XXXIV SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
SOLEMNITY OF CHRIST THE KING OF THE UNIVERSE
By our Pastor, Fr. Carmelo Jiménez
With the Solemnity of Christ the King we close the liturgical cycle. This Sunday the readings for Mass make us reflect on the way Christ reigns and the way that others govern here on earth. Some questions arise: Why do Christ and his kingdom continue to be a motive for both attraction and rejection? Why do those who reign on earth feel threatened, if they are not going to fight anyone, if Jesus is peaceful, he is giving, generous and serves others? So what do they have to fear?
“The one like a Son of man received dominion, glory, and kingship. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not be taken away; his kingship shall not be destroyed.” (Dn 7:14a. 14c) There has never been, nor will there ever be, an empire on earth that will last through eternity, because all of the earthly empires are human, even if they pretend to be divine, they fall and are destroyed. Their hands and feet are tied by a lack of solidarity and injustice. In the name of justice many innocent people are killed. They try to teach a lesson to the guilty ones…but they end up hurting many more that owe absolutely nothing. It would seem that all hope of a new world and a new heaven disappear but with the Resurrection of Christ all hope is renewed. The important thing is to know that one day power will be in the hands of the one, who becoming man has gained for eternity a reign of justice and brotherhood. He will not use the power to enslave as the powerful of this world have done, but he will free us and make us worthy children of God.
This is not Good Friday when we read the Passion of Christ, but the gospel presents us the confrontation of Pilate, the most powerful king on earth, against Jesus, a bound prisoner who says he is a king and has come to testify to the truth. “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.” (Jn 18:36) Jesus and his kingdom, “my kingdom,” that he says are still being judged even in our times. Just look at the Christians in Syria, the majority of whom are Catholic. For Pilate the problem is that Jesus has declared himself a king, when just minutes before, they had presented him to the people on the palace balcony as: the man, Ecce Homo! Ironically, they tell the people: Look at this failed king you have, who has been turned over! Look where your aspirations have ended up!
The drama lived in the praetorium is provoked by the very presence of Jesus who, even though he falls under the Jewish law, they cannot apply it to him and when he falls under the Roman law they cannot judge him because there are no objective acts, only existential truths to live and live in truth. It is true that in the end Pilate applies the “law”, but blindly, without conviction, which is often what happens when men are condemned to death. Just as it often happens in our own times, people are judged without reason.
The reign of Jesus Christ is founded in the truth, the light, justice and peace. It is not built by force, or political foundations. It is a kingdom that has to appear in the hearts of men which is the way to reconstruct history. It is a kingdom that is founded on the truth, in a way that Jesus dedicates his reign to testifying to that truth; and that is what he asks of us: to live in the truth and testify to the truth.