24 November 2024, Christus Rex

“My kingship is not of this world.” 

What a beautiful feast we gather to celebrate today, the kingship of Christ over the whole of the universe. We recall that the Word of God who spoke the universe into existence at the beginning of time, remains sovereign over it, and at the end of time this same universe will reach its fullness by returning to him.

So, why do we read this line from S. John’s Gospel – ‘my kingship is not of this world’? It seems somewhat contradictory, it seems to imply that Christ’s kingdom has nothing to do with us today in the here and now.

There are two parts to Christ’s kingship which we celebrate today: his final triumphant return in glory to judge both the quick and the dead (as we say in the Creed); and the living of this in the Church until that second coming. At the end of time everything will reach its fulfilment – as we heard last week – this world will pass away and the fullness of Christ’s kingdom will arrive, and we must be ready for his return. This will be an event which encompasses the whole world, as S. John told in the reading from Revelation “every eye will see him, every one who pierced him,” – at that moment we will be confronted by the many ways that we have offended God by our many many sins, the ways that we have all pierced hm. Our only hope will be that his blood shed for us will cry out for us – fortunately, a few lines before S. John notes that we have been freed from our sins.

But until that moment when he returns, we still have to live in Christ’s kingdom, because the Church is already that kingdom. By our Baptism we were made part of that kingdom; we were conformed to Christ at the deepest level of our being – and so our true homeland is now heaven and not this passing world. We are supposed to be living the kingship of Christ, and that means that we should acknowledge him as our head and leader every moment of our lives.

Does that mean that we just look forward to that second coming, and disregard the world around us? At times this seems an attractive proposition; we see a society which continues to stray further from our Christian heritage, and at the same time seems to become ever more dysfunctional. Should we just turn our backs on it, ignore it, live our Catholic life in an ever-smaller bubble waiting for Christ’s triumphant return? Is this what Christ means by calling his kingdom ‘not of this world’?

Far from it.

Yes, this world and everything in it is going to pass away. Yes, Christ will return in glory and restore the whole of creation to its proper place, in subjection to the Father. But, until that moment, this is the place that God has given us to live. When we say that we live in Christ’s kingdom here on earth, that means that when we go out from Mass today we carry Christ with us – we carry him out into the world.

We are called to live in this society, and however futile it may seem, to call this society back to God. As the collect at the beginning of Mass put it “that the peoples of the earth, divided and enslaved by sin, may be freed and brought together under his most gracious rule.” This isn’t just a hope for the end of time, it is a challenge for us today. We have been set free from that slavery, and so should render service to God’s majesty.

To do this, we need to let Christ reign in our hearts, that is the beginning. Our true hope and happiness is found in him – his kingship over us is simply the recognition that we come from him and, having strayed, we need to return to him.

Our return to Christ, our becoming ever closer to him, our willing and happy subjection to his reign can then begin to spread outwards. It may seem an impossible task given our current world, but then it must have seemed impossible twelve men gathered with Our Lady nine days after the Ascension to do anything…but yet that was the Church which continues to this day. This kingdom, Christ’s kingdom, can progress because, ultimately, it is the right kingdom – it is the kingdom for which we were all made, it is, as our preface will put it in a few minutes time “a kingdom of truth and life; a kingdom of grace and holiness; a kingdom of peace, of love, and of righteousness.”

So, what does Christ mean by saying that his kingdom is not of this world? Consider the scene, he is being presented to the Roman governor as a potential rival to Caesar. The Roman Empire, an empire which encountered the world at the point of a spear – a world of force. A world where might made right, and when power was gained it was there to be enjoyed; where kings build elaborate thrones to display their glory and power.

Christ’s kingship could not be more different. As we sing in one of the hymns from passiontide hymn Christ “hath reigned and triumphed from the tree.” His throne is not some marble of golden edifice, his crown is not covered in precious stones. His throne is the Cross, his crown is made of thorns.

Here is an inversion of what was thought to be kingship – power and gain for the self. Christ’s kingship shows us what the true leader does – he pours himself out for his kingdom. It is also a priestly kingship, the Cross is his altar as well as his throne. It is in his sacrifice that Christ becomes, for all eternity, the king of all the redeemed.

We, for our part, need to decide where we stand. Do we stand with the values of this world; with the attempt to exalt the self? Or do we stand beneath the Cross, do we join with Christ in giving of ourselves for those around us? Do we give the kingship to Christ in our lives, and seek to embrace this radically different understanding of what it is to be a king?