Homily for Christ the King 2006

Congratulations to all those year 12 students who were able to celebrate Schoolies Week safely and responsibly. Today, most public events seem to require a great amount of public money to provide police protection and support as well as organisation. Schoolies week in the major tourist centres are no exception. It has become part of a rite of passage for young people. It celebrates the energy and hopefulness of school leavers. It also for many is a celebration of freedom. Young people today have much freedom and mobility even before they leave school. For some it is an opportunity to pursue that liberty in irresponsible ways in which community values have no place. So congratulations to those many young people who chose otherwise. Those who choose the values of the Kingdom rather that those of the world.

Jesus says to Pilate: My Kingdom is not of this world.

We are more comfortable speaking about “Heaven” than the “Kingdom of God”. This is largely because of what I spoke of last week. That is, the world view so wonderfully illustrated by the poet Dante, where heaven is a specific place above the earth, sun, moon, and stars, a view that does not reflect the realities of a scientific picture of the universe today.

Yet,we are becoming more familiar with speaking of the Kingdom of God because of the use of English in the liturgy. The notion of the “kingdom” is central to Jesus' message so it is important of us to appreciate it. It is difficult because “kingdom” immediately brings to mind a geographical place such as the kingdom ruled by the English kings. Some, therefore, choose to speak instead of the “reign” of God to avoid a sense of place. A kingdom is a concrete image we can relate to but a “reign” is more abstract. But it still leaves us with the question “what is it?”

Jesus says “My kingdom is not from this world,” in response to Pilate's question “Are you the king of the Jews?” What Jesus means in this context of his trial before a Roman governor, is that the Kingdom of God certainly does not operate according to the Roman Empire's criteria of power and dominance and violence. Otherwise his disciples would take up arms to defend him, he says. On other occasions Jesus has ruled out that kind of behaviour for his disciples when he spoke of the pagans lording it over their subjects (Luke 22:35). The “world” to which Jesus refers here is not so muc a place, but wherever and whenever the Spirit of God is absent. It is not Dante's earth over against Dante's heaven.

At the same time the kingdom of God is not a purely spiritual or a purely otherworldly kingdom. It operates here and now. As we say in the Lord's prayer, “Thy Kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven.” Wherever the Spirit of God is there is the Kingdom be it here in this place or in heaven.

So the Kingdom of God can be a place. A place like a home where parents and children love and respect one another and forgiveness is central. A place like a country where the weak and vulnerable are cared about. A place like a parish which reaches out to the needy spiritually as well as physically.

The Kingdom can be a time, too. A time when the hungry are fed, the homeless given shelter, injustice overthrown, and faith is sown in people's hearts.

The Kingdom is in the past. In the life and work of Jesus especially, as well as in the saints. It is in the present whenever we the Church or people of good will anywhere work to bring about a world of goodness and justice. It is also in the future when God will bring it all to its fullness.

When things such as these take place Jesus can say to us as he said to the Scribe who asked about the greatest commandment (Mark 12:34), “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” Those Schoolies who chose respect for themselves and others rather than violence, moderation rather than excess in their celebration, they too are not far from the Kingdom of God.

This feast of Christ the King celebrates a kingship whose power is most clearly made manifest and exercised in the humiliation of the cross. The cross carried for all of us because of the fathomless love of God. Jesus is the Lord before whom we bow in this Eucharist.

Fr Graham