Christ the King - Homily 4

Homily 4 - 2018

Immediately after we were baptized, the priest prayed a prayer that reminded us that Jesus was the Christ – metaphorically anointed, as it were, sent by God to fulfil the roles of Priest, Prophet and King [of which Hebrew history provided no shortage of models – some good, some disastrous]. The prayer then focused on us: we had been christened – Christed, re-born, as it were, and re-made like Jesus. As the Father sent Jesus, Jesus now sent us into our world to be priests, prophets and kings, like him. Like him! That takes sustained, prayerful, thinking through.

Today we are celebrating Christ’s kingship. And, if we are consistent, we are celebrating that we, too, are kings like him.

Jesus was wary of the title King. Along with the title Christ, it was too easy to misunderstand. As was made quite clear in today’s Gospel passage, only when it became finally obvious that he would be humiliated and dehumanised, did he accept the title. Yes, he was a King, sent by God with a mission to change the world – a king with a difference. Indeed, through his enemies’ ruthless stripping of his every other power, the power of his personal integrity shone clear for those with eyes to see. By deliberately facing into his murder, Jesus expressed his surprising, even disconcerting, judgment on the world – his unshaken love for it, his irreversible commitment to the dignity of every human person and his universal, unconditional forgiveness of sin. He worked from no other position of power than the power of truth – the truth of the message he preached, and the truth of his personal integrity. Such truth is the only power that can change human hearts for the better.

Jesus was right to be wary of the title of king. The attraction of power, and of the so-called honour it brings, is contagious. An Englishman, Lord [!] Acton, writing in 1870, was only too correct when he wrote, “Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Sadly, over its long history, the Church has not been averse to seeking power and exploiting its opportunities. In our own time, the corrosive effects of power explain much of the awful saga of clergy sexual abuse. The Royal Commission was right in directing the Church to face and to eliminate the destructive culture of clericalism.

Yet, if, and only if, we can keep in mind that Christ reigns as king from the wood of the cross, only if we can learn again truly to “see” the crucifix and to appreciate its meaning, is it safe for us as Church to celebrate Christ as King. Indeed, then, not only is it safe, it is necessary if we are to witness to his way in a world that sees too little truth and integrity.

By defining his kingship as “bearing witness to the truth”, Jesus merged that kingship, in a way, with the unfamiliar role of prophet – of one who speaks truth to power. That was what Jesus had been doing consistently right from the beginning of his mission in Galilee: “The Spirit of God has anointed me .. to bring good news to the poor .. to set the down-trodden free”. It is little wonder that, over the years, the Church has hardly encouraged popular devotion to Christ as prophet– too much truth might have served to highlight its inappropriate exercise of kingship.

Yet, along with genuinely disinterested service, the Church’s proclaiming truth to power may be what today’s world desperately needs – provided we can learn to do so without any sense of superiority. Indeed, if we are to be true to Christ, we can do so only from the place of deliberately chosen, or accepted [if we are realistic?], powerlessness – without threats [warning of consequences, Yes!; threatening punishment, No!], without sanctions of any kind, totally non-violently, without even the withdrawal of our love should we not be heeded. That is the Christ-way.

But all that will take thoughtful soul-searching, prayerful discerning, and real conversion.