CHRIST THE KING - YEAR B

THIRTY FOURTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR – B: Solemnity of the Christ the King (Daniel 7:13-14; Rev 1:5-8; John 18:33b-37) Theme: Jesus invites us to place ourselves under His Kingship Reflection: Kingship of Jesus Christ revealed in His Ultimate Obedience and Service - Culmination of the liturgical year with the sovereignty of Jesus: Today is the last Sunday of the Liturgical year B. From the next Sunday, from the first week of Advent, we start new year of liturgy. We have been preparing ourselves throughout this year just for this: to get place in the kingdom of God inaugurated and revealed to us by Jesus Christ. We have been listening to his voice which has come to us through the Scriptures. We have been nourishing ourselves with his spiritual food which has come to us through the celebration of the sacramental mysteries. Day by day we have been growing in faith. We have completed our race of faith of this liturgical year. At the end, today, if we find ourselves under the reign of Christ, our race has reached its destiny. Otherwise, we have not yet made an adequate attempt to the leadership of Jesus. We need to examine over our life of faith: where and how did we start our movement? How far we have reached? Now where are we exactly? Aim of the reflection of the gospels week by week is to form and reform ourselves so that we are always with Christ. In this way, the church invites us each year to begin the liturgical year with the dedication and to complete it with the commitment. Today, after our one year of faith journey we need to accept, follow and embrace the sovereignty of Jesus. - Radical Question and Quest into research – Did Jesus ever proclaim himself a king?: If we gaze into the gospels it is clear that Jesus has never proclaimed himself a king and he never wanted to claim to be a king. Almost all the gospels speak of the kingship of Jesus only in the presence of Pilot and before his judgment. In outset, the conversation is very simple and casual without any intensive approach. Pilot asks Jesus: ‘Are you a king?’ and Jesus does not confirm but only affirms: ‘you tell it’ (Math 27:11), the same appears in Mark 15:2, and Luke 23:3; the discourse is not continued on the kingship, not even the scribes and the Jewish authority; they just bypass it as though it is not the exact thing what they wanted to talk. In John’s gospel the dialogue between Pilot and Jesus taken dramatic turn as we read it in today’s gospel (John 18:28-38). Here, on one hand, Pilot wants to hear the personal testimony of Jesus proclaiming himself as a king and on the hand, Jesus replies first with the silence and then with the kingdom from above. Neither here, Jesus wants to declare himself as king. He reveals only the purpose of his presence: I have to come to give testimony to the truth (v.37). All these citations show that Jesus is not interested in being ‘raised to the glory of the king’. - Kingship! Both hidden and at the same time revealed: On one side, Jesus does not reveal his kingship. In fact, Jesus never wanted it and he is not so much interested in proclaiming himself a king. He is aware and conscious of only his mission. He has come to be with the poor and therefore, to identify himself as – humble and obedient servant – sent by God to proclaim and fulfill the kingdom of God. On the other side, the revelation of his kingship has never been stopped. From the moment of his annunciation to Mary (Lk 1:30ff), with the promise that the one who is to be born will be a king, to the moment of his death on the cross with the inscription on the cross – Jesus king of Jews. It is revealed by first Angel Gabriel, by the Magi, even by simple people when they wanted to make him a king after the miracle of multiplication of bread, and on the cross; Readings Kingship is a crown for His Total Self-surrender to the Will of God - Jesus Christ accepted to assume the figure of the son of man (first reading): The revelation of the Scriptures is that Jesus Christ is given the power and is made the Head of everything. He is raised up in glory and given the power. “To Him are given the power, glory and the kingdom; all the peoples, nations and languages were serving him: his power is an eternal power, which never finishes, and his reign will never be destroyed” (Daniel 7:14). This is the vision of Daniel long before the coming of Jesus into the world. In his vision he does not see the One who is coming as the king. He sees someone similar to the “son of man” (Daniel 7:13). But this son of man is later given the power and the kingdom. Here, Jesus Christ is manifested as the Son of Man, not as a king. Jesus gives completion and perfection by calling himself as the Son of Man: “Son of Man has to be delivered into the hands of the sinners and they will put him to death and on the third day he will raise again”. Jesus proclaims his death three times before his actual death. All the three times he proclaims himself as Son of Man and not as a king. But this son of man will be raised up to the glory and will be given the power just because Jesus Christ accepted with all his loving will to be the figure of this son of man prophesied in the Old Testament. - Jesus Christ accepted to be the faithful testimony of God’s love for the world (second reading): Theology of John is quite different from other gospel writers. For John Jesus Christ is the Word of the Father who has come down from heaven. His purpose of coming is not to dominate the world and manifest his glory in the material manner. His only mission is to reveal God’s love for the salvation of man. John reveals the mission of the Word already in