CHRIST THE KING
The feast of Christ the King, instituted by Pope Pius XI in 1925, is of great spiritual significance because it is on this day that we recognize, proclaim and celebrate the sovereignty of Jesus Christ over the entire universe.
Is it not awe-inspiring that God came to speak to us in human form 2000 years ago as Jesus? Think about it: Christ, the Word of God, through whom all things were made, and without whom nothing was made (John 1:3, Colossians 1:16) actually became flesh and blood to speak to us!
Imagine an alien visitor landing on the front lawn of the United Nations, with all the world’s news networks focused on it, telling us that he’s come to tell us about the meaning of life and how to resolve the world’s crises. Would we turn off the TV? And yet, Christ’s presence among us was a much bigger event. He, through whom the universe was made, with its trillions of galaxies, each composed of hundreds of billions of stars that are a million times the size of earth, actually spoke to us as one of us!
It is why today we do not merely honour a historical figure, a great man, or someone who was suddenly illuminated. We acknowledge and celebrate who Jesus really was: the source of all illumination and sovereign of all creation.
Unlike the role of ordinary kings, which today has become mostly symbolic or ceremonial, Christ’s kingship is not of this world (John 18:36) because it is beyond everything that exists. Nor is it a dictatorship, but a reign of peace and love within each of us in which we can be freed from the slavery to our insatiable ego by serving others instead. Christ the King became a servant to all, washing the feet of his disciples, and even offering his life as a sacrifice for our redemption.
By declaring “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6), God, as Jesus, invites us to place our trust in him, to orient our lives based on serving others with humility the way he did.
In our modern world so shaken by conflicts and looming crises, by ideologies that all contradict one other, and often marked by misinformation, relative morality, fluctuating values, and uncertainties, it seems more important than ever that we should remember and reaffirm who Jesus really was, the sovereign Word of God, the source of all truth, and a reliable compass in our ocean of uncertainties. He gave us the solution to our woes in many ways, such as in his Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5:3), encouraging us to live not by the fleeting values of this world but by eternal realities.
If we believe Christ is King, then let us embody his teachings in our daily lives and spread his truth through acts of charity, with courage and humility. May our king and saviour reign in our hearts, our families and our communities, now and forever. Amen.
Eugene Aucoin is a retired human resources director and university professor. He spoke around the world about nurturing human potential, but his passion is sharing his love for the teachings of Jesus. His first book Has Science Killed God? won Asia’s best Catholic book of the year in theology in 2020. His latest book, with Novalis, is The Beatitudes: Eight Steps to Inner Peace and Happiness. Eugene also gives seminars about faith.
