Daniel, the prophet, tells of a vision in which he saw one coming as the son of Man on the clouds of heaven who will have dominion over all the nations. We Christians have long recognized Jesus as the one whom Daniel was describing. Today we celebrate Jesus Christ as King of the ages, but what does that mean to you?
Oddly enough, we do not encounter Jesus in a very majestic setting in today’s gospel passage. He appears to be on trial, but actually Pilate is the one on trial, and so are we. In his last remark to Pilate, Jesus points out, “Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
With that line, Jesus raises a question we all need to address. “Do we belong to the truth?” The criterion for authentic belief in Jesus is being open to his word. Are we committed to what he has said? Judging by the shape of our world, 2000 years later, many, including those who profess to believe in Jesus, are not listening to his voice. Instead, they follow the example of Pilate, who was either ignorant of the truth or chose not to subscribe to the truth in his pursuit of worldly values.
In the next line of John’s gospel, Pilate responds to Jesus by asking, “What is truth?” The Oxford Dictionary provides this definition: “the character of being, or disposition to be, true or steadfast in allegiance; faithfulness, loyalty, constancy.” In other words, if we belong to the truth, than we would never compromise on what it means to be a Christian.
In the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius, there is a meditation entitled The Two Banners. On one side is the banner of pride, self-indulgence, and comfort. Does that sound familiar? It is the flag of Satan or the world. On the other side is the banner of humility, sacrifice, and self-denial; the standard of Christ the King. When all is said and done, there are only two banners we can march under: Satan or Christ the King.
The Catechism of the Church tells us what we must do. “The duty of Christians impels them to act as witnesses of the gospel and of the obligations that flow from it. Witness is an act of justice that establishes the truth or makes it known.”
By the way we live our lives, we declare our loyalties. Do our values resonate with Christ as spelled out in the gospels and through the teachings of the Church? Jesus tells us to extend forgiveness, love, service to the less fortunate, compassion to the sick, and respect for all life. With his own life, Jesus showed how to put such values into practice. Down through the ages, many saints have imitated his example and so must we if we are to go about building the kingdom of God in our midst.
Granted, in our culture, it isn’t easy to stand up for the truth, which is often assaulted, for example by the entertainment industry with its R rated movies or by a government that shows little respect for the sanctity of life with its support of abortion and capital punishment and a judicial system that has curtailed your right to express your faith in public.
What we perceive as being sinful has changed significantly in the past century. Consequently, we find ourselves struggling between the powerful pull of our conscience to follow the truth and the prevailing attitude of our culture that if it is legal, then it is moral. It can be tempting to go along with the crowd but each time we ignore the truth, we are compromising our principles.
When we disown the moral teachings of our faith, we are no longer belonging to the truth. Those who are strangers to the truth fail to see the evil of sin in our midst. They see nothing harmful in promoting artificial contraception, having sex outside of marriage, condoning euthanasia, or disobeying any other commandment. Instead, they think that God’s truth is negotiable but it isn’t. When you belong to the truth, you can see the harm done to society when we tolerate sin in our midst.
To achieve the bringing about of God’s kingdom, Jesus destroyed sin and so must we. We can confront the evil in our midst in numerous ways such as boycotting sexually explicit forms of entertainment, supporting Outreach and Good Cheer, spending more time with our children and grandchildren, striving to live simply so that others can simply live.
The kingdom of Jesus is not found in the world’s centers of power but within human hearts; it is built not by deals among the power elite but by compassionate hands; Christ reigns neither by influence nor wealth but by generosity and justice. A politician and influential figure like Pilate cannot grasp the “kingship” of Jesus — but we who have been baptized in the life, death and resurrection of Christ are called to build and maintain that kingdom in our own time and place. Christ’s reign is realized only in our embracing a vision of humankind as a family made in the image of God, a vision of one another as brothers and sisters in Christ, a vision of the world centered in the spirit of hope and compassion taught by Christ.