Christ the King
Dear Friends,
Out of the various feast celebrations in the church, Christ the King (which is the Sunday before Advent begins), is one that is fairly new. Unlike Trinity Sunday, which dates back to the 1300s, Christ the King was only instituted back in 1925, by Pope Pius XI.*
With the rise of scientific education, technological breakthroughs, and socio-economic changes occurring at the time, many people thought a utopian world was just on the horizon. Then the First World War happened.
The aftermath left much of the planet decimated and populations in mourning. Christ the King was introduced as a reminder that in spite of our advancements as a species and our tendency to follow authoritarian personalities and agendas, Christ and his example are still the highest ideal for us to be subject(s) to. Clearly, people didn’t “get the memo,” because fourteen years later the world was again at war.
And now, a hundred years later, the world has changed in ways that would have been unimaginable to those in the early 20th century. Yet, in spite of the dominance of science; mind-blowing, technological advancements; and social changes that have redefined cultural norms; we still have a tendency to “follow authoritarians” and are no safer from the threat of another global conflict than the generation that lived through the Cold War Era.
The Gospel reading this week (Luke 23: 33-43) is the part in ‘The Passion of Christ’ where he is hanging on a cross, being crucified between two criminals. The mocking inscription over his head declaring, “This is the King of the Jews.”
Beyond the pageantry of a church feast, and the declaration of a former pope, Christ the King points out that God’s way of being authoritative in the world is drastically different from ours. If we are honest, God’s way actually comes across as weak to us. If we had the power to eliminate our political enemies how many of us would do it in an instance?
Yet, God through Christ, chose to hang on the cross and even forgive his enemies while he was there. Let us ponder: What kind of king is that?
In Christ,
Anthony+
*Reference in the link