the beginning of his writings. In his gospel, John proclaims that the Word has come down to give the testimony to the Father. Even in today’s second reading, taken from the book of Revelation, demonstrates who is actually Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is first of all, a faithful testimony, first born of the dead, and finally is the sovereign of all the kings of the earth (Rev 1:5). John does not indicate Jesus as a king at first instance. For him, the kingship has been given to him by the Father for the faithful subjection to the Father in fulfilling his will of redeeming humanity. Only after being the testimony of God’s love by his word and deed, only after offering his life on the cross with obedience and only after rising from the dead, he becomes the king of the universe. Therefore, the purpose of his coming is not to take over the humanity in his hands as the only author but to be the testimony of His Father’s love doing only what His Father commands. - His mission is to give testimony to the truth, not to be a ruler of the world (Gospel): as we have already seen above, the confrontation between Pilot and Jesus is dramatic. Finally, Jesus affirms only one thing: “for this I am born and for this I have come into the world: to give testimony to the truth” (the ending words of today’s gospel). Every word he has spoken and every action he has accomplished is not from his own will but from the will of the Father who has send him into the world. This is only testimony that Jesus gives of himself and nothing else. All other acclamations are from the overwhelming joy of the people who has seen his astonishing presence and power. Even before his death, in front of Pilot, he holds this testimony. He affirms only one thing that his kingdom is not of this world. But never speaks of, or proclaims himself as king. His kingdom is given to him by the Father for the faithful testimony he has rendered in the world and for the humanity. Conclusion We are invited to learn that “to reign is to serve” - We are called to acknowledge Jesus Christ as the King of the Universe: Jesus has manifested his ultimate obedience and humility to His Father. God, His Father, has revealed His regality/kingship to the people through different ways and modes – God always speaks in the various means. By this we understand that it is finally the ‘simple and perfect event’ of ultimate obedience to the will of God that made him ‘the king over all’ (Phil 2:6-11). It is God who has put everything under His subjection so that everything will be brought back it its original place: being in God – that is, God be all in all. o But the church acknowledges and proclaims Jesus the King because of His ultimate sacrifice for the salvation of mankind as a Good Shepherd – the shepherd who gives his life for his flock; she proclaims him to be the ‘king of the universe’. thus, He becomes Shepherd-King. o Universe – both creation and the humanity – is affected very badly and is in the clutches of sin and death and is, therefore, in need of a savior who will have an ultimate victory over these two powers - sin and death - and places the universe in its right post. Jesus is a king because he wins and he is a king of universe because he wins over the powers that hold in their power the whole creation and thus becomes the ‘King of the Universe’. Jesus is the king because he wins the sin through his innocent sacrifice and the death through his resurrection to new life – gives back the kingdom of peace and justice to God. o His victory is not with the army of the world as he professes in the court of the Pilot but belongs to the other world and therefore, to the world of the Father and His Angels; therefore, his fight and his war is not with the horse and sword, which is the normal understanding of a king, but with the Spirit and Love, a new, radical and a spiritual understanding of kingship. This is the criteria through which he will also, one day, call everything into judgment: with the manifestation of love in the proper life; this way, thus, he becomes the ‘King-Judge’. As such he divides the good and the bad and places them in the posts they deserve for their testimony of life on earth. - To place ourselves under His kingship means “to follow him and to serve our brethren”: The Path made Simple and Accessible. First we have to follow him: We need not struggle too much in order to enter the kingdom of God. The path is already paved. Only thing we need to do is to listen to his invitation and to follow him with commitment. His call is: ‘come, you blessed by my Father into the heavenly kingdom’. And he affirms that those who listen to him are his sheep: “my sheep listen my voice”. To follow him means exactly this: to place ourselves in his footsteps. Second, we have extend our service to our fellow beings: great deeds are not demanded from us. God asks from us our daily and small things: A slice of bread to the hungry. A glass of water to the thirst. A piece of cloth to the naked. A kind word to the disappointed/stranger. A small visit to the sick. And finally, in a word, a merciful glance to the needy. These ‘daily gestures’ are the fulfillment of the totality of the beatitudes that Jesus proposed already at the beginning of his mission of ‘realization of the kingdom of God.’ We are called to do this and once we do these little things to the little ones around us, we are sure of standing at the right side of the judgment seat – through which we receive crown of glory and eternal happiness. Therefore, Let us place ourselves under the kingship of Jesus Christ and thus become part of God’s kingdom so that we are in the Lord and the Lord is in us.