This Sunday we celebrate the feast of Christ the King the last Sunday of the Churches year. The Feast of Christ the King was established by Pope Pius XI in 1925 as an antidote to secularism, this is a way of life which leaves God out of a person’s thinking and has us living life as if God did not exist as we all know God does exist and we see this through so many people throughout history right down to ourselves. In this feast we profess our common belief: Christ is King. This is reflected when we pray the Lord’s Prayer together We pray, “Thy kingdom come”, i.e., we pray that our lives together will better reflect what Jesus has in mind for us as a community of God’s people.
Our Gospel reading for this Sunday has Jesus before Pilate. The authorities of the time did not like the truth that Jesus was speaking about on so many things as many within and outside the Church do not like the truth that the Church teaches. In the reading from John’s Gospel which is also part of the Good Friday Passion Narrative we see this conflict is described in terms of the “truth” that Jesus has brought from his Father: “It is because I speak the truth that you cannot believe me” (8:45).
Jesus urged the people of his time as he encourages you and me in our time to find again our true calling in the work of God, to be “a light to the nations,” showing the world the life and joy of a people living according to the ways they have learned from Jesus son of the Father. At the end of this church year , we are asked to embrace the cross and walk in the victory of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. What began as a humble event with the birth of Jesus in the stable has changed the world. As we prepare for Christmas during Advent are we with Jesus and his call to us to be merciful as the father? Are our lives an open sacrifice in a demonstration of the love of God? We can be sure that nobody there on Good Friday thought they were witnessing the death of a great King and that we would celebrating Christ as our King over 2000 years on in 2018.
Fullerton T 