The King of the Universe: perhaps the least gifted?

(Dan 7:13-14; Rev 1:5-8; Jn 18:33-37)

All the kingdoms that followed before Jesus were inspired by the same brutal principle: competition (First Reading).

The strong subjugated the weak, the rich imposed themselves on the poor, the swiftest enslaved the least gifted.

New rulers installed themselves in place of their predecessors, without making the coexistence of peoples or daily life more human.

Thoughts and feelings remained identical: voracity, cruelty, overpowering.

Jesus interrupted the succession of ferocious empires forever. He overturned values by placing not power but Communion at the summit.

He introduced a new criterion, that of the human heart - the opposite of the cruel instinct of beasts.

Second Reading: from a tiny Aegean island, Patmos, an exiled Christian writes to seven Churches in Asia Minor shaken by the persecution unleashed by the emperor, exhorting them to perseverance in the faith. 

Christ is referred to as 'ruler of the kings of the earth' to invite us to evaluate world history with new eyes.

Everyone looked up to Domitian as the arbiter of destinies, the all-powerful man who (historically, in Rome as a defence against the conspiracies of senators and aristocracy, but especially in the East) passed himself off as 'god' and filled the empire with his statues.

It was not he who ruled the fate of the world.

Certainly the power of an empire was judged by the size of the territory over which it stretched. But the alternative kingdom does not occupy space, does not rely on resounding displays of strength.

Its members are not gendarmes, nor slaves or subjects, but 'priests'.

The only order and sign of such genuine priesthood is to be called upon to offer gestures of love.

"Courage," the author seems to say, "the history of the world is an intermediate affair: everything starts from God, and returns to Him.

If we acquire His eyes, the rulers' interlude will become brief.

Pilate only knows the immense territory over which Tiberius extends his dominion, he only has in mind the characteristics of the kingdoms 'from' (v.36) this world.

Domains brought about by ambition. Realities based on the use of force and the persuasion of money.

Jesus does not kill: he goes to die, he does not command but obeys; he does not ally himself or seek the great and powerful but takes the side of those who count for nothing.

To possess, to conquer, to exterminate, to flaunt, are not peremptory signs of strength, but of defeat: great is he who serves.

Unfortunately, the script of kingship that comes 'from' this world is not only played by leaders: the crowds like it too.

On the Palatine Hill, near the Circus Maximus, a graffito dating from around 200 depicts a person in adoration of the Crucifix portrayed with a donkey's head.

Truth of God, kingship of man - and vice versa.

In the Gospel passage, John paints a picture of the underlying perplexities that plague the proclamation even today.

Quoting Jesus: "From yourself do you say this or have others told you of me?" - and Pilate's reply: "Your nation and the high priests have delivered you up to me".

Jesus asks the Prosecutor to think for himself; to think not as a dominant figure. (The Lord had made an identical point to the guard who had slapped him).

Everyone turned against him: he displeased not only the titled people whose bag of religious commerce he had touched, but even his own people - albeit sheared and milked by the authorities.

In short, the victory of the ideology of power is certainly assured by those in office, but paradoxically also by the submissive.

Perhaps the masses see in the Lord's proposal an attack on the small tranquillities they carve out for themselves....

A threat to the false security that power is all too capable of ensuring, including a petty existence - but one of little responsibility.

Never touch the petty idleness that comes from an established, even resigned or fake status - as long as it is not alarming.

In the time of daily choices, the recognisability of a place - fixed - even subservient, is always useful to outsource one's Freedom to someone.

Thus avoiding the abnormal fatigue of questioning the great lines of history and chronicle, to which one has become accustomed.

Sometimes the scripts of 'royalty' and the subordinates intersect, supporting each other.

With a homologating outcome, characteristic of certain sectarian 'cultural' agencies, or areas of unilateral conditioning.

Hence an accumulation of educational and pastoral difficulties... in a world content with the immediate and easy 'little' - unfortunately also in the area of spiritual proposal.

And indeed in the Christian community what are the signs of the Kingdom of God? Or does it too repeat the score of kingship that comes 'from' this world?

Perhaps it will be today's varied break-ups - initiated by all those who are not content with titled tasks or the opinion of a pressure group - that will solve the real problems and put things right.

Truth and Kingship.

Among all peoples the ideal of a successful “character” is the Sovereign: rich powerful free ruler.

To Pilate, perfectly placed in the power hierarchy, the Master produces a kind of mental crumbling.

It is the singular - truly Priestly - work of the personal journey of Faith: the invitation to question oneself.

Each one of us, as a King who does not allow himself to be intimidated by the same old sides from without, but demands a full life, his own.

Jesus at the end of his earthly life is quite silent. He waits for each one to speak out and choose.

Kingship of man

New heaven, new earth,

through witness to the truth

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 reread them in the dimension of the full truth about man, of the truth confirmed with the words and the cross of Christ!

(...)

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 the truth of his kingdom to us. 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)