It was customary in the Ancient Middle East to attribute to the supreme God the title of king. In the Bible, the God of Israel is rarely called king but is often spoken of as the God who reigns, the God who will one day take over the destiny of his people into his hands and create a new world in which justice and peace will reign forever.
And Jesus begins his public life proclaiming that “the kingdom of God has come”, “the kingdom of God is here.” The expression kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven appears no less than 104 times in the Gospels. Pius XI referred to this “kingdom” when he instituted the feast of Christ the King in 1925. Those were the years when the Second World War was on with the Fascist regime in Italy and Russia was under the rule of Stalin. Nazism was emerging in Germany; Spain and Portugal were falling into the hands of the absolute powers.
With the institution of the feast of Christ the King, Pope Pius XI wanted to affirm that history belonged to Christ and not to the great ones of this world. But we must approach the feast of Christ the King with a certain caution because it is easy to mistake the meaning — to attribute to Jesus a kingship with which he has nothing to do.
During his temptation in the desert, Satan took Jesus to the top of the mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and said to him: “All these I shall give to you if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.” And Jesus rejected this kingship. Jesus has nothing to do with this royalty, so we must be very careful when the image of a king is applied to him.
Jesus was well aware of this danger and, in fact, made it clear: “The kings of the nations rule them; those who have power over the people rule them and even pretend to call themselves benefactors. Among you, it is not so,” he said to the disciples.
In today’s Gospel passage, we will see two kingdoms confronting each other: one is the kingdom of this world, that of the Roman rulers represented by Pilate; and the other kingdom, introduced into the world by Christ. They are two incompatible kingdoms because they are based on opposite principles.
Pilate’s only concern is to make sure that Jesus is not a ringleader capable of causing disorder or questioning the power of the emperor. He asks Jesus the question, ‘“Are you the king of the Jews?” “Do you say this on your own or have others told you about me?” This counter-question of Jesus imply means, “Is the accusation coming from you or from the Jews?
For your reflection
Jesus is a king, but not in the sense that Pilate understood. Pilate, at this point, does not understand anything at all. Jesus goes on to say, “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.” “Whoever wants to be true, let him follow me, like a lamb following the voice of his shepherd.” Pilate answers him, “What is truth?” Unfortunately, Pilate did not allow himself to be involved in this truth.
Father Fernando Torres CMF
www.ciudadredonda.org
Translated by
Father Alberto Rossa CMF
