The Solemnity of Christ the King

 
Today’s scriptures explore the nature of God’s power. Christ is the judge of empires, nations and persons. The true king is the good shepherd as the first reading from Ezekiel prophesies. The Good Shepherd leads us to green pastures and gives us rest as Psalm 23 tells us. St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians describes the Kingdom of God dwelling within his people by virtue of baptism. For in baptism, we enter into Christ’s death and Christ died to place everything, including death, under his feet so that God may be “all in all.” The Incarnation is complete when all human beings reflect the face of Christ. In scripture, all roads lead to Genesis where God made us in his “own image and likeness.” That likeness of God in Christ who reigns in us as king. How does he reign? In the Gospel according to Matthew, he reigns when we feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, visit the imprisoned. When we live daily the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. Then he will say to us,

“'Come, you who are blessed by my Father. Inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Mt. 25.

The relationship between the kingdom of God and all earthly nations, empires and bureaucracies is captured in the Gospels when Christ is tempted in the desert.
Then the devil took him up to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence, and he said to him,

“All these I shall give to you, if you will prostrate yourself and worship me.”  At this, Jesus said to him, “Get away, Satan! It is written: ‘The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve.’” Mt. 4:8-10

In modern American terms, Jesus said, “If nominated I will not run, if elected, I will not serve.” How do you enter into the Kingdom of God? Through right worship and the service of God through the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. So why is the relationship of the Church and the world so fraught with tension? Christ said he came to save the Church, the people of God, not any nation, empire or bureaucracy. There is, in the end, only one Kingdom, one reigning power.

The Church and the World
Nonetheless, the Church has to deal with the world as it is. In a very broad brush approach, the Church has related to the world in a variety of ways. In the early Church (30 A.D. to 325 A.D) the Roman Empire, intermittently persecuted the Christian minority. If there was any interaction between the state and the Church it was generally in the context of defending Christians who refused to acknowledge any god, but God. The martyr was the central figure of Christian identity; those who willing accepted death at the hands of the Romans and praised and worshipped the one and only as death claimed them. Ignatius of Antioch, Justin Martyr, most of the early Church leaders, Perpetua, Felicity, Agnes, Cecilia and all those and more recounted in Eucharistic Prayer no. 1 were executed by the Roman state for impiety. They rejected the gods of Rome.

That changed when Constantine terminated the official persecution of the Church and sought to interact in a more positive way with Christians. The emperors gave the Church St. John Lateran in Rome and a variety of other basilicas to use. There was, however, a quid pro quo in the works. The emperors did retain authority to refuse a bishop that was unsuitable. Late Roman control of religion became the basis for the uneasy relationship between the nations and kingdoms that grew up in Europe following the end of the Roman empire in the West.  Clovis, the Frankish king, through the influence of his Christian wife Clotilde, was baptized on Christmas day 508 A.D.  Other barbarian leaders followed over the centuries. This is the period when the Church was complicit in forced conversions of pagans and, later, the inquisition as kings expanded their territory or solidified their kingdoms. The idea of the altar and throne in harmony was at the foundation of nation building in the early medieval period of Christendom. Generally, the Church was used for state purposes. The Reformation did not change this dynamic, just the religion and the leader. Henry VIII replaced the Pope.

This unholy alliance between Christianity, state and the inquisition, of the Protestant and Catholic variety, was used as fuel for the eventual revolutions of the Enlightened secular period. Religious trials and public burnings were naturally at odds with Christian belief in free will and conscience. That apparent contradiction was used by enemies of the Church and came back to haunt Christians in the French Revolution when a king, queen, bishops and priests were guillotined in Paris. The Age of Revolution brought down monarchical rule and the created the secular state. Ironically, it freed the Church from state control over selection of bishops.

Up to Vatican 1 in 1869, the laity in the form of kings and emperors, had always had at least a no vote, if not more, in the appointment of bishops since the time of Constantine. Our current manner of episcopal appointment where the laity is not consulted is about 150 years old. St. Augustine was made bishop of Hippo by election of the people of that Roman city, not by the pope.

The current means of appointing bishops is secret and involves a canvassing of opinion from clerics alone, at least in the United States. In other nations, the Vatican negotiates a concordat with Communist China, for instance, where, if Rome has followed past practice, the Communist government can negate bishop appointments. Since Vatican I, the Church has negotiated agreements with hostile nations in order to take the pressure off the local church. This was the same accommodationist approach the Vatican followed when negotiating the Vatican Concordat with Hitler’s Third Reich in 1933. Please recall, due to strong anti-Catholic prejudice in these United States, the Vatican and Washington did even not establish diplomatic relations until January 10, 1984. I was 28 years old. This is the general background worldwide of Catholicism’s relationship with the state.

Christ the King: The Incarnation is complete when God is all in all
The Incarnation is not only and historic event. It continues in the baptism of every infant. Yet, God is not all in all yet. For instance, some Catholics expressed disapproval that the U.S. Bishops congratulated Joe Biden on his election. Others similarly disapproved when they congratulated Donald Trump four years ago. Is the world better off if we return to the catacombs or if we continue to try and influence secular, sometimes, hostile governments around the world? The bishops always opt for engagement; engagement, however, is not the same as approval. Here is St. Augustine’s take on City of God and the City of Man.

St. Augustine, a bishop, had a dim view of government. He thought that the City of God in this world, but not of this world. The City of Man continues to dominate. At best, Christians could work to keep the world from getting as awful as it could be. The Book of Revelation illustrates the same world view. Case in point: the 20th Century. In his great work, Civitate Dei, The City of God, he wrote of Alexander the Great while quoting the Roman Cicero who was in turn assassinated by Caesar Augustus, just before Jesus was born. He said,

Remove justice, then, and what are kingdoms but large gangs of robbers? And what are gangs of robbers but small kingdoms? The gang, too, is a group of men ruled by a leader’s command. It is bound together by a pact of association, and its loot is divided according to an agreed law. If, by constantly adding desperate men, this scourge grows to such an extent that it acquires territory, establishes a home base, occupies cities, and subjugates peoples, it more openly assumes the name of kingdom, a name now publicly conferred on it due not to any reduction in greed but rather to the addition of impunity. For it was a witty and true response that a certain captured pirate made to the famous Alexander the Great. When the king asked the man what he meant by infesting the sea, he defiantly replied, “Just what you mean when you infest the whole world! But because I do it with one tiny ship, I am called a robber; and because you do it with a great fleet, you are called an emperor.” [i]Augustine, Saint. The City of God: Books 1-10 (I/6) (The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century) . New City Press. Kindle Edition.

Augustine, apropos of today’s readings concluded the Civitate Dei, “For in sinning we lost our hold on both godliness and happiness, but, when we lost happiness, we obviously did not lose the will to happiness.  In heaven, the saint said, in the true City of God, “There we shall be still and see, see and love, love and praise. Behold what will be in the end without end! For what else is our end but to reach the kingdom that has no end?”[ii] Christian, remember, the City of God exists in this world in you, but is not of this world. Adjust your expectations accordingly.


[i]  See Cicero, Republic III,24. Alexander the Great lived from 356 to 323 B.C.; he is referred to as Alexander of Macedon, where he was born, at IV,7.


[ii] Augustine, Saint. The City of God: Books 11-22 (I/7) (The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century) (Kindle Locations 15575-15576). New City Press. Kindle Edition.