Allegiance of the Heart (Christ the King B)

Today we give honor to the King of kings—Jesus Christ. On this Feast of Christ the King which signals the end of the liturgical year, it’s fitting to reflect on how we have given honor to him. How have we shown allegiance to our King?

It is one thing to profess in words that Christ is the King; it’s quite another to sincerely order our lives according to what pleases the King. The former act may well be fulfilled by lip-servicing as many of us do actually; the latter requires a great deal of trust and surrender to God’s will. The former may not transform our self-centeredness; the latter can change our value system and way of life, the will of God being at the center.

Have we allowed Jesus to be truly the King of our lives?  And what might this act of surrender imply?

In today’s gospel (Jn 18:33-37) Jesus is in trial in front of Pilate. The exchange between them unfolds the nature of Jesus’ Kingship. “Are you the king of the Jews?” is the question thrown by Pilate to Jesus. The answer to which determines whether or not Jesus is guilty of treason as charged. And Jesus answers obliquely that his “kingdom does not belong to this world.” This implies of course that indeed he is a king but of a different order.

All earthly kings rule in the external public forum--the socio-economic and political affairs-- which is configured by men and governed by them. No. Jesus is King not of that order. His kingdom does not rely on military strategies, or on economic systems, or on political power.

Instead, Jesus is king of the internal forum—the affairs of the heart, the arena of conscience—where the deepest spiritual strivings and the search for the truth transpire. As such, this arena is far superior to the former. The allegiance of the heart is immeasurably more profound than any external public adherence, say, to a political party. Thomas More, for instance, is remembered by his remarks just before his execution: “I die as the king’s true servant, but God’s first.”

Ultimately, the interior adherence to Jesus in faith ought to influence the way we conduct even our external public affairs. This is why even without military personnel and political machinery, Jesus’ kingship is radically transformative—the very reason why the revered people in the corridors of power in his time wanted to get rid of him!

“Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice” (v. 37). This is the statement of our King. Listening to his voice is how we show our allegiance to him. This means allowing Jesus to rule the affairs of our hearts and letting his truth reverberate in every nook and cranny of our conscience. To accept Jesus as king, then, is to be aware of the interior adherence of faith he demands and to actually live by it each day.

But how do we grow in this “interior allegiance of the heart?” How can we truly discern the voice of the King in our lives? Let me suggest three elements adapted from the thoughts of Fr. Thomas Green, SJ, a spiritual director and writer:

A desire to do God’s will. To grow in this interior allegiance to Christ, we ought to cultivate this desire to do his will and to let go of our self-centered whims and caprices. We should desire to accomplish God’s work in our lives. This means that what the Lord wants is more important to us than what we want. If we honestly do not have this desire to do his will, how else can we profess that He is our King other than by lip-servicing?

Openness to God. To genuinely desire God’s will, we must be open to God as he reveals himself in his mysterious, surprising, and even disturbing ways. We must be open to be taught and be led the by the Lord. We must let him be the boss. Isn’t it true that often we approach God with all our preconceptions of him? And we even place him within the limiting confines of our expectations! If the Lord’s will matters to us the most, then these limited and limiting notions of him must give way to openness, letting God be God and truly our King.

A Knowledge of God. We can only know what pleases the Lord when we have known him. This knowledge is not just information about God but our lived experience of him. If we lack this personal and experiential knowledge of God, then we need to grow in this by the help of a spiritual guide or the support of a community who has grown in intimacy with the Lord. Hence, it is essential that we continue to ask the grace of intimacy with the Lord as it is impossible to surrender our lives to a King whom we do not know and care about.

We end this liturgical year with this Feast of Christ the King. Let us strive then, with God’s enabling grace, to listen to God’s voice in the deepest recesses of our hearts and, guided by it, lead a life that is truly pleasing to him.

