Are you a king?

In the renewed liturgy, the 34th Sunday of the liturgical year is dedicated to the celebration of Christ the King. This feast is in fact an apt conclusion to all previous Sundays, because it shifts our attention to the winding-up of Our Lord's successful mission on earth, beginning from his birth from the Blessed Virgin Mary and going all the way to his Passion and Resurrection from the dead and to the sending of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.

The idea of kingship may not be so suggestive to us today, when most kingdoms have been replaced by republics, and even the few that still remain have not always been models of unity and still less of virtue and service to the community.

This, of course, was not so at the time of Our Lord. When it came to the long memory and longing hopes of the people of Israel, kings still figured in a big way. God could take an adulterer and murderer like David and use his gifts of leadership to forge a unified people out of the 12 disrupted tribes.

It was against such a background, therefore, that we can somehow understand why the supremacy of Christ throughout the history of salvation has been presented to us in terms of 'kingship' or 'kingdom'. The idea of the kingship of God, therefore, proved to be most apt for suggesting to the faithful the truth that Jesus was truly king and that his mission on earth was, in fact, to rebuild God's kingdom on earth.

Throughout the entire Gospel narrative we often read about Jesus announcing God's Kingdom on earth, a kingdom which was to be universal and lasting till the end of the world. Then in the account of Our Lord's Passion we hear the Roman governor Pilate asking him: "Are you then a king?" And Jesus, breaking the silence he had observed till then, gave him this reply: "Yes, I am a king, as you say!"

And when one of the two criminals crucified with Jesus joins the mockery that was going on, the one hanging on Jesus' other side proclaims Our Lord's innocence and utters this beautiful prayer: "Jesus, remember me when you enter your realm!"

The whole gist of the entire announcing of Our Lord's kingdom can be gathered from the Preface of today's Mass in honour of Christ the King:

"An eternal and universal kingdom, a kingdom of truth and life, a kingdom of holiness and grace, a kingdom of justice, love and peace."

First of all, the kingdom of Jesus Christ knows no boundaries of time and place, but is one that is as eternal as God's own plan of salvation. And it is also a universal kingdom to which are invited all the peoples of the earth from the beginning of man's creation till the end of the world.

Secondly, His kingdom is one of truth and love, unlike most kingdoms which have appeared on the face of the earth, kingdoms many of which were and still are based on deceit, false promises and hatred.

Thirdly, the kingdom announced by Jesus and preached by his Church is one of holiness and grace, offering access to all men and women to the supernatural graces which alone can lead to the attainment of genuine holiness and grace.

Fourthly, as all human beings are necessarily longing for justice, love and peace, Jesus comes along and shows us by word and deed the right path which alone can lead to such supreme values.