Fr Billy Swan
Dear friends. The Feast of Christ the King was instituted by Pope Pius XI in 1925. This came only seven years after the end of the Great War where there was so much blood spilt over battles in Europe among super-powers and the question of who controls the land it does. The institution of the feast day was the Church’s way of stating her belief that no earthly power or no one ruler has absolute power but Christ. He alone is Lord. He alone is King of kings and rules by the standard of justice and mercy. As King he rules not with earthly power but with love, service and with a crown of thorns on his head. Today’s feast states that every person, every government and earthly ruler will have to stand before him in judgment and be accountable to God’s authority. A sobering yet essential truth for all of us.
Twelve years after this feast began, in 1937, the Irish Constitution was drafted. Its first words were and remain: ‘In the name of the Most Holy Trinity, from whom is all authority and to whom, as our final end, all actions both of people and States must be referred’. A remarkable statement that we seldom hear about. It states what the feast of Christ the King is all about – that governments and people are accountable to God to whom ‘as our final end, all actions must be referred’. Let us reflect deeply on these words today before a campaign inevitably begins to remove them and replace God with ourselves as ‘our own final end’ and risk sliding back into the chaos that Pius XI saw in his time and was the very reason this feast day began.
Back to the Gospel and the famous scene from the final judgment. In sum, there are three essential points from it. First, the importance of simple things. Basic necessities. Food, water, shelter, medicine, empathy, human warmth and kindness. Concrete actions done with love. We can all feel overwhelmed by the great needs of people today. But let us not be so overwhelmed as to do nothing. Do something and do it with great love.
Second, whatever you do, do it for the sake of mercy. Those in the Gospel who helped others did not think they were helping Christ. They just did it because they cared. The protest of those condemned reveals their lack of care: ‘If we had only known it was you, we would have helped you’. But their game was up and tragically it was too late.
Lastly, the story confronts us with the wonderful truth that Christianity is not just about being good or even doing good. It is about believing that out of love, the Son of God became a human being like us and identifies himself in a real way with the lowliest and the poorest. This is what He does when we receive Him in the Eucharist. He becomes one with us in love and lives in us all the time. In the words of Mother Teresa: ‘In Holy Communion we have Christ under the appearance of bread. In our work we find him under the appearance of flesh and blood. It is the same Christ’.
Friends, our faith in God connects us to other people and their basic needs. If it doesn’t then we believe in a false god. On this feast of Christ the King, may we have the eyes to see both Christ hidden in the Eucharist and hidden in other people. For it is in them that the Lord presents himself to us and awaits our love.