Royal Disguise (Christ the King A)

A story was told of a well-loved king who was curious about how his people were treating one another.  To know firsthand what was going on in his kingdom, he went into the villages disguised as a street sweeper.  There, to his utter dismay, he was ignored by many and insulted by some.  Very few were charitable to him.  He went back to his palace and instructed his ministers to do everything in their power to teach the people how to respect one another especially the poor.  After a month, the king disguised himself again, this time as a poor beggar, and mingled with the people. To his surprise, no one jeered at him nor ignored him.  Instead he was greeted with respect and people were charitable to him.  The well-loved king went back to his palace satisfied and praised his ministers for what they had done.  

What had they done?  The ministers had sent the messenger to spread the word that their beloved king was in their midst.  

The awareness that their beloved king was among them trained them to treat one another with respect. 
Even a poor beggar had to be treated with dignity because he might just be the king!

Christ the King and his identification with the poor. “I assure you, as often as you did it for one of my least brothers, you did it for me” (Mt. 25: 40). Once again today, as we celebrate the end of the liturgical year with the feast of Christ the King, we are reminded that our King has identified himself with the least of our brothers and sisters—the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the sick, and those who are in prison. To serve the King, we need not travel far and wide. We just have to see him in those who come to us in need.

Our generation is blessed to have known Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Her life was known to the whole world as an eloquent witness to an authentic Christian life. Her eloquence was not in her words. It was in her deeds. Or should we find her words very powerful despite the simplicity, it is because her words flow from her acts of love and commitment to help the poorest of the poor. When asked how she could endure all that she was doing for the poor like cleaning the wounds of a leper or feeding a malnourished child or embracing an abandoned dying AIDS patient, she would explain that it was the suffering Christ that she saw in them. The love that she lavished on them was her love for Jesus Christ, the King. Her words continue to reverberate: “No, I wouldn't touch a leper for a thousand pounds; yet I willingly cure him for the love of God.”

Our passivity vis-a-vis the poor in our midst. The poor, the hungry, the abandoned, the homeless, the sick continue to beg for our concern and love. Their continued presence in our midst might have so much inured us to the horror of poverty and destitution that we begin to accept with utter passivity that’s just how things are. We need not do anything. Or the other way around, we might just be so overwhelmed that we react with hasty and convenient solutions, the immoralities of which we are happy to cover up by actually believing that we are concerned about helping the poor. But in fact, we just hate them and their number. We want to get rid of them effectively!

This is not unthinkable in a society which is practically getting rid of God and his precepts. The poor, to whom Christ the King identified himself, are helplessly dispensable. The rich and the powerful, however, enjoy their cherished prerogatives.

Kingship as a Christian call to service. Today’s feast reminds us that in the Christian perspective, Kingship means servanthood. Nowhere else is the reversal of values more apparent than in this humble calling of a Christian king. Our readings for today bring to the fore the image of the Shepherd King—a King whose concern is not his own glorification but the welfare of his flock. Like Yahweh, the shepherd in the first reading culled from the book of Ezekiel (Ez 34: 11-12, 15-17), Christ is the shepherd and provider of his flock. Moreover, He will come, at the last judgment, as a Shepherd King who will hold us accountable for our human conduct on the basis of whether or not we have served one another and especially the least among us (Mt. 25: 31-46).

To a sincere Christian, the face of poverty and destitution is the face of the suffering Christ.  Others may show some concern for the poor for different reasons, political expediency being one of them; but a true Christian serves the least of his/her brothers and sisters for love of Christ, the King.

Among the many faces of the poor I am confronted with everyday, where is Christ the King that I may serve him with love in whatever capacity I am endowed with?

  

The Crucified King (Christ the King C)

From day one up to now, believers and non-believers alike have been inspired by Pope Francis. On The Washington Post, Kathleen Parker wrote about Pope Francis:

“Pope Francis continues to delight and surprise as he pursues his radical pilgrimage across the global psyche - inspiring with his humility while also sending shock waves with his subversive spirit. Yes, make no mistake, this humble man from Argentina who describes himself first as a sinner and prefers simplicity to the opulence afforded by his station is, like Jesus Christ himself, a radical. He washes the feet of the poor while eschewing the ruby papal slippers for his own holy feet. He lives in humble quarters among colleagues rather than in the isolation of the Vatican suites where his predecessors have slept. He immerses himself in humanity while urging a greater pastoral role for the church and a de-emphasis on the harsh judgments of institutional authority.”

