Christ The King

ignatius-webFrom the desk of Fr. Ignatius Waters, cp

Sunday, Nov 23rd, 2014

I’ve always complained about this feast of Christ the King! I know no matter what words we use to try to describe God or God’s relationship with us, they will all be limited and inadequate. You can’t define the divine! The same applies to Jesus and our relationship with him. But some words are better than others. And ‘King’ I feel is a particularly hopeless word to describe Jesus. King of Kings is no better. King of the Universe is an attempt to say something about the cosmic Christ but I doubt if it succeeds. Why use a word when immediately we have to say, “Of course it’s not like any king or kingdom we have ever known or experienced?” I’m beginning to have great sympathy with St. Thomas Aquinas who stopped writing about all these things at age 48. Admittedly he had already written more than most and more brilliantly than most. But he came to regard it all as ‘so much straw’ compared to what he had come to see, which was beyond all human words.

In the new mass prayers there is talk about ‘gaining admittance’ into God’s Kingdom which sounds like getting tickets for Croke Park! Or being privileged to gain admittance to Windsor Castle! Talk like that in no way helps our faith or our hope! It can have the opposite effect. No way do I want an invitation or a ticket if others are left outside! There’s no doubt, too, we in Ireland carry a lot of cultural baggage about kings and kingdoms. Maybe that’s what I’m suffering from?

The gospel today happily saves the day. Jesus our King is hidden in those who are on the fringes of society, those who are hungry and thirsty and those who are in prison. In Jesus’ story, those called to his right hand were serving him without knowing they were: “When did we see you hungry or thirsty?” And were not doing it in the hope of any reward, here or hereafter. They are doing it out of heartfelt care and compassion for fellow human beings.

We used be told in our early days that we were to see God or Jesus in the sick and the poor. But there’s no need for these mental gymnastics! They can be a distraction, preventing us seeing those real, living human beings in front of us. I remember way back then hearing the true story about a Religious Sister working in the hospital. She probably heard the same thing about seeing God in people and she was really shocked one day when a patient complained bitterly, “You don’t care about me at all! You hardly even see me! You’re just using me as your ladder to heaven!” Sick people or people vulnerable in any way, are very sensitive. They know intuitively what’s genuine and what isn’t. Our calling as Christians is to love and care for the real living human beings we encounter every day, those we live with or work with, the sick and the healthy, the bright or the dull.

             Christ the King is hiding in them but no need to be too aware of that!