilities. I ask this on the liturgical Solemnity of Christ the King.

Christ, in a certain sense, always stands before the tribunal of human consciences, as he once stood before the tribunal of Pilate. He always reveals to us the truth of his kingdom. And he always meets, on so many sides, with the reply "what is truth" (Jn 18:38).

Therefore let him be even closer to us. May his kingdom be ever more in us. Let us reciprocate him with the love to which he has called us, and in him let us love the dignity of every man more and more!

Then we will truly be sharers in his mission. We will become apostles of his kingdom.

[Pope John Paul II, homily 25 November 1979]