Christ the King

We end another liturgical year with the celebration of the Solemnity of Christ the King. We begin another one with season of Advent which is a preparation for Christmas, the birth of Christ.

With the ending and beginning of the liturgical year, we are reminded that we are presented year after year with the whole life and mystery of Christ who is actually everything to us. We are given a  chance not only to know him, but also to love and serve him, which is what is most important to us, the ultimate purpose of our life.

This ending and beginning of the liturgical year also reminds us that we need to begin and end our Christian life well. This presumes that we know what would comprise as beginning and ending our Christian life well which, in the end, is a matter of being with the living Christ as presented to us in the liturgy.

The liturgy is not just a remembrance of things past. It is putting into the living present all that Christ said, did and gained for our own salvation.

Many things come to mind when we try to consider the significance of the solemnity of Christ the King. Christ is our King because in the first place we come from him and we belong to him in the strictest sense of the words "come" and "belong."

As God the Son, the second person of the Blessed Trinity, Christ is the very pattern of our humanity, which happens to be the masterpiece of his creation. As God who became man, he is our Savior who redeemed us after we spoiled our original creation.

There could therefore be no greater king than him. His kingship is not merely political or social. His kingship penetrates the very core of our being and covers the whole range of our humanity in all its aspects, conditions and circumstances.

He is king to each one of us individually as well as to all of us collectively.

His kingdom is already with us. That's why at one time, Christ said: "The kingdom of God is in the midst of you." (Lk 17,21) At the same time, it is still to be perfected in some other time, place or, better said, state of life. Thus, he also said: "My kingship is not of this world." (Jn 18,36)

Notice the difference between "the kingdom of God" and "my kingship." The former is subject mainly to place and time, and therefore can be understood as being in this world now.

The latter refers more to a state of life which transcends space and time without detracting from them. It refers more to the conditions we need to have, so that Christ can truly be king to us and we become a living part of his kingdom.

The celebration of Christ the King also reminds us that Christ our Redeemer will come to us a second time at the end of the world to claim his kingship which he established during his first coming here on earth.   It tells us that Christ has given us everything that we need to be what we ought to be, and he waits for us till the end of time to see if we, with freedom and with his grace, choose to make him truly as our only king and no other.

What is implied in all this is that we are supposed to work out our being a living part of God's kingdom. We are in some kind of a pilgrimage toward that eternal kingdom where Christ as our king will meet us, even if even now he is already with us.

Our attitude and understanding of our life here on earth should therefore be that of a test or a chance for us to make a choice of whether we want Christ to be our king or not. Everything in our life should be viewed in this context. How we fare in this life determines how we will be in eternity.

We should try to relate everything to Christ, no matter how mundane and temporal they are. And the proper attitude to have is what is voiced out in the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians: "Maranatha, Lord, come!" (16,22)

The celebration of the solemnity of Christ the King is therefore a strong reminder to make Christ our King, our everything. To him we submit our whole being, all our senses and spiritual faculties, and all our temporal affairs.

While we have to do our part, we should also realize that Christ our King will take care of everything.