by Joseph Nangle, OFM
Pax Christi USA 2023 Teacher of Peace
Let’s not be put off by the title of this Sundays observance – Christ the King. For sure modern people generally find the notion and reality of royalty hard to accept. Our democratic mindsets incline much more to “every man and woman is created equal.” And this movement is reinforced constantly in Catholic Social Teaching (CST) with its primary tenet that, as Pope St. John Paul wrote the foundation of CST “is a correct view of the human person and of [their] unique value.”
In this light we should set aside the jarring notion of Christ as king and reflect on what lies underneath it. Other possible, titles should help:
- “Christ the Firstborn of all Creation”
- “Christ, the Universal Savior”
- Or the Spanish “Cristo, Senor de la Historia”
That clarification brings us face to face with the “incomprehensible mystery” of the role in salvation history of divine incarnation, and the belief that Jesus the Christ continues for all eternity as God’s transcendent Word and the imminent Emmanuel – God with us.
It also suggests words of praise for Christ in which we return to kingship references but in more familiar terms: the reign (kingdom) of God on earth. We pray in the preface of this feast: He will present to the Father “an eternal and universal kingdom; a kingdom of truth and life; a kingdom of holiness and grace; a kingdom of justice, love and peace.”
The consequences of this vision are enormous, particularly for communities like Pax Christi. Through baptism we are part of Christ’s work on behalf of God’s reign.
Building God’s reign has always had practical consequences. Jesus spoke constantly about it.
Proclaiming it held a foremost place in His teaching and actions. He gave any number of real-life examples of what it looks like – always ordinary ones.
The reign of God is like:
A sower who went out to sow seeds and some fell on good soil.
Another who sowed good seed in his field but weeds were also sowed.
The small mustard seed that grows into a great shrub.
Yeast in the dough.
A treasure found in a field.
A merchant finding a precious gem.
A net that gathers fish of every kind.
More practically still and applicable to our work for God’s Reign, Jesus demonstrated in his actions what are its contours:
He welcomed outcasts.
He forgave public sinners.
He restored sight to a blind person.
He raised the dead
He healed lepers
He cured a cripple.
The consequences of these reflections are obvious for us. All our actions, important or ordinary, to bring about a better world promote the reign of God. This conviction encourages us and gives life added purpose as we understand our place in salvation history.
As a footnote to this reflection, we return to the idea of kingship. What kind of a history would we have had if the kings of the earth had understood and implemented Christ’s understanding and practice of “royalty”? What kind of a Church would we have if its hierarchs had taken Christ’s example seriously and acted as servants who washed the feet of a suffering humanity?
Obviously, this kind of authority is what Pope Francis envisions as he “rolls the dice” in his Synod of the People and as he makes anticlericalism and an entire reworking of seminary education central themes of this epochal event.
Austen Ivereigh, the outstanding British journalist who has chronicled accurately the Francis papacy, wrote in a recent article for the London Tablet: the report from the Synod “looks to a Church imagined by the Second Vatican Council’s People of God ecclesiology: God’s home and family, missionary and humble, not bureaucratic and corporate, relational, dialogical and participatory in which ‘co-responsibility for mission is the key idea.”
Pax Christi stands at the center of this mandate given us by Christ the Servant King.
Joe Nangle OFM is a Pax Christi USA Ambassador of Peace and the 2023 Pax Christi USA Teacher of Peace. As a member of the Assisi Community in Washington, D.C., he is dedicated to simple living and social change. Joe also serves as the Pastoral Associate for the Latino community at Our Lady Queen of Peace, Arlington, Virginia.
that’s a insightful and most helpfully refreshing appraisal of Jesus’s title as “king.” Thanks to you Joe Nangle. (fr.) Joe Mattern, Pax. Christi – Fox Valley in the Green Bay Diocese