Gospel according to Saint John 18:33b-37

Pilate said to Jesus, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you say this on your own or have others told you about me?” Pilate answered, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests handed you over to me. What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom does not belong to this world. If my kingdom did belong to this world, my attendants would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not here.” So Pilate said to him, “Then you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say I am a king. For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”

The Begging King

 Luis CASASUS President of the Idente Missionaries

Rome, November 24, 2024 | XXXIV Sunday in Ordinary Time. Jesus Christ the King.

Dan 7: 13-14; Ap 1: 5-8; Jn 18: 33-37

Many beautiful and spiritually useful explanations can be given about what it means to say that Jesus Christ is King, particularly today as we commemorate his status as King of the Universe. But the matter is so important that the Church proposes it as the final reflection of the Liturgical Year.

Undoubtedly, it is the most complete image of our intimate relationship with Christ, who described himself in various ways, as a shepherd, as a door for the flock, as meek and humble of heart… but today, he confesses himself king and Pilate’s question “Then, are you king?” was not simply part of a procedural interrogation, but rather the proof of Pilate’s confusion and bewilderment, who could not see a revolutionary in Jesus’ meekness and simple attire. He could not understand how the Master did not use his triumphal entry into Jerusalem to consolidate a following that would lead him to defeat any adversary, including the mighty Roman empire.

That is the power that Christ has over each one of us today, even if we are not always faithful, it amazes and overwhelms us. We feel before Him as Pilate, feeling that Christ is King… and often denying it before the world with our mediocrity.

Because of the relevance of calling Christ King, let us meditate in two different ways on what this title of His has to do with our lives.

Surely, when a mother tells her young son that he is “the king of the house,” she has hit on the best description of her relationship with her son: he is the center of everything; the one who determines what the family will do, what concerns are most important.

I always remember the case of a husband and wife whose life was quite comfortable, who were surrounded by good friends and lived a happy existence with their two children. Until, unexpectedly, one of them contracted an illness so serious that they had to move to a different climate and live in a different city, where they could also have access to the appropriate treatment. For this, both had to change their professional jobs for others far away from their competence, leave their relationships with their best friends and with the neighbors they had known for years… It was clear that the king of the house was the sick child; without words, without laws, his life marked the destiny of the family.

In some places, it is common to hear the husband call the wife “Queen” and the children do the same. Without going into deep analysis, it is a way of affectionately recognizing that they are willing to fulfill her will, just because it comes from her.

All this manifests that, in a very natural way, we recognize that our obedience is only real and complete when we feel that it is homage to a person, not to a rule. That is why in the Bible kings are placed above all hierarchy.

Since the king’s word is supreme, who can call him to account (Ecclesiastes 8: 4). The king had above him only the law of God.

That is the first, simple, natural way to think of Jesus Christ as king in our hearts. Indeed, if we reflect on our experience, when we have been simply “open” to Christ, his power has been far stronger than any of our passions, more powerful than the worst temptation, than the world that seeks to drag us down, or the fear that tries to paralyze us.

—ooOoo—

But it is also true that we rebel against the authority represented by a king, divine or human. It is in our personal and community history to oppose authority, to reject a king, as early as Paradise. Deep down, we do not like to be ruled.

The kings of the earth rebel; the rulers plot against the Lord and against his anointed. They say, “Let us break his bonds, let us throw off his yoke” (Psalm 2:2-3).

Within every heart there is a war: we want a king and at the same time we do not want to obey anyone. We want a king to whom we can submit when it suits or supports our plans, our vision or our desires; a king “to suit us”.

We are not in heaven nor can we see the Master sitting next to our Heavenly Father, but our intimate experience of Christ as King is that, indeed, only He can have dominion over the complexity of our life in this world.

Let us give some examples:

1. Even when we succeed (or believe we have succeeded) in bringing the chaos of our passions under control, we feel the presence of fear, of doubt, of the possibility of new inner storms, of some new and powerful temptation… only the evidence that Christ went through ALL possible difficulties and fulfilled his mission, can confirm to us that it makes sense to carry the cross.

