Christ the King - Homily 3

 Homily 3 - 2015

Reeling after last week’s attacks on a variety of venues in Paris, the French President, François Hollande, vowed that France would be merciless towards the terrorists. Every day since then, France has bombed Syria. 

World leaders have made much of France’s revolutionary values of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, believing their own societies to be built on such basic human values. Whatever about freedom and equality, I do think that fraternity, at the moment, is the poor relation of the three. What seems to be more likely is that States responding to terrorism will tend to respond more punitively and indiscriminately in the Middle East, will nurture suspicion of their own Muslim minorities at home, and will introduce repressive and discriminatory laws in the name of security.

Yet, I am also impressed by a later intervention of the French President. His country has retained its commitment to receive 30,000 refugees from Syria and Iraq who, he stated, “will be welcomed in the next two years”. His reason – “… the people of Syria and Iraq have fled because they are martyred by the same people who attack us today.” Indeed, he is quoted as saying, “Our duty is to carry on our lives.”

I also came across a wonderful comment made by another Frenchman named Antoine Leiris, husband of a woman killed in one of the Paris attacks. Hoping to address terrorists similar to the ones who had killed his wife, he said, “You want me to be afraid, to cast a mistrustful eye on my fellow citizens, to sacrifice my freedom for security.” He went on to describe his personal devastation, but then, speaking of his little son, he said, “Every day he will insult you with his happiness and freedom”. Courageously, he added, “You will not have my hatred.” 

What is our personal knee-jerk reaction to violence? I think that today’s Feast of Christ the King is relevant to our response, today’s Gospel particularly so. Jesus stood before Pilate, the Governor of the province of Judea, and representative of the Roman Emperor. Through the ruthlessness of its invincible military machine, Rome had subjugated most of the known Western World. Responding to the accusation of being King of the Jews, Jesus made clear that, while accepting the title, his Kingdom was “not from this world”.

When interpreting his reply, we are often inclined to think of Jesus’ Kingdom as being “in heaven”, somewhat “airy-fairy”, with little to do with practical issues of life in the here-and-now. And yet, in the Lord’s Prayer, our Christian prayer par excellence, after voicing our over-riding concern that “Thy Kingdom come”, we go on to pray, “Thy will be done on earth”. We add the additional phrase “as it is in heaven” purely by way of illustration. Jesus’ Kingdom has everything to do with life “on earth”. 

Kingdoms are not so much about personal lifestyles, as about life in society and as society. In pointing out the difference between his kingdom and kingdoms “from this world”, Jesus critically explained, “If my kingdom were from this world, my men would have fought to prevent my being surrendered to the Jews”. Indeed, he saw his response of non-violence as witnessing precisely to the essential message of truth that he was sent to preach, “Yes, I am a king… I came into the world for this, to bear witness to the truth”. He translated his basic message, “Love your enemies”, into the nitty-gritty of non-violent action for justice. He proceeded to live out that truth immediately by facing into his death deliberately, even assertively, and certainly non-violently.

He knew we would inevitably struggle to see his truth. That is why he prefaced his whole public life with the injunction, “Repent, and believe the Good News” [“repent”, as we all realize, meaning nothing less than changing radically our whole mindset]. Does the alternative – countering violence with violence – really work?