Saint Callistus

First Reading: Daniel 7:13-14
Second Reading: Revelation 1:5-8
Gospel: John 18:33-37

Today we celebrate the feast of Christ the King. And though the very notion of kingship is rather alien to us, the metaphor should remain. For the whole idea is that Christ must become the Lord of our lives, the one to whom an absolute submission is required.

Things do become a bit easier to take when we see precisely what kind of king Jesus Christ is. Bottom line: we are not dealing with another Napoleon or Caesar Augustus; just the contrary. We are dealing with the one who rightly reigns over those earthly potentates but who bears very little resemblance to them.

Our first clue as to his identity comes from the Gospel for today, an account of Jesus’ conversation with the Roman governor Pontius Pilate, who asks, “Are you the King of the Jews?” And Jesus responds that his kingdom “does not belong to this world.”

So what precisely is his kingship? Worldly kingship has to do primarily with power and self-aggrandizement. But the kingship that Jesus represents is a ruling ordered to the truth. Its purpose is to guide people to the truth, which is another way of saying toward God.