34th SUNDAY

CHRIST THE KING
“Wherever God rules over human heart as king there is the kingdom of God”- Paul W. Harrison


1st Reading (Dan 7; 13-14). The prophet Daniel foresees the coming of one who will have dominion over all peoples. Christians see this as a reference to Christ, the universal king.

2nd Reading (Rev 1;5-8). Christ will take full possession of his kingdom only at the end of time.

Gospel (John 18:33-37). Jesus declares before Pilate that he is indeed a king, but that his kingdom is not like the kingdom of the world.

Idolatry doesn't belong to our grandfathers and neither grandmothers nor our people who have never have stepped into the ‘the house of a mzungu’ the church. We too have our idols. How we worship them! Today its not only money idol we worship but these and others – possessions, pleasures, success fame, power we are simply living a superficial life, worse to a law inner life. The harm idolatry does is to forget the giver of all we have and love (God). Have you ever thought that you can make an idol of yourself? Community leader make idol of themselves. Our politicians want to make idols of themselves by defending even what can’t be defended. Whenever you see a monument constructed of a human being that is an evidence of oppression and terror. Idols command; Christ invites. Idols rule through fear; Christ through love. Idols bring oppression and death; Christ brings freedom and life. Hence we give him an allegiance, loyalty, which we would not give to any other person or institution on earth.
Jesus stands as one and unarmed before Pilate. As governor of the Roman province, Pilate was a powerful man. Thousands of soldiers to call on. And there was Jesus – not one soldier to call upon, yet Jesus incomparably the greater of the two. Inspite of his vulnerability, he is the one who is in control. In our country political power is that capacity to coerce other to do ones’ will. It resides in position, king or president. Political power has got nothing at all to do with goodness and wisdom. Many stupid and evil people have exercised this power. Spiritual power resides in the individuals, has nothing to do with capacity to coerce others. People of great spiritual power may be wealthy and may sometimes occupy position of leadership, but they are more likely to be poor and lacking a political authority.
Christ is the hope of human race. He shows us who God is, and how we can keep at the centre of our lives. God is not some remote and uncaring figure. God is our heavenly Father, who is closer to us, and to whom we are important and precious.
Christ did not come to establish a political sovereignty, but to bear witness to the truth of God’s eternal universe sovereignty. Truth told with love.

Some years ago, an American soldier on a bus in Sweden told the man sitting next to him, “America is the most democratic country in the world. Ordinary citizens may go to the White House to see the president and discuss things with him. The man said, ‘that is nothing.In Sweden, the king and the people travel on the same bus ’ when the man got off the bus, the American was told by other passengers that he
had been sitting next to king Gustav Adolf VI.
(Anon)

MAY CHRIST BE THE KING OF YOUR LIFE

--
Padre Joseph Nyamunga Mubiru