No other path, however respectable and beneficial it may be, can give us a fullness of life; neither mindfulness, nor “doing things for others”, nor the best advice of a therapist or a spiritual director, are able to put order, direction and meaning to all the energies of our soul. Only those who have the experience of looking at Christ as King, in spite of our own awkwardness, can verify this.

2. Faced with the evidence that our best initiatives, such as caring for someone with gentleness, trying to live the works of mercy, or abandoning what we love most to imitate Christ, are not enough to give the witness we would like to give, to achieve the good we would like to do, Christ alone teaches us that it is possible to say, precisely while announcing his death on the cross: In this world, you will face afflictions, but take heart! I have overcome the world (Jn 16: 33).
3. In those moments when I feel some form of loneliness, when I have the impression that no one can understand me or help me, only Christ is capable of instantly freeing me from that feeling that paralyzes me and clouds my horizon. Not only by leaving the impression of one who affectionately says or writes: I am with you, but with a much more peremptory call than mine, saying: I need your urgent help. He does it in many ways, but always making it clear that he CANNOT give the testimony that I CAN give. In Him the divine power is not visible in a sinful soul; He cannot wash my neighbor’s feet, nor make his weeping noticeable as He did at the death of Lazarus. But, unexpectedly, we see ourselves converted into instruments of the kingdom of heaven.

St. Paul tells the Corinthians that to those who have less honor, God has given more abundant honor, and often the time comes when those obscure and unlovely people become, perhaps, the greatest blessings of your life, and draw you to the Father like the Master himself.

A similar experience was had by St. Peter, according to the extra-canonical book The Acts of Peter, when the apostle tries to leave Rome and sees Christ in a dream, inviting him to return to the city, where he knew he would be martyred. The Polish writer Henryk Sienkiewicz recounts this beautifully in his novel Quo vadis? (1896).

Christ, as King, does not impose himself with laws and proofs of his power, but with the authority of one who has passed through all trials, through all imaginable forms of pain:

Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need (Heb 4: 14-16).

—ooOoo—

It seems somewhat paradoxical that we recognize Jesus as brother, friend, Good Shepherd, Savior, Son of Man… and end the Liturgical Year reminding us that Christ is King. But it is not a contradiction because in reality, like all kings, he has to be enthroned, in his case, by each one of us. Let us recall a scene from the Old Testament:

So Zadok the priest, Nathan the prophet, Benaiah son of Jehoiada, the Kerethites and the Pelethites went down and had Solomon mount King David’s mule, and they escorted him to Gihon. Zadok the priest took the horn of oil from the sacred tent and anointed Solomon. Then they sounded the trumpet and all the people shouted, Long live King Solomon! And all the people went up after him, playing pipes and rejoicing greatly, so that the ground shook with the sound (1Kings 1: 38-40).

Every enthronement, whether worldly or spiritual, demands a formal and explicit acceptance of those who will submit to his will and has visible effects. One of them is freedom from enemies, the certainty of being able to fulfill our mission in this world, as the Second Reading expresses:

He loved us and purified us from our sins with his blood and has made us a kingdom of priests for his God and Father.

We are so weak that we need to renew our promises periodically, to offer our vows publicly before Christ, but, above all, to confirm to Him every day that we will make every effort to live the intimate obedience that He humbly implores of us.

I would like to illustrate how this is so, with an enjoyable anecdote:

A nurse in the pediatric ward, before listening to her little patients’ chests, would put the stethoscope in their ears and let them listen to their own hearts. She never heard a response like that of four-year-old David. He gently put the stethoscope in his ears and placed the disk over his heart. He said, listen well, what do you think that is? He looked up, as if lost in the mystery of the strange tick-tock, sounding deep in his chest. Then his face broke into a wonderful smile, is that Jesus calling? he asked.

_______________________________

In the Sacred Hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,

Luis CASASUS

President