What sort of king is Our Lord?

BY FR RALPH DE HAHN

Pope Pius XI instituted the feast of Christ the King, this year on November 23, in 1925. Yet today our people of different tongues and culture fail to comprehend this kingship.

How do we make sense of the paradox and mystery of a king who reigns over the hearts of men from a criminal’s cross, and disturbs the entire social order by proclaiming that the very poor and downtrodden, the prostitutes and sinners, would possess the kingdom ahead of the pious learned who professed, taught and lived the Jewish law to the letter.

What kind of king publicly asks his followers to be “like little children” in order to enter his kingdom; to sell all their possessions, renounce the world and suffer? A king who asked his people to die to self in order to live forever, who even dared to preach that all men were equal; that we were to forgive the unforgiveable and love the enemy and the unlovable!

Then came his illogical declaration that we should eat his body and drink his blood in order that he may live in us and we in him. No earthly king ever made such preposterous demands.

Yet this king also spoke of love and tenderness, of justice, truth and peace.

He told Pontius Pilate that his kingdom was “not of this world”. How could it be when he also claimed that the “kingdom of God is among you” and even “within you”.

That was, of course, the very core of Jesus’ preaching.

Jesus came to establish the kingdom of heaven here on earth, not only in the spiritual but also the social domain for this song of the kingdom was meant to be sung within and among us in the very moral fibre of our daily Christian living.

He speaks of the kingdom as past, present and future for it is an eternal kingdom, beyond all time.

It is already and not yet here, simply because man has delayed it by preferring his own will to the divine. It is to be fully established and finally triumphant only when man submits to the will of Christ, for only then will he have absolute dominion over all his subjects.

In the perfect prayer, Jesus prays that “thy kingdom may come, that thy will may be done on earth as it is done in heaven”. For, surely, this remarkable kingdom is with us, among us and in us only when we submit to his will and surrender to his rule and lordship over us, and when he is glorified in all that we do.

From the psalms, the prophets and the teaching of the master, we are left in no doubt that here is an eternal kingdom portrayed, as is with all spiritual realities, in human imagery.

Jesus offered certain human images to display the mysteries of the kingdom by speaking in parables. His miracles were “signs” of the kingdom. He came to rule over the hearts and minds of his subjects, but also to heal the ill and wounded — and even death. His glorious resurrection was a sign of the ultimate triumph of his kingdom.

On the other hand, there are those whose declaration we hear even in our age: “We have no king, only Caesar!”

We are fully aware that Christ’s kingdom does not reign over all the earth. Satan reigns where he is given permission to rule — where there is corruption, injustice, greed, drug and alcohol abuse, racism, gangsterism, religious persecution, exploitation of the weak, human trafficking and so on.

The kingdom of God is here to upset and reverse the whole social order; it must dictate a new vision, a new social perspective, a cry for truth and justice and mercy among us—without which peace is impossible.

This is the Church’s mission in this world, and every Christian has a part to play, for every act of love, respect and justice will be building a new social order, beginning with the family and affirming the basic right to life itself.

Just as a mustard seed is tiny and has yet to grow into a mighty tree, so the kingdom is already with us and yet not fully accomplished until we Christians hear the call to live the life of the kingdom.