What makes Pope Francis tick? I think, as Kathleen Parker somewhat hinted at, it is that his ways remind us of Jesus Christ. And the world longs for a leader who is a living witness to Christ.  

In today’s gospel reading (Lk 23:35-43), Jesus is portrayed as the crucified King. In this reading, it is possible to bring out three traits of Christ the King that people of today somehow recognize in the ways of the present Pope: These are humility, compassion, and servant-leadership. These must also be our own, if we are indeed disciples of Christ the King and are edified by the leadership example of our Pope. 

Christ the King is a humble King. While he was hanging on the cross, the rulers, the soldiers, and one of the criminals beside him all sneered at him. Each of them challenged the crucified Lord to prove himself as the Messiah of God by saving himself from defeat and death on the cross. But He did not succumb to the temptation to use his power. On the cross, He remained humble and “powerless.” His way is the humble obedience to the Father, not the triumphalistic and egoistic display of power to show his greatness. He died utterly humiliated. But such humility was the very power of God that brought salvation to the world.

Pope Francis reminds us of the humility of Christ. He inspires us because he believes that humility attracts people to the Church, not power and pride. He once told the cardinals that the strength of the Gospel “is precisely in humility, the humility of a child who lets himself be guided by the love and tenderness of his father.” As he himself chooses to reject the opulent trappings of the papacy, the Pope invites the Church to leave behind whatever remaining vestiges of triumphalism it has gotten used to over the centuries. He invites the Church to be humble just as Christ the King is humble. This invitation touches the hearts of many people and deeply inspires them.

Christ the King is compassionate. The gospels have all recounted the many incidents when Jesus manifested his compassion for the least, the last and the lost. But today’s gospel reading highlights even more the compassion of Christ when, as He hanged on the cross facing his own death, he listened to the prayer of the thief beside him: “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus recognized the implicit repentance in the prayer of this thief. Right there and then, Jesus’ compassionate heart granted the promise of eternal life to him. Herein lies the true power of the crucified King: not in casting harsh judgment on sinners but in showing compassion and mercy to the repentant.

Pope Francis too has been moving the hearts of thousands of people by his simple gestures of compassion. Once, he met a man covered in boils from head-to-toe, instead of recoiling from this man as some doctors even do, Pope Francis embraced him. In yet another instance in Saint Peter’s Square, the Pope noticed a man in the crowd with a severely disfigured face. The Pope approached him, embraced him as well and prayed with him. Pope Francis is showing the world the compassion of Christ the King. And more importantly he invites the Church to change focus. The Church, he said, should emphasize compassion and mercy instead of “small-minded rules.”

Christ is a servant-king.  To the world, a “servant-king” is an oxymoron, a combination of two contradictory concepts. But for Christ, the former fittingly defines the latter. As he had declared early on in his public ministry, the Son of Man “did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mt. 20:28). Hence, as a King, he rules not by domination but by serving even to the point of laying down his life for his people. He is not a king sitting pretty on a majestic throne but one awkwardly hanging on the cross bruised, wounded, and dying—all for the sake of whom he was sent to save.

Pope Francis too understands his leadership in terms of service just like Christ.  On his installation he proclaimed: "Let us never forget that authentic power is service…  The pope, too, when exercising power, must enter ever more fully into that service, which has its radiant culmination on the cross." And he calls the Church to rise beyond her tendency to be “self-referential” and to take the risk of reaching out to the poor in service. The Church, like her King, must be a servant Church.

With Pope Francis leading us in the spirit of Christ the King, we continue living out with joy and enthusiasm our Christian faith. Pope Francis has begun pointing us to Christ once again by his examples and exhortations on humility, compassion, and service. Just as Christ the King is humble, compassionate, and a servant, so his Church must be, so each of us must be.

The Voice of the King (Christ the King)

No doubt, he is the king. With the manner he dominated and demolished his last opponent, the remaining skeptics who have had lingering doubts about his superior world class prowess are now totally convinced he is indeed the king of the ring. Manny Paquiao truly deserves the world-boxing legendary title, “The Pound-for-pound King!” Manny rules… Yo!!! Once again, a kingly welcome as he comes home is in order.

Today we give honor not to the king of the ring though but to the King of kings—Jesus Christ. On this Feast of Christ the King which signals the end of the liturgical year, it’s fitting to ask ourselves how we have given honor to him. How have we shown allegiance to our King?

You see, the king of the ring publicly bows and kneels in his corner before and after every fight presumably to entrust everything to the God he believes in. So far he is successful in his every fight in the ring. He is happy. His fans are happy too. It seems to all of us that God is on his side even as we wonder how God maintains impartiality in respect to the equally ardent prayers from the Mexican or Puerto Rican corner.

Apparently the king of the ring entrusts to God his every fight. But will he allow the same God to lead his life outside the ring? Some believe that this is his greatest challenge now. Not Mayweather! With the blinding success that has brought his life unimaginable wealth, inebriating fame, and endless opportunities of every sort unknown to him before (like politics and romance?), will Manny Paquiao still bow and kneel to let God be God of his life—not only during his boxing bouts that continue to make history; but also in his personal life as a husband… as a father for instance? Or let say, as a future congressman?!!!!!

Do we allow Jesus to be the God of our life? Is he the King whose commands we are following?

In today’s gospel (Jn 18:33-37) Jesus is in trial in front of Pilate. The exchange between them unfolds the nature of Jesus’ Kingship. “Are you the king of the Jews?” is the question thrown by Pilate to Jesus. The answer to which determines whether or not Jesus is guilty of treason as charged. And Jesus answers obliquely that his “kingdom does not belong to this world.” This implies of course that indeed he is a king but of a different order.

Kings rule in the external public forum—the socio-economic and political affairs—which is configured by men and governed by them. No. Jesus is King not of that order. His kingdom does not rely on military strategies, or on economic systems, or on political power. Instead, Jesus is king of the internal forum—the affairs of the heart, the arena of conscience—where the deepest spiritual strivings and the search for the truth transpire. As such, this arena is far superior to the former. The allegiance of the heart is immeasurably more profound than any external public adherence, say, to a political party. Thomas More, for instance, is remembered by his remarks just before his execution: “I die as the king’s true servant, but God’s first.”

Ultimately, the interior adherence to Jesus in faith ought to influence the way we conduct even our external public affairs. This is why even without military personnel and political machinery, Jesus’ kingship is radically transformative—the very reason why the revered people in the corridors of power in his time wanted to get rid of him!

“Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice” (v. 37). This is the statement of our King. This is how we show our allegiance to him: To allow Jesus to rule the affairs of our hearts and to let his truth reverberate in every nook and cranny of our conscience. To accept Jesus as king, then, is to be aware of the interior adherence of faith he demands and to actually live by it each day in all the facets and seasons of life.

Why would we like to do this? Because he is a king whom we can trust! He is a king whose self-sacrifice on the cross dispels any doubt about the magnanimity of his love. He is a king whose only desire is the ultimate joy and total fulfillment of his beloved subjects. He is a king who holds the truth which we, shortsighted human beings as we are, always fail to see on our own. We readily see the externals. The superficial. The glossy coating. Because, in seeing, we use only our eyes and not our heart. And we fool ourselves by jumping into the conclusion that the window dressing we see is the be-all and end-all of life. So tragic that many have lived by it… and eventually died for it… with the greatest uncertainty, very much unlike Sir Thomas More, if there ever was a meaning to life.

We need to listen to his voice in the deepest recesses of our hearts.

We end this liturgical year with this Feast of Christ the King. Let us ask ourselves: Have I recognized his voice and truly listened to him through out the year? Has my life been a little different because I have allowed God to lead me from within? Is He truly